A friend of mine had seen one of these Chalkboard hat/coat racks in a shop and really liked it but it came with a nice big price tag. 

She took a photo and sent it to me to see if I could try and make one.   Like all my other projects I was going to try and make it out of recycled materials.

How to repurpose a headboard into a chalkboard hat rack

**This post may contain affiliate links. Which means I earn a small commission on links used at no extra cost to you. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.**

I was given this old headboard and thought it would be perfect for this project. I took the headboard apart because I thought it would be easier to sand the centre boards down if they were not in a frame.  

To make the headboard look less like a headboard, I cut off the legs and made the whole panel about 5 cm shorter. 

Add the chalkboard paint

Next, I sanded all the inside boards back to bare wood using an orbital sander starting with 120 grit and ending with 240 grit sanding discs. The chalkboard spray paint recommended that you start with a smooth surface.

Once all the old varnish is removed you can add a coat of primer to the surface.  Let the primer dry properly before you add the chalkboard paint.  

You can add 3 thin coats of the chalkboard spray paint. I had a few areas that I was n to happy with because they were not very smooth. To improve the surface, I used an orbital sanding with 600 grit sandpaper. 

Sanding the frame

I sanded everything back to bare wood because I wanted to stain the wood dark mahogany.

Distressing the frame

Next, I applied the dark mahogany stain which showed up all the dents and damage in the wood surface. If you have the same issue with a similar project, you can always distress the frame further.  I used an old drill chuck that I clamped with a wrench and randomly hit the wood to make it look distressed. Using a chuck gives your distressing a small pattern which makes it look more deliberate rather than covering up damage.

Another way you can distress which gives a nice pattern is to use a large threaded screw that I put on the wood and hit it with a hammer.  

After I had finished the distressing there were some raised areas in the wood which I smoothed out by hand using 180 grit sandpaper. I did a dry fit and found that the chalkboards looked too big. I removed 5 cm off the length of each board.

Glueing the headboard together

If you have a large project to glue together using ratchet straps is always a good way to hold your project together while the glue dries.

I used some A4 paper to protect the chalkboard paint while I added to 2 coats of satin polyurethane to the frame.

Adding the hardware

If you want your chalkboard to be a rack you can add some name tag holders and coat/hat hooks.

Decorating the frame

I thought I was done, but when I went to write on the board for my final photo’s I realised I had nowhere to put the chalk.  To make chalk stands you can cut small pieces of wood and add a groove using a wood router.  This will stop the chalk from falling down.  To me, the board still looked a bit boring, so I used a stencil and some copper spray paint to add some detail to the top.  This did take a few hours because I had to wait for each section to dry before I could do the next.

This is the completed chalkboard with a hat rack.

This board was so hard to photograph because of the light coming through the lounge room window, so in the end, I gave up and took my pictures outside.

The final product.

More projects using headboards

This headboard was given a quick and easy geometric makeover.

Are you looking for a bench with storage?

If you are looking for any of the items used in this project, please consider using our links. By clicking on the links we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.  Which helps us come up with new and exciting ideas to share with you