The weather has finally turned, and it’s officially big-coat season. To spare you the hassle of rummaging around in your closet every time you want to pull on your puffer jacket, a coatrack is a practical choice. It can also be a design element, adding a touch of personal style to your space. To find some coatracks equal in both form and function, we spoke with eight stylish people, from lifestyle bloggers to architectural designers, and included some of our Strategist editor’s favorite picks. We’ve got you covered whether you’re looking for a coatrack to mount on the wall or one that can stand up just fine on its own.
Wall-leaning coatracks
To get rid of her “clothes chair” once and for all, Strategist contributor Laura Perciasepe dove through Pinterest for inspiration. Her parameters: “get my stuff off the ground and don’t take up a lot of space doing it and don’t look hideous and don’t cost too much.” When she spotted the Leaning Ladder from Yamakazi, she knew she’d found the one. The coatrack has enough rungs to hang both coats and other seasonal essentials such as sweaters and wool pants. “I have my bedroom chair back to actually sit on (or, really, to stack books on: a problem for another day). I take this as a victory.”
Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang bought her Yamazaki coatrack to slot in her rental’s entryway, which doesn’t have built-in closet space. “It’s great for holding a bunch of adult coats and jackets — I think I’ve stuffed like eight to ten on the top rail,” says Yang (Yamazaki lists the maximum load for the top bar as just shy of nine pounds). The rack is 62 inches tall but has a lower rail about 25 inches high, which Yang says is just the right height for her kid to reach up and grab her own coats and jackets.
Stand-alone coatracks
“Way back in December 2019, New York moved to a new office, and I needed a place to hang up my bulky winter coat,” says Strategist editor Maxine Builder. She already owned a few pieces from Yamakazi, so she ordered another: a white metal coatrack that blended well with her office’s corporate furniture. “Though I only got to use the rack for a few months before going on a two-year-long pandemic hiatus, it was one of the things I was most excited to reunite with when we started going back in on a more regular basis,” she says. “It’s very sturdy with a solid base that doesn’t tip easily even if I’ve got a heavy coat and tote bag on one side of the rack. The wooden pegs are handsome, so it doesn’t feel too office-y, and they’re angled just right, so nothing ever slips off.”
Strategist writer Lauren Ro hangs her coats on this solid wood rack. “It’s nice without being obtrusive,” she says. “It has a bunch of ‘branches’ at different heights, making it easy to hang long coats, short jackets, bags, and even hats and caps.” Crucially, it’s sturdy — Ro says that, even after hanging all the “crap” of two adults and two kids, it has never so much as wobbled. The shade Ro owns isn’t available to buy anymore, but you can still choose between four lacquered, solid wood options: ash, ash with charcoal stain, walnut, and white oak (the latter two cost an extra $200.)
My absolute favorite things to binge on YouTube are NYC apartment tours, and while in a late-night rabbit hole, I spotted this coatrack on Elena Taber’s channel. The owner, designer Raquel Benedict, told me she found the rack as she scanned for a (strict) budget-friendly option. To optimize space in her Brooklyn apartment, Benedict uses her coatrack as an “entryway station” where she can hang coats and essentials she needs to grab before heading out the door (from earphones to keys and, most important, Glossier lip balm.) The rack’s four shelves give you the practical space to store shoes and somewhere to display lamps and plants for that bit of design sparkle.
Anh Lin, lifestyle blogger and founder of the Hooga Shop, loves her minimalist coatrack. “It has enough room to hold shoes, bags, multiple outfits, and, of course, coats,” says Lin. “I like that it has dedicated space for hanging your new outfits as well as space for the outfits you want to rewear.” The coatrack has a sleek, metal bar for slotting hangers as well room to perch bags and hats at either end.
[Editor’s note: Lin’s exact coatrack is currently unavailable, but we found this similar rack by the same brand.]
Yamakazi strikes again — this time, for a free-standing coatrack. Architectural designer Amanda Gunawan says it’s budget friendly and stands alone, so it can be used anywhere around the house. Yamakazi has shown up so much because its racks really do last for years, and this one’s designed to hold up to 11 pounds’ worth of your belongings.
Wall-mounted coatracks
Gunawan particularly loves this vertical wall-mounted coatrack, which “ends up being a sculptural art piece in itself and reminds me of a piece by Alexander Calder with the way it can enhance a blank wall.” Gunawan says the 58-inch-tall rack is extremely easy to assemble and made from powder-coated iron. “I think well-designed furniture pieces should always enhance the space, even if it’s a functional piece, and coatracks are no different,” she adds.
Interiors content creator Shaelynn Neel loves this “simple, neutral, well-made minimal piece of décor” that she uses to hang essential items in her laundry room. It’s 24 inches wide with a load-bearing capacity of 20 pounds. “I was really impressed by the quality and construction of this coatrack, especially considering the price,” she says. It arrives already assembled, making installation easy: “a bit of measuring and two screws — that’s it!”
Ro first wrote about this coatrack mid-pandemic, when we helped a reader find a storage solution for their face masks — but the piece is actually designed for coats (15 pounds of them). “With its handcrafted, stoneware design, this three-hook piece is more like a functional work of art,” writes Ro. It’s designed by Brooklyn’s Virginia Sin, “known for her brutalist, coiled designs” and also comes in black. Installation is a two-screw job with mounting hardware included — but you’ll need your own drill, drill bits, and spirit level, of course.
Gunawan has this wooden coatrack mounted at home. “Again, I love how it can add detail to a flat and boring wall,” she says. “It’s such a simple object, but it’s also detailed and serves a purpose.” With four pillar hooks, that purpose is holding coats, bags, and hats. Its wooden design is so simple, though, that it’s very easy to mount multiple ones close to one another if you need more than four hooks. As well as the oak shade Gunawan owns, you can get the rack in a black-stained oak.
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