Here’s an excellent project for improving your wardrobe! Though there are similar items you can find in stores, why buy them when you can just make them yourself? This project is unique and personal, and it will save you money in the long run. Plus, it’s a great way to learn new skills.
Creative DIY sliding pants rack, by doing it yourself, you can have a more organized place for pants without having to buy a whole new cabinet.
This DIY sliding pants rack is also great for its ease of access feature, where you can simply pull and slide a pair of pants without having to move the others.
We think this is the best sliding pants rack designed. Do you? 🙂
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You’ll need these materials:
- 1 – 1″ x 2″ x 8′ piece of wood
- 3 – 1/2″ x 48″ wooden dowel
- 1 – set of drawer sliders
- Finishing Nails
- Wood Screws
- Wood Glue
And these tools:
- Drill with 1/2″ Drill Bit
- Miter Saw
- Tape Measure
- Hammer
Steps:
I started off by measuring the space that I was to mount this sliding pants rack. It ended up being 31″ x 19″. The sliders occupy roughly 1″ of space, so my needed to be ~ 30″ x 18″ or so.
The frame needed to be able to hold its shape and not flex, and it needed something a bit more substantial than one single hole to hold the dowels. I decided on something like this:
Measure and commence cutting. Dowels were cut into thirds, getting nine 16″ rods.
Since I don’t want wooden splinters ripping into my pants and such, the next step was to sand everything.
I started off with a rougher 220 grit, then 600, and finished off with 800.
Now comes the fun part. The dowels are 1/2″. The drill bit is also 1/2″. Can you guess?
I only had one clamp, so I ended up taping the two pieces of wood together and making the top piece. Be sure you leave equal amounts of space on each side.
Put the sliding pants rack together. I assembled the frame first by tacking it in with finishing nails, then drilled pilot holes and put in a screw per side. After some adjustment, I glued the dowels in with some Elmer’s on steroids.
The obvious step, if it’s going to be on rails, they probably need to be attached. I used the supplied hardware to attach them to the frame.
Measure how far you want the rail down, mark, and make tiny pilot holes. I used the tip of the 1/2″ bit and twisted it around some to get them started. Hold the rail in place, and attach it to the wardrobe with the supplied screws.
Unfortunately, I must have messed up my measurements somewhere, because my drawer was about 1/4″ too narrow and the sliders kept popping off. I ended up using a washer under each screw to remedy the problem. Remember kids, measure twice!
Now that that’s all taken care of, put the sliding pants rack in! If all went well, It should work. If not…. have fun tweaking it until it does 😛
The rack doesn’t come out completely, but more than enough. If you wanted it to come out further, you could get a set of full extension sliders that roll on ball bearings and such, but I opted not to since they cost more than twice as much.
Although more dowel rods could have been added to this rack, we think this design is perfect for its features. What do you think? Can this be further improved?
Thanks to phantazn for this great project.
