Peg Rail Tutorial

Thanks for the wonderful comments on my kitchen re-do yesterday!  I had a few comments asking about the peg rail that I put up, and yes, I did make it.  It was my first time making one, but it wasn’t hard at all.  I did take a few pics along the way.  I am not an expert builder here, and there may be ways that are more ‘right’ than this, but this way worked for me and I learned along the way.  I will try to explain it out best I can from a beginners stand-point.

I just used 1x4 inch pine for mine, but 1x6 inch would work great too.  I bought 1/2 inch dowel rods. OAK ones.  (You could also use pre-made pegs from the craft store if you want the shaped ones.  They were somewhere around $3 for 5 or 6 pegs- I wanted to go a cheaper route- lol.  I also liked the ‘simpler look’ of the dowel pegs)  I got my dowels at Home Depot and picked the regular cheaper ones up first and they literally felt like they were made of styrofoam!  I never noticed how light they were when I have picked them up at craft stores.  I even asked one of HD’s workers what the heck those were made of and took one of each in his hand, and even he seemed surprised at the weight difference in them!  I knew those regular ‘wood’ ones would not last if I wanted to hang anything heavy on them, so definitely, go with the oak!  I think they were $1.24 each- still pretty cheap.  IMPORTANT- Even though they are oak, you still have to check to be sure they are straight.  There were some VERY bowed ones in that bin.  I figured I would need 3 for the project, so I pulled 3 out and held them up to see how straight they were.  Some are very obviously bowed, some are not.  When I had 3 that I thought were straight, I then laid them next to each other on the floor and rolled them back and forth- you will be able to tell which ones are bowed by how they roll.  That was the best way to tell.  I spent probably 10 minutes digging around in the bin and rolling dowels on the floor to get the straightest ones! lol 

When I put backer boards on my shelves in the living room last week, I had a problem finding the right sized drill bits in my husband’s tool boxes.  So I went out and bought a set of ‘wood bits’ like this at Walmart for around $11, because I knew this peg rail was going to be my next project.

(please excuse the spray painted paper on my workbench! lol)

I used a scrap piece of wood to practice on b/c I had never messed with this kind of bit before.  They work so much better than a regular drill bit!  If you have never used this kind of bit, here are a few things I learned.

#1 use a hard surface to put your wood on.  I put my boards on my workbench- do not drill them on your counter tops.  I do a lot of stuff on my counter tops b/c they are close and handy.  Don’t be tempted. lol  Luckily, I didn’t have to learn this the hard way, lol.  The point on the bit should just barely come thru the back of the board and I could kind of tell when drilling, when it hit the workbench surface, and then I pulled back out. 

#2- use the same motion every time you drill.  I was really afraid that my holes would end up all crooked and my pegs would be too.  When I practiced, I was able to settle into a motion that seemed to work and then I put a few pegs into the practice holes to make sure they would be straight.  There was a little ‘play’ in them, so if one seemed to be pointed down a little more than they others, you can just push it up into line with them.  I was comfortable with holding my hands at my right side (I’m right handed), with the drill handle right beside my breast- drilling the holes by bending slightly into it from the waist.  I was able to get the right angle and pressure on the drill that way.  It will all depend on what the height of your work surface is…that is why practicing is important!

#3- this kind of bit will make a 1/4 inch deep hole.  I didn’t realize this at first- I was putting the dowel in the drilled hole, marking it how far in it was, and then taking it out and adding 2 inches to it, marking that and then cutting it.  Duh.  It took me about 5 pegs to realize that all the holes were drilled very close to the same depth and it was right around 1/4 inch!  lol  I wanted 2 inch pegs, so I cut all my pegs to 2 1/4 inches long.  Now, I still had to measure, mark, and cut each peg separately, b/c my saw blade cuts about 1/8th inch wide, and well, I’m not that good at using a tape measure and math! lol  It was easier for me to just measure 2 1/4 inch, and then cut, measure and then cut, instead of marking off the whole dowel at once.

