Stop Tossing Old Rakes: Turn Them Into Unique Glassware Storage

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When you're sorting through your garden tool shed, you'll certainly want to cull those items you no longer need. And while donating or gifting your extras is laudable, if you have any old rakes that look like their next destination should be your trash bin, you may want to reserve one of them for an indoor purpose. Are you intrigued? Good — you can go ahead and stop tossing broken tools like this. One of the brilliant ways to repurpose old garden tools in and around your home is to use an old rake head to hold glassware. In fact, it turns out that rakes are actually perfect for holding stemmed wine glasses.

While this might sound like a purely shabby chic DIY, it is without a doubt one of the most stylish ways to repurpose a rake around the house instead of throwing it out, and the end result can be utterly elegant. Plus, there are many ways to customize the holder to your taste. To repurpose a rake head this way, you'll need to first unscrew it or saw off the head from the handle. Now you can easily clean up the soon-to-be glassware holder by washing it down with soapy water and then sanding off any rust before finding the perfect spot to hang it pointing down.

Now that you know you can stop tossing old rake heads and start using them to create low-budget ideas to spruce up your home, you can think about personalizing the finished product. There are different models of rake heads you can use for this project, but the best option to hold your glassware in a sturdy fashion is the type that has stiff metal tines — not plastic ones. The type that will work best for this project is called a bow rake. You can customize it by painting the rake head the color of your choice or by applying a glaze to give it an aged patina.

You can also leave an inch or two of the wood handle attached to add a screw eye at the end to use to hang the holder on a wall. Alternatively, you can tie twine around the handle, and leave a loop at the end so you can hang it up. Another way to mount the rake head to the wall is to hold it up with screws placed inside the head rather than hanging it from the handle end, as pictured above. However you hang it, make sure to screw into studs or use wall anchors to support the weight of the holder and the glasses it will display. And finally, the moment you've been waiting for — add your stemware, spacing each glass out between the tines of your new rustic glassware storage.