DIY Crib Spring Drying Rack

It’s starting to get a little rainy here in Chicago, which means soon I won’t be able to use my DIY pulley clothesline anymore. It’s been great to be able to hang our laundry and AJ’s diapers out in the sun, but I can only use the clothesline in the summer; it’s too rainy in spring and fall, and too snowy in the winter. So I decided I needed a way to hang laundry and diapers indoors during the rainy season. I was out in the garage and saw an old crib spring that I used for JM’s advent calendar last year, and realized it was the perfect solution!

What a great idea! Turn an old crib spring into a drying rack for your laundry room!

This crib spring makeover only took a few minutes, and now it’s a totally fun and functional laundry room accessory!

DIY Crib Spring Drying Rack

  • 30 minutes (time spent doing stuff)
  • 1 hour (time spent waiting around)
  • 1 and a half hours (total project time)

Tools

Materials

Instructions

This project is so simple, it barely requires “instructions”, but I’ll tell you what I did and if you want to make your own crib spring drying rack, just follow along!

I started by giving the crib spring a quick wipe down with some diaper wipes I had on hand. Before you paint you want to make sure that the surface is clean and free of dust. My crib spring wasn’t dirty or rusty so I didn’t need to do more than just wipe the dust off, but if yours is dirty or rusty, make sure you clean it fully before you paint!

Transform an old crib spring into a functional laundry room accessory with a coat of spray paint!

Then I set the crib spring on a large piece of cardboard and gave it a coat of navy blue spray paint. I did a really light coat, but the thing is so large that by the time I finished spraying the whole thing, the first section was dry enough to spray a second light coat to make sure I had full coverage.

Give the crib spring a coat of spray paint

Once the paint was dry I carried it down to the basement laundry area. Our basement isn’t finished, so I figured the exposed floor joists in the ceiling were the perfect place to hang the crib spring drying rack! JM helped me install four screw hooks into the floor joists, then we threaded heavy duty zip ties through the hooks and through the crib spring and pulled them tight. And voila, the crib spring drying rack was securely hung from the basement ceiling!

Turn a crib spring into a laundry room drying rack!

The crib spring is perfect as a drying rack because it has so many different places you can hang things from! I can easily fit a coat hanger over the wires, and space them out however I’d like. Or I can clip things up with clothespins just like I do on my clothesline.

It’s super easy to pull delicate clothes out of the wash and hang them on the rack after I put the rest of the load into the dryer. And we don’t dry AJ’s cloth diapers in the dryer, so this is the perfect diaper solution for spring, fall, and winter when I can’t hang them outside. It’s also a great place to hang wet rags or towels to let them dry so they don’t sit, sopping wet, in a hamper somewhere and start to stink before I can wash them!

Turn an old crib spring into drying rack for your laundry room!

And the best part is, it’s out of the way so I can still walk around in the basement without running into hanging clothes!

This drying rack used to be a crib spring!

How do you hang your clothes to dry?

Turn an old crib spring into a functional laundry room accessory! This DIY drying rack is so quick and easy to make!

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Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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Reader Interactions

  1. Pam says

    5 years ago

    Great Idea! To me those do not look like zip ties holding the spring frame to the ceiling. Please clarify.

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