How to Make a Door Knob Hanger – A DIY Tutorial

We recently did a revamp in our entry way. A little brightening and freshening up in our home can go a long way for me. We love our home, and it was relatively new when we bought it. We have slowly, over the last four years, transformed our home to make it fit the needs of our family. If you ever ask my husband and I what we enjoy, home projects would probably be listed in the top ten of our favorite activities.

We have young kids of our own, we welcome young children of others in our home often, we plan to start home schooling in the next few years, we make hospitality a priority in our lives, and we manage to create lots and lots of clutter amidst attempting to keep a tidy home. All of these facets (and many more) of life influence the types of projects we choose and make a priority.

Since one of our goals in our home is to keep a tidy home, we try to have a place for everything. We have a spacious entry way, but we don’t have a mudroom or large front closet. We found ourselves (me in particular) dropping my purse and diaper bag in the entry way every time we came home. These two bags go almost everywhere with us, and we wanted a place to store these bags. We wanted a place we could grab them from easily as we run out the door.

Peter told me if I can come up with some sort of hanger for those bags, he was more than willing to make it. Since we wanted something sturdy enough for hanging a diaper bag, he suggested using decorative door knobs. He feared a standard hook would wear quickly if I hung the diaper bag without emptying it.

We recently had a Home Goods go up near our home. I had seen door knobs there one other time. I headed back there and found two faux copper door knobs. Somewhere in the middle of our entry way re-do, I grew a bit partial to copper. I picked up the copper clips (pictured below) at Anthropologie on a whim last November. Then we found these simple light fixtures off Etsy with the copper plate.

My mom had a set of the white door knobs from a project she decided not to make, and she offered them to me. We used one of them and had a set of three. Asymmetry is a favorite of mine…not so much for my husband (he’s an engineer). But he tolerates it well.

Here you will find an illustrated tutorial showing how to make a door knob hanger:

Supplies:
Board of desired length – 24 inches
3 Doorknobs of your choice
3 bolts 3/8″ thread – either 2″ or 1 and 1/2″ long
3 Washers – 3/8″ – about 3/4″ wide

Tools:
Drill
3/8″ drill bit
3/4″ drill bit
Screw driver
Socket Wrench (if available)

These door knobs from Home Good were perfect for this project because they have a threaded shaft (like a bolt) that goes through each knob.  That means you can just replace the threaded shaft with a similar bolt and use it to tighten the knob against a plank board.  So check the package closely when purchasing.

Once we got home, we took the threaded shaft to the hardware store and found a bolt that was identical.  The box stores have this thing called “thread checker” in the bolt aisle that makes this easy to do.  Luckily, this was a standard 3/8″ thread.

We had a poplar board left over from the planked wall hanging in the entry way (tutorial coming soon). This 1 by 8 board was cut to 24 inches long.  (Actual dimensions of a 1 by 8 are 3/4″ thick and 7 1/4″ wide.) We painted the board eggshell white before doing any drilling.

Next, we decided how we wanted to space our knobs. Mark locations for them with a pencil by finding the center of the board (7 1/4 divided by 2) and then at your desired spacing.  We put the outer knobs 4 inches in from the end and the center knob was directly centered (4″ + 8″ + 8″ + 4″ = 24″).  Once you have them marked, drill 3/8″ inch holes in each location.

Next we flipped the board over and drilled a “counter-bore” into the unpainted side using our 3/4″ drill bit.  The purpose of this counter bolt is to recess the hole enough for the bolt head to hide gently inside the board – we need it to sit flat against the wall when we mount it.  We drilled this larger hole to a depth of 3/8″.  Don’t go to deep!

This hole is now ready for your 3/8″ bolt and washer.  See how it sits flush into the board.

Next we attached the collar of the door knob.  Center the collar directly over the bolt and attach it to the painted side of the board, using the screws provided with the purchased door knob.  We recommend pre-drilling holes for your screws and then screwing them in by hand.  This will guarantee you don’t crack the wood and everything sits perfectly.

After the collar is installed, it’s time to secure the knob itself.  Remember, with this type of knob, it is threaded so that it can tighten onto the 3/8″ bolt just like a nut.  You will need to experiment with the length of your 3/8″ bolt – we bought several lengths at the store.  You want your bolt to be long enough to stick through the collar and allow the door knob to tighten easily down.  If it’s too long, it won’t seat against the collar; if it’s too short, you won’t be able to start the threads.

For our project, the copper knobs used a 1 and 1/2″ long bolt and the ceramic knob used a 2″ bolt.  They are cheap – you might just pick up a few to save yourself an extra visit to the store.

Consider using a socket wrench on the back side to keep the 3/8″ bolt from rotating while you tighten the knob down by hand.  After it’s hand tight, turn the socket wrench a bit further until you can tell its very snug.

Finally, we repeated these steps for the other two knobs.  To attach it to the wall, we made sure we had two studs on either end to mount the board to.  We positioned the piece and fastened it to the wall using 2 and 1/2 inch screws.  We then covered their holes up with a bit of wood filler and then touched up with white paint.

Have any questions on how we did it?  Comment and we’ll be sure to get back to you.