Thrifted Parts & Pieces: DIY Hat Stand

I’ve confessed my love of accessories to you before- particularly with scarves and vintage costume jewelry. But I am ALSO a lover of hats…especially during the humid southern summers! So, while I’ve made plenty of accessory organizers over the years (as well as other kinds of organizers), I was clearly overdue to make a hat stand or something similar for my hats.

Well, my friends…finally, that day is here!

I love the look of vintage hat stands, but they are hard to come by and unsurprisingly pricey. But the look- their shape- is replicable using a few parts & pieces from the thrift store…in fact, it was this set of wooden salad bowls that inspired my project.

Have a salad, then hang your hat…

The clear varnish had nearly flaked away over the years, but otherwise, they were the perfect size and shape to hold a hat- even with their footed bottom. Now, I just needed to find some decent wooden candlesticks to pair them with.

I found these- and while they weren’t perfect (more on that later), they would more than do and I could work around their flaws.

I gotta grab ’em while I see ’em.

So- here’s where my vision is going…This post contains affiliate links for your crafting convenience.

JUST like a vintage hat stand!

But I needed to do a little prep work first! Using our orbital sander, I smoothed out the tops of the candlesticks- this would allow the upturned bowls to sit more flush against them. But while cleaning out the remnant candle wax, I realized just how deep that brass core was…which meant I wasn’t going to be connecting the bowls to the sticks with a screw (my original intention). It could be done, but seemed more troublesome than it was worth.

A little prep work with the sander…

The candlesticks also didn’t have a large, stabilizing base- so, to hold something like a wide-brimmed hat, I was going to have to rectify add a more secure base to each stick. Enter a pair of wooden plaques that would serve as bases! Now I had all three parts that a DIY hat stand would need.

All pieces present and accounted for!

As I studied my parts, I wondered how to coordinate them- staining the bowls and bases to match the candlesticks sounded awfully daunting. I LOVE wood stain, but I suspected that no amount of stain-matching would yield a seamless appearance. Plus, it sounded like a lot of work in my garage and it was, like, 97°F outside. So, I decided to paint them- not my first choice (I really did want the look of natural wood), but the splashy blue won me over in the end.

Not the same as natural wood…BUT I like the blue, too.

To connect everything together, we drilled a hole through the center of the base, a pilot hole into the bottom of the candlestick, and drilled a 2” wood screw through each.

No tipping over now!

Then, I used my favorite wood glue to fix each upturned bowl to the candlestick. A screw would have been ideal, but sometimes thrifters can’t be choosers!

Finishing touches…

Because these wooden salad bowls were vintage and hand-turned, they were a little uneven on the inside. But I like the touch of askew-ness and it doesn’t affect its hat-holding abilities at all!

After the wood glue had set, I re-enforced the junction with a bead of hot glue– it’s not visible unless you turn over the hat stand, and I’m all about a little glue insurance. Especially since my original plan to use screws was thwarted.

And there you have it- a DIY hat stand pair from thrift store parts. Same shape as the vintage kind, but for just a couple of dollars.

…and you can hang your hat on that!

I’m already on the hunt for additional candlesticks- I still have three salad bowls left…and many more hats!

Craft on!

S

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