There’s nothing better than retiring to your own play-space after a hard day in the office. However, you won’t want your darts, pool cues and playing cards lying around the place when your mates come over from some R&R. So here’s how to improve your rec-room with a rec-room rack.
What you’ll need:
Materials (wood or acrylic works best)
Drill (variety of drill bits)
Saw
Nails (better grab a handful – not literally)
Strong adhesive
Safety goggles
Step 1: Make a plan
It’s like a dream to us, but we’re fairly sure a wise man once said, “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”.
So to start this project, you really need to make a plan of what you want to achieve. Get a pencil and a piece of paper and draw out what you want your rec-room rack to look like. It doesn’t have to be worthy of the Sistine Chapel, but at least you’ll know what the end product should look like – ‘should’ being the key word.
Step 2: Get your materials
You can decide whether wood or acrylic works best for your rec-room. If you want to be ‘down with the kids’ you could choose some see-through acrylic and put LEDs behind it. However, wood is easier to work with.
Step 3: Start cutting
Once you have your chosen materials you can begin to cut. You’ll need one main holder that will keep your pool cues and darts in place. This should be at least two or three inches in depth (out from the wall). You can make the main holder as wide as you like, depending on how many cues you have. Your holder will then have to be screwed to some backing which will then be secured to the wall. Just make sure your backing is the same length as the cue holder. Make sure you don’t stick them together just yet.
Step 4: Drill in guide holes
With your drill, drill 5mm holes along the centre line of the holder. These will act as guides for when you begin drilling holes that are the width of your pool cue. If you try to drill a massive hole straight off the bat you can end up breaking the wood, and sometimes the drill bit too. You’ll need at least two large holes for your pool cues and at least six smaller holes for your darts. You can space them out whatever way you fancy.
Step 5: Prepare your rest
It’s now time to create your rest. The rest stops your cues from falling out of the holder and onto your floor. If you’ve drilled the right sized holes your darts should stay in place without the need for a rest (but you can make one if you really want to). For the rest, cut a piece of wood that’s the same size and shape as your cue holder, but don’t drill any holes in it. Easy as.
If you want to be really posh you can bore out some grooves in your rests, like in the image above
Step 6: Crack out the big drill
You can begin on drilling the bigger holes into the holder for your pool cues. The end of pool cues are typically 12-13mm in diameter, so start off with a 6mm diameter drill bit and work your way up to the desired width. Most darts vary in diameter so just drill the holes 1mm wider until you reach the desired width. Once you’re done make sure the cue can easily slide in and out of the holes.
Step 7: Assembly
Cut two thin pieces of wood 1 metre in length. These ‘connectors’ will connect the holder to the rest. Place the holder and the rest on the floor as if the floor was your wall and nail them together with your connectors. You should be left with a large rectangular wooden frame.
Step 8: Give it a lick of paint
You can now decide if you’re going to paint or varnish your rec-room rack, or if you want to leave it o’natural. Just be warned that paint may chip off after prolonged use.
Step 9: Mount it to the wall
After a lick of paint your rec-room rack should be ready to be mounted to the wall. You’re best off using brackets to hold the rack in place, instead of mounting it directly to the wall. At least this way you can move your rack if needed, without destroying the wall.
Step 10: Enjoy
Now it’s time to reap the rewards of your rec-room rack. You can always add in a few hooks to the side of your rack to hold other items such as boxing gloves or your favourite hat – sure why not.
