How to Make a Clothing Rack for the Garage

Use a measuring tape to determine the space where you will install your clothing rack. The rack will resemble a ladder that pulls down from the wall, so select a location next to an empty wall. Measure the floor space around the wall to determine the dimensions of the clothing rack.

Cut two pieces of 1-by-4-inch hardwood to the length measurement of your clothing rack using a jigsaw. Cut two more pieces of 1-by-4-inch hardwood using the desired width dimension of your rack. Sand the cut edges of the wood smooth using fine-grain sandpaper.

Measure and mark the center of the two longer pieces of 1-by-4-inch hardwood. Make pencil marks every 4 inches along the entire length of the wood, moving out from the center. Use these marks to place the rungs of your clothing rack.

Use a drill press with a 3/4-inch drill bit to drill through the entire thickness of the pieces of wood you just marked. Drill a hole through the wood at each pencil marking. Do not drill any holes within 4 inches of the ends of the wood.

Cut the rungs for your clothing rack out of 3/4-inch round wooden dowel using the jigsaw. Count the number of holes you drilled into one of the longer pieces of hardwood to determine how many rungs you need to cut. Sand the cut edges of the dowels smooth using sandpaper.

Apply a bead of wood glue around the outside at one end of one of the wooden dowels. Slide the dowel into one of the holes drilled in one of the pieces of 1-by-4-inch lumber. Push the dowel through until the flat end is flush with the flat surface of the wood. Repeat this process to attach the rest of the dowels.

Follow this same procedure to attach the second long piece of 1-by-4-inch lumber to the other end of the wooden dowels. When finished, the two long pieces of 1-by-4-inch lumber should be positioned parallel to each other. Keep the round dowels installed perpendicularly between and spaced at 4-inch intervals.

Attach the shorter pieces of 1-by-4-inch lumber at the ends of the longer pieces. Bridge the gap between these pieces to complete a rectangle shape. Position the shorter pieces so the inside edges are flush with the outside edges of the longer pieces. Secure these in place by driving nails from a nail gun through the shorter pieces into the longer pieces.

Measure the height you want your clothing rack to hang and mark the wall with a pencil. Use a stud finder to locate the studs in the wall at this height and mark the stud positions as well.

Attach the clothing rack to the wall. Add one side of a 2-inch metal butt hinge to the wall where you made the pencil marks, and the other side to the end of the clothing rack at each bottom corner. Use the screws supplied with the hinges to attach them to the wooden rack and to secure the hinge to the studs in the wall.

Screw a metal eye-hook into each of the longer pieces of 1-by-4-inch hardwood about 6 inches from the top edge. Position the hooks approximately centered in the widest side of the outside face of the board. Measure the distance from the bottom of the rack to the eye hooks. Screw two more eye hooks into the wall directly above the butt hinges using the measurement you just took.

String a length of chain between the two eye hooks on each side of the rack. Use metal S-hooks on both ends to attach the chain to the hooks in the wall and on the rack. Raise and lower the clothing rack by adjusting the length of the chain. Hook it closer to or further from the hooks on the wall. Drape wet clothing over the rungs of the rack to dry the clothes, or use the rungs to hang clothing on hangers.