I’ve long been fascinated with rolling clothes racks. Also Speed Rail. A few years back, an esteemed friend trusted me to design and execute a clothes hanging solution out of pipe and speed rail. It is a large, robust, and glorious thesis. (Not pictured)
I have always been beguiled by rolling clothes racks. I like to appropriate professional things into my humdrum life to add a little flavor and interest. I think about rolling racks I’ve seen used in fashion or photography and the motif speaks to a deeply affected pretension within myself toward the bohemian.
I quickly put together a rolling rack out of 1.25″ galvanized pipe, speed rail fittings, polyurethane casters, and some African mahogany decking. I like black iron pipe, but went with galvanized out of concern for rust, however, I lament that my pipe is not black. The hanger pole is ~64″ above the ground. This is a standard, but because of sloppiness in my considerations mine is 64.75″–shame on me. Behold:
What a presence the thing has. You can see that the hanging items of clothing do not hit the cabinet. The cabinet was an afterthought, but a very good one. I noticed that given my lack of long dresses and long outerwear, I had quite a bit of unutilized space below my hanging items and above the bottom pole that seemed to be begging for a cabinet, or perhaps a platform to place shoes on, so I made the former, but could more easily have made the latter. Two roads diverged and what not.
The drawers have integral handles. Chamfering on the drawers allowed me to not use any proud hardware and to be able to grab a drawer anywhere along its bottom front and pull it open. Not too shabby. One day, maybe I’ll make these pieces out of solid wood and in reverence toward Niels Bach. That day will come.
I’m not sure that these pictures do the rack with attached cabinet justice. It is very cool in person. Très chic. I believe in bearing witness to the glory of the thing itself, but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Oliver Liu 