Hope I haven’t confused you so far! lol

I started by measuring my walls and cutting my boards to length.  I had to miter my ends a bit b/c our house is old and the existing trim is not even on the edges and the peg rail would end up sticking out. 

You could also miter the corners for a more professional look, but I’m not a professional, and double ended miters are too tricky for me at this point :-)  These pieces fit pretty tight, so I was able to wedge them up there to step back and look at them and decide what height I wanted them at.

I took the boards back down and measured to find the middle line where my pegs would go, and made a little mark.  I did this on a few spots along the board, and then took a straight edge and connected them with a pencil line all the way along the board.

Now I had to figure out how far apart to drill my holes.  This is where I had to get creative.  I am a visual person, so I needed to see where my pegs would go.  All four pieces of backer board were different lengths, so I had to play around with how far apart the pegs would be.  I had some of these in the drawer, so I did this…

(This was not one of the boards I used.  I stuck these on a piece of wood this morning as an example for the picture) These ‘holes’ were really helpful for me b/c I was able to wedge those boards back up and step back and get a ‘visual’ of what it would look like- these ‘holes’ also happened to be 1/2 inch- the same size pegs I was using.  Tip:  you can use little pieces of masking tape or whatever, but if you use these, just lightly stick a little part on the board.  Do not rub the whole thing down or you will have to scrape them back off- they stuck down really well! I did learn that the hard way.  lol  I had 2 corners to work in, so I had to adjust my measurements for those.  I didn’t want the pegs to be touching at the corners.

I also had this little short wall, and I knew I wanted a peg here, so I had to adjust the other side of pegs accordingly.   Your peg spacing will all depend on what size walls and corners you have to work with.  You don’t want your first peg on one end being 5 inches away from the end of your backer board, and the last one being only 1 inch away from the other end. You want them pretty even on each end.  It will take some figuring and measuring to get it right.  Mine ended up being 5 inches apart and the spacing on the ends seemed to work out fine that way too.  I googled ‘peg racks’ and looked at how far apart some were spaced.  Most seemed to be somewhere between 4 and 6 inches apart.  4 seemed a little too close to me, and 6 wasn’t working out quite right.  I made a little pencil mark at 5 inches all along my boards, and then took them down to the work bench and drilled the holes.  I made sure to push a peg into each hole after I was done drilling to be sure I had each one opened up  b/c when you paint wood, it swells  just a little bit. 

How you attach your rail to your wall is up to you.  I’ve seen where they drill holes in between the pegs and counter sink screws and then use the little caps to cover.  I also considered  putting a few screws into the peg holes and then putting the peg over them.  We decided to just use the nail gun to attach ours right to the wall, and then I filled the marks in from that.  I held the board up, set the level on top to be sure I was holding it straight, and my husband nailed them for me.  I painted my backer boards first and my pegs separately, attached the boards to the walls, put a little wood glue in each hole, and then put my pegs in.  I then took a long piece of board, put it under the end of the pegs and then slightly pushed all the pegs up just a little (so nothing would slip off the ends when hanging), so they were all in line to dry overnight.  I then went back the next morning and painted over my filler holes from nailing them up, and did any other touch up work that was needed.

I hope that was easy to follow for you!  Sorry if it is too elementary, but like I said, it was my first experience at making these.  All in all, it was a pretty easy project and I just had to get over my fear of messing up- it’s just wood.  And trust me- I did mess up- I had a few miss-cut lengths of boards in the basement to prove it!  lol  BUT-if  I would have waited for hubs to help me, I would be waiting forever!  Just make sure you have extra wood on hand when you start.  It’s not perfect, but it’s darn close :-) and I am proud of myself for doing it all on my own.  It was a real confidence builder for me.  If you have any questions, just email me and I will try to help you out :-)

AND since I had the miss cut pieces of boards, I jumped into another project yesterday!  I don’t have pics yet- I need to run to the Depot to get some hinges to finish it.  I can’t wait to show it, so I better get going!  Pictures later!