Coat racks are boring? Nonsense. A great rack can be a wonderful addition to every home's d'cor, even if you don't live in a cold place. Besides coats, you can use these organizational tools to store umbrellas, damp beach gear, or camping equipment, or you can just leave them artfully in your foyer, a multipurpose set of hooks to do with as you wish.

You can find coat racks in a wide variety of styles and colors, from beautiful antique bench racks to modern faux wrought iron racks. If a plain one's not for you, consider one of the following options.

Finish Your Own Coat Rack: This is for someone with unique d'cor that's hard to match. Purchase an unfinished coat rack (wall-mounted coat racks should not have pegs attached, nor should the wood be treated beyond sanding) and decorate it to suit yourself. Cherry stain, for instance, with classic d'cor works well in most cases, or you can paint your coat rack a light color and decorate with country stencils and appliques to complement a homey d'cor scheme. No matter what your needs are, you can usually match a coat rack to your home perfectly with a little imagination and an afternoon's work.

Custom-Designed Racks: These racks can be anything, from copies of Louis XIV antiques to ornate mirror-backed works of art. The key is looking at the blank place in your foyer and imagining what would look perfect there: something to complement your antique Tiffany chandelier or something that brings your great room here to the entryway?

A custom-designed coat rack can be created by most craftsmen specializing in these items, but for really special pieces you may need to talk to a sculptor. Some ideas: racks created in cut and burnished bronze to complement a koi pond, or racks made of wicker to work with island d'cor. You are limited only by your imagination, the skill of your craftsman, and the strength of your material.

Racks With Mirrors: If you're the sort of person who likes to check how their hair looks just before going out the door, a coat rack with a mirror might be the way to go. These come in a variety of classic styles (or funky styles, if that's the direction your tastes go). For a really unique and useful decorating idea, consider placing another mirror directly across the hall or foyer from your mirrored coat rack. This gives you the unique eternal-mirror look as well as a way to check the back of your hair too.

Antlers, Art Noveau, and Hall Trees, Oh My: Coat racks have been around for a really long time, dating at least back to the pegs next to the door where Romans hung their lacerna, or outdoor cloaks. This gives you a wide variety of antique and faux-antique choices, from the classic hall tree freestanding coat rack to the more barbaric deer-antler coat racks favored by some, from aged oak hallway storage benches attached to high coat racks to art noveau styles mounted on the wall.

Coat racks are prosaic, but they are anything but boring. Unleash your imagination and see what you can come up with.