It’s resolution season! If you’re like me and have organizing on your list this year, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite DIY projects from this past summer: a DIY snowboard rack.
For years, our snowboards were just kind of stacked in a corner and we’d have to dig through them to get what we needed. After talking about it for a while and trying to decide on the best style, my husband went out and got the supplies we needed and we knocked it out in an evening.
So if you’re looking to build something similar, here’s what we used for a simple board rack:
1x2s
1x4
¾” dowels
wood glue
sandpaper
handsaw or powersaw
3/4" drillbit (and drill we already owned)
1.25" & 2" screws
Before getting into it, you can always make the job simpler with the proper tools or you can be like us and try to figure out how to make do with what we already have. It worked out, but definitely took us a little longer!
Step 1: Figure out your length
We laid out all our boards and measured how much space we’d want for each section to fit bindings and how long we need the first board to be. We have quite a few boards, so we decided to make it about 5ft long. Make sure to leave room for bindings if you plan to leave them on your boards.
Step 2: Start drilling your holes
We made the first cut! We cut our first 1x4 to be about 5 feet long (you can make it longer or shorter depending on how many boards you have). We then drilled ¾” holes that were the same circumference as the dowels. As you can see in the picture, we opted to do 2 dowels very close together (approximately 2.25” apart) to hold the boards themselves, then we spaced each set about 6 inches apart to make room for the bindings.
Step 3: Cut the dowels
The dowels we purchased were pretty long, so we cut them down to be about the width of our boards - which ended up being about 12 inches for each one. This will be a lot easier if you have a saw, but we only had a handsaw, so I started working on those while Michael was going through the step 2 tasks (after he cut the first couple for me to use as an example).
Step 4: Set the dowels
Break that sandpaper out and smooth the ends of the dowels. Then go ahead and add some wood glue to the end that will be going in the hole of the 1x4. Push the dowel in and add any extra glue to make sure it’s very snug. You may need to hold it to keep it straight, but as it dries, you can let it be. Once the glue is all dry, you can use that sandpaper again and smooth the surface if you had a bunch of extra glue like we did on some.
Step 5: Choose your height
Now’s the time to build the full frame. Our boards are a variety of heights and we wanted the dowels above the bindings. We measured the length of our tallest and shortest boards and picked a height between the two that made sense to us and that’s the height we chose for the back piece that the main 1x4 would attach to. The height for ours ended up at 46” to the center of the dowels.
Step 6: Make a triangle
For the frame we used 1x2 boards. We cut two at 48” (height) and two at 11” (base). We fastened the two together using 1.25” screws and some wood glue. Then we measured for the 3rd length (it’s been a while since we took geometry). We then marked out the angles so that the board would fit in flat. Some more screws/glue and you have your two side frames!
If you’re building your own, the angle will be based on your height and base length.
Hint: Using a wood square helps with this step!
Step 7: Attach your frame and your dowel board
We attached our triangles to the 1x4 with the dowels using 2 inch screws. You could use screws, staples, even glue. We like using screws to give it a little extra stability.
Step 8: Add the bottom frame and enjoy your work!
For the final step, we decided to frame up the bottom to add a little extra stability. It also allows our boards to rest on the wood rather than the concrete floor which is also kind of nice. To do this, we used a 1x2 cut about 5 feet long - same length that we made the dowel board. We attached that with screws to the front of the triangle’s base.
So there you have it! It’s not perfect, but it works like a dream for us. Nothing makes me happier than walking in and seeing all our boards displayed like this. Plus it makes it super easy to grab whatever we need on the go.
There are plenty of designs out there for a board rack and this is what we were able to come up with on a random summer evening! Let us know if you try it out!
Live big.
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