I met my husband on British Rail. How could I not be a train buff? These days I commute into Manhattan on a Metro-North route that winds along the Hudson. And in addition to chance encounters and scenery, I love the design details that are holdovers from far more luxurious rail days—namely, the overhead stainless-steel baggage racks and accompanying coat hooks.
I’m not the only one who appreciates this space-efficient solution: Train racks have been adopted and customized for all sorts of household storage. They’re widely available new and old in a range of styles, sizes, and materials, and are ideal, of course, in the entry. They also work well in the bathroom for holding extra towels—you can spot them in most hotels—and in bedrooms they can be put to use as an open closet. Wherever you have a stretch of unused wall, the possibilities are limitless. Here are 10 favorite in situ examples and sources from near and far.
Above: At home in Mill Valley, CA, Michelle of Gardenista corrals coats, shopping bags, dog leashes, and plants on a black Portis Hat Rack from Ikea, now discontinued. For a similar rack, try Ikea’s Hemnes Hat Rack, $49.99. Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista. Above: After her husband’s many hats kept getting bumped off their hooks, Remodelista’s London editor Christine installed stainless steel Draining Shelves that are made for restaurants (but similar in design to train racks). These are from UK company Alco Engineering; from £47.94. Photograph by Kristin Perers.
For a similar look, consider mounting a series of train racks. A luxe version is the Urban Archaeology Train Rack, $910 in brass (nickel and chrome also available). Restoration Hardware offers a more affordable series of train racks, such as the Spritz in satin stainless steel, $285. Christine and her husband are both architects and they live in tight quarters; see more of their solutions in Rehab Diary: Finding Storage in Unexpected Places.
Above: The vintage-inspired Otto Luggage Rack from Graham & Green of London has a pivoting mirror in the center; £289. For antique luggage racks, search online purveyors, such as eBay, Etsy, Chairish, and 1st Dibs. Above: The steel Farringdon Luggage Rack with moveable S hooks is £55 from Garden Trading, who also make some of our favorite Boot Racks. Above: A midcentury Dutch train shelf and coat rack hangs in the Black Crane designers Momo Suzuki and Alexander Yamaguchi’s Pasadena entry. Tour their house in Midcentury Meets Zen. Find similar Teak and Chrome Wall-Mount Vintage Racks for $265 from Amsterdam Modern, Dutch vintage importers in LA. Photograph by Kikuko Usuyama. Above: The London Transport Museum sells replicas of the original luggage racks, similar to the one pictured, used on the Metropolitan Line trains. Its Recommissioned Luggage Racks come in small and large; £100 and £150. Above: A train rack by Trainspotter hangs over a banquette at The Grey, a Savannah restaurant in a former Art Deco Greyhound terminal elegantly overhauled by Parts and Labor Design of NYC. Their polished cast-aluminum and stainless-steel Railway Luggage Rack, £432, is a reproduction of “the classic vintage railway luggage rack once ubiquitous on slam-door trains across the UK.” Photograph by Emily Andrews. Above: Schoolhouse Electric’s Swedish Utility Rack, $199, has birch rails and supports and hooks made of recycled aluminum. They’re by Essem Design: see more in our post Stylish Storage Solutions from Sweden. Above: An extended overhead rack, just like the ones on trains, serves as an open closet in an apartment in Hayama, Japan, designed–and built—by No. 555 architects. Tour the project in A DIY (Do It Together) Renovation. Photograph by Masatoshi Mori, courtesy of No. 555.
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.
Full Access Individual Subscription
Benefits include:
Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Start the Conversation