Spoon Mug Rack

We saw this project in the Ready Made magazine, and thought... "That is just cool!". We wanted to share the link with you and pictures of our completed mug rack. We had all the stuff we needed for this project, so it wouldn't cost us anything to build.  We had extra spoons left over from the recycled wind chime project, and had a left over 1 x 1 from a room remodel.  We got started, first deciding where we wanted the rack, then which spoons looked the coolest, and so on and so on, until..... we discovered a problem.  In the original Ready Made project the spoons are screwed into the back of the 1x1, then attached to the wall.  Each spoon and the wall act like a clip, holding the mugs into place.  However, you will notice in their project the wall is just plywood, it is not painted.  All of our walls: painted! So when you put the mug into the "spoon" clip and pull it out of the clip, you would eventually start to wear out the paint, leaving a streak where the mugs scraped the wall. Or worse, start to leave a indentation in the wall from adding then removing the mugs over and over again.  So, as I am sure you can guess, we put our awesome minds to work and set out to change this (just a little) so it would work for our kitchen.

Here is what you will need:

Scrap piece of 1x1
Spoons
Drill
Wood Drill Bits (size will vary on the spoon's handle size)
Mugs
Tape Measure
Ruler
Pencil
Hot Glue or Strong Glue
Screws (at least 2 inch length)

Optional:  Paint.

Start by measuring the coffee mugs.

Most of ours mugs are around 3 inches, although we did have a few at 4 inches.

Next measure the wall, decide how long and how many mug racks you want to make.

(We ending up with about 19 inches in length and started with 3 racks but ended with 4.)

Now take the 1x1 measure and cut to the length. (4 at 19 inches)

Once you have the racks cut, it is time to drill the holes for the spoons.

(This is how we fixed what we saw as a problem with the original project.  The spoons would be far enough away from the wall, that the coffee mugs would not wear out the paint; yet close enough to the wall to keep the mug from falling off the spoon.  The mugs would still slip over the spoons, either by the handles or the cup itself.  After we mounted the racks to the wall, and added the coffee mugs, we all jumped up and down, slammed doors, etc, to see if any of the mugs showed any sign that they would fall off the spoons. None of them did. We heard the drinking glasses, sitting on a shelf, clink together more then we saw the mugs move.)

Find the middle of the 1x1.

Draw a line down the center.

Now mark where each spoon will go.  (This took a little bit of math, a little guess work.....you know how that goes.)  We took in consideration that a couple of the mugs were four inches, and thought we should also think about handles too, so we spaced the spoons 5 inches apart.  The spacing worked out well.

We made a mark 2 inches in.

Then at 7 inches.

And every 5 inches after that.

This left us with exactly 2 inches on both ends.

Time to drill. The drill bits will vary on the size of the spoon handles. (Actually more the bottom of the spoon. Most of the spoons had a large base and skinny handles.)

Once all the holes are drilled, insert the spoons. Make sure you vary the length or use a different combinations of bigger spoons next to smaller spoons. 

Fill the holes with hot glue. 
We found it easier to make... kind of ...a cap on top with he hot glue, then flip it over and fill the hole the rest of the way up. 

(You can use a stronger glue,  hot glue dries faster, so there is less of it running out of the hole. At first we were not sure if the spoon, wood and hot glue would bond together. We took a piece of sand paper and ran it over the part of the spoon that would be inserted into the hole.  We thought the ruff surface would help the glue stick better.  I don't know if it really did anything or not, the spoons do not move at all. It could just be that there is so much glue inside each hole.)

Once the glue is dry, you can paint wood (like we did) or mount the racks on your wall as is. (Make sure you use enough screws to support the weight of the coffee mugs.)

Add your coffee mugs and you are all set.

Like we said, this project "is just cool!!"