Vintage Peg Hooks DIY

I am drawn to old wooden chippy-paint decor for its vintage, time-worn look that comes from years and years of use. However, since I typically make my own vintage-inspired decor, I try to create something that looks like it could have a history because I want that same feeling that I get when I see an actual old wooden piece! In this vintage peg hooks DIY, I’ll show you exactly how to get that look that gives you all the feels even though it began with new wood!

Supplies for Vintage Peg Hooks DIY

Just because I made my peg hooks 36″ long with five pegs doesn’t mean you have to! Feel free to make it whatever length you need with as many peg hooks as you need. This could also be made from scrap wood if you have some lying around.

• 1×4 Board (Mine was 36″ long. You may want a different size.)
• Mitre Saw or hand saw.
• Sander with 100 & 150-grit sandpaper
• Drill with a small drill bit for a pilot hole
• Two #8 1 1/2 or longer screws to hang the hooks
• Wire brush attachment (to use with a drill) to add texture to the wood (optional)
• Black paint to make a black wash ( 1 to 2 tsp of any type of paint)
• Elmer’s school glue for making the paint crackle
• White paint (your favourite brand and colour, or try my favourite homemade chalk paint recipe)
• Peg hooks. Mine were from Amazon (Canada)

Step 1: Cut the 1×4 board to the size you want your peg hooks to be

1. I cut mine to 36″ long to fit the space I wanted, but you do the size you need.

Step 2: Add some character to the wood for the vintage peg hooks

1. Fig. 1 Attach the wire brush to your drill. Hold tight when using it, as it may jump around a bit.
2. Clamp your wood and run the wire brush all over. This will remove the pulp between the grain of the wood, giving it an aged textured look. How much you do is up to you!
3. Fig. 2 Next, take a sharp knife or an exacto knife and whittle pieces off the edges in a random pattern.
4. Fig. 3 Take your sander and smooth out the edges, making sure to round the corners, but not perfectly because we’re going for worn-looking, not symmetry.

Step 3: Creating the vintage peg hooks look

The board and the peg hooks get the same vintage technique done on them.

1. Mix up 2 tsp of black paint in 1 cup of water and mix well.
2. Fig. 4 Paint the black wash on the pegs and board, then let it dry. This is an important step because it gives an old wood colour needed for an authentic vintage look for the peg hooks.
3. Fig. 5 & 6. Once the black wash is dry, randomly apply Elmer’s glue, then dab off the excess using a rag or paper towel. A thin layer of glue, along with dabbing the glue, will give more realistic cracks. Note: I opted to apply glue more to the ends of my boards and then here and there on the rest of the board. Whatever you do, make it look organic, not uniform.
4. Instead of waiting for the glue to form a skin, I prefer to run a heat gun lightly over the glue, but be careful! Too much heat and the glue won’t work properly.
5. Paint the board and the pegs, but don’t skimp on the paint! Forget what you know about applying thin coats because, for this project, you want a good solid coat! Tip: I used a styrofoam block (florist foam) to put the pegs in to dry.

Step 4: Finishing touches on this vintage peg hooks DIY

The finishing touches are pretty simple because we took the time to add character to the wood beforehand!

1. All you need to do for the board is sand away some edges, corners and ends on the board, but remember to keep it organic-looking. In this step, I will use a coarse sandpaper, typically 100-grit, but use what you have on hand! If you sand too deep and get the new wood, then take a small brush and paint on some black wash.
2. Because no two pegs will wear the same, make sure to sand them randomly. Once they are attached to the board, I’ll go back and sand a little more where they might naturally get more wear.

Step 5: Attaching the pegs to the finished board

The pegs I used (fig. 9) screwed in, making them pretty easy to attach! If you’re using the same length of board and number of pegs as I did (36″ and five pegs), I found the center and then marked 6 1/4″ apart. I don’t have pictures for measuring out the placement of the pegs, but hopefully, my explanation makes sense if you’re using five pegs as I did for my vintage peg hooks.

1. Find the middle of the board and mark it in the center vertically and horizontally.
2. After that, decide where you want the end pegs to be and mark the ends.
3. Now, you need to mark where the last two pegs will go. I did this by measuring the distance between my middle peg and the end peg and dividing that number in half.

How to hang the peg hooks

I wanted the hooks to be secure and sit flat against the wall, so I opted to screw the peg hooks board into studs in the wall. You can always use wall anchors if you can’t find the studs. Paint the screw after to help hide it or countersink it and fill it as in steps 6 – 8.

1. Using a stud finder, locate the two studs that will hold your hooks and mark them lightly in pencil on the wall.
2. Hold the peg hooks board just under the marks for the studs, then transfer those marks to your board.
3. Drill a pilot hole before starting with the screws.
4. Oh! And make sure it’s level before you attach the second screw!
5. The screw should sit slightly below the wood so you can fill it with wood filler to hide it.
6. Fill the screw hole with wood filler, leaving a little mound of it sticking up. Wood filler tends to sink down into the hole as it dries, so this will prevent you from having to fill it twice.
7. Once the wood filler is dry, sand it smooth.
8. This next step is optional, but I find I get better results hiding where the screws are when I do this step: Add a little bit of clear coat onto the wood filler. I like to spray a little onto a paper towel and dab it on. Once it’s dry, paint over it. The screw hole location should disappear!

And now you’re done! Thanks for stopping by. See you in the next project.