My clients came to me with an interesting challenge. They wanted a sculptural coat rack for guests, but they also cared about how it looked on the wall when it was being used, which, let’s be honest, is most of the time. They didn’t want a row of hooks just hanging there. So we landed on something I really enjoyed: a sculpture that doubles as a coat rack. Two moons. Being able to create something from just an idea is one of the best things about being a custom furniture maker.
Here’s how I built it.
Starting with a Template
The first thing I did was import my client-approved sketch into the laser cutter and cut out a template. Now, I do have a CNC machine and could have cut the shape directly on it, but I wanted to lay the template on the actual workpiece first so I could match the grain to the curve of the shape. You won’t find this detail in furniture from a large design center.
That matters a lot, especially near the tips. Those tips are the most fragile part of the piece, and if the grain starts running across the tip instead of along its length, that tip will eventually snap off. So take your time here, position the template so the grain follows the curve and protects those vulnerable points.
Cutting the Shape on the Bandsaw
I cut the shape out on the bandsaw rather than the CNC, and this is actually one of the reasons I prefer the bandsaw for sculptural work like this. When you cut wood, you’re often releasing tension that’s been locked inside the board. That tension releases as you cut, and the wood can move. If you’ve already committed to a CNC toolpath, you’re stuck with whatever the wood does. On the bandsaw, you can adjust as you go.
To attach the template to the workpiece, I used double-stick tape. I know the CA glue method is popular, and it works fine. But I’ve got enough chemicals in my life already. Double-stick tape does the job.
Routing to the Template
At the router table, I used a pattern bit to sneak up on the template, and I mean slowly. That thin tip can chatter when the bit makes contact, and if you’re not careful, it can just blow out entirely. Nibble at it. Don’t rush.
The router bit I used has a bearing on both the top and the bottom, which lets me flip the piece and always rout with the grain rather than into it. Routing into the grain causes chatter and blowout on curves, so being able to switch orientation is a real advantage here.
Locating the Joinery
Here’s where things get tricky. Curved pieces don’t give you a flat, square reference surface to work from, which makes locating joinery accurately a real challenge. My solution was to use the CNC to rout a pocket, basically making a fixture that the workpiece snaps into. Once it’s locked in place, I can use the software to locate everything precisely.
The joinery itself is essentially a sliding half-lap bridle joint connecting the moons to the shelf and hook assembly.
I marked the orientation of each piece with a Sharpie as a visual reference so I wouldn’t accidentally flip a half-lap to the wrong side during assembly, because, of course, the two halves need to correspond with each other.
The Glue-Up
I’ll admit there’s a bit of irony here. After talking about skipping CA glue earlier, I did use it to attach glue blocks for the clamp-up. The difference is that these blocks are going to have real clamping pressure on them, and I didn’t want tape peeling away mid-clamp. The blocks get busted off and sanded clean afterward.
I milled up a piece of scrap to use as a floating tenon, got it fitted, and then did the glue-up. I put glue blocks on both sides of the piece so the clamps wouldn’t pull it out of plane. If it came out slightly out of flat anyway, I wasn’t too worried; I could run it across the jointer to clean it up.
You might wonder why I didn’t just make each moon from one long board. The curve was too severe for that. On a single board, those tips would end up with cross-grain running through them, making them weak. Gluing up two pieces and hiding the seam behind the shelf assembly was the better call.
Cutting the Half-Lap on the Curved Surface
Once the workpiece was cleaned up, I located the seam between the two glued pieces. That’s exactly where the shelf and hooks would sit, which means the joint gets hidden automatically. To cut the half-lap across the curved surfaces, I built another CNC fixture to hold the piece steady and used software to place everything precisely.
There was a lot of math involved to get this fixture right. You can see the test slots in the plywood where I was dialing things in. The goal was to have the half-lap cut into all three sides of the curve so the shelf would dive into it cleanly with no gaps.
I had the CNC running at snail speed for this part. A catastrophic failure at this stage, after all that work to get here, would not have been fun.
One thing about CNC joinery: the machine leaves rounded inside corners. I went in with a mallet and chisel to square those up by hand.
Tapering the Moon
At this point, the moon shape was feeling a little heavy and bulky. To lighten it visually, I took a thin piece of scrap, flexed it along the curve of the moon, and traced out a taper from the shelf up to the tip. I was mostly eyeballing it, just trying to get a feel for what looked right. Then I followed that line on the bandsaw.
Mounting and Assembly
The sculpture gets screwed to the wall, and I wanted those screws completely hidden. I counterbored deep countersinks through the half-lap area on the shelf. That way, I can drive the screws and then slide the hooks into the half-laps to cover the heads. Clean and invisible.
I glued the shelf assembly together as a subassembly first, the main shelf and smaller tier shelf, let that set up, then glued it to the main moon.
Making the Hooks
I cut the hook shapes and the initial half-lap joinery on the CNC, then finished the half-laps at the table saw with a dado blade. Each hook also needed its corners squared up by hand.
To give the hooks a more organic feel, I ran them over a roundover bit at the router table. Even after that, they still felt a little too crisp and machined, so I spent some time at the sander just softening the edges and giving each one a slightly worn, handmade quality. That extra time at the sander made a real difference.
Finishing
Spray finishing small parts is always a little annoying because the pressure from the gun wants to blow them around the bench. My fix was to cut half-lap notches in a piece of scrap plywood so I could stand all the hooks up in a little jig, finish them in place, let them dry, then pop them out and install them.
Installation
The two moons ship separately and get assembled on site. Gluing them together at a contact point would create a weak joint and just be asking for trouble in shipping. On site, I put a screw right through the half-laps to hold everything together, and the hooks slide in as a friction fit to cover it.
And that’s the two moon coat rack, a piece that works as a sculpture most of the time, and as a coat rack when you need it.
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.