Personalized Wood Hangers – A Pretty Happy Home

Hangers are that one useful tool in my house that no one wants to use.

This is particularly true when it comes to our coat closet. Coats will find their way to a hook, the back of the chair, on a bench, on the floor, and my least favorite place, hanging on the closet door knobs.

But not ON a hanger IN the closet.

I’m living with a house full of rebels.

I tell you this so there’s no doubt that this crafty project – personalized wood hangers – was just for my pleasure. In this house, it seems, I’m the only one who thinks hangers are useful AND can be pretty!

The idea to personalize wood hangers was not mine. Nope. Not at all.

I am shamelessly borrowing it from Emily at Jones Design Company. She personalized wood hangers a few weeks ago for a baby shower gift. She has amazing artistic talent, so the trees and mountains she painted on her hangers look fancy and professional.

I thought her idea – minus the fancy and professional part – was one I could easily replicate for my home. Plus, I had a stencil on hand!

I stenciled a J on the wood hangers for our last name. A few of the Js are a little wonky because I didn’t tape my stencil down. Oops.

See. It’s a good thing I’m not a perfectionist because now you can learn from my mistakes!

That’s how I rationalize my crafty choices…as a public service.

Emily used a spray acrylic (similar) to seal the craft paint on her wood hangers.

I didn’t have any of that, so I just painted over my design with Mod Podge. My hangers had a glossy finish, so I used the Mod Podge – you guessed it – with a gloss finish.

If you stand on one foot and angle the hanger in the right light on a full moon you can kind of tell where I stopped the Mod Podge. I could have coated the entire hanger in it to avoid this scenario, but I didn’t care that much. If someone is scrutinizing my hangers THAT closely…well, ~~weird~~ that probably means the hangers are being used. Hallelujah!

So, if this concerns you, go with the spray acrylic! You’ll be glad you did.