Simple Pot Rack

Material:

You will either use mild steel and paint it, as I have here, or (and I wish I thought of it) you can have it made out of stainless steel for very little more money.

Design Rationale

See the section below on Height and Siting.  This rack is bolted to the ceiling with 3 lag screws and is oriented to run its length in the same direction as the joists of the ceiling.  Here the joists run left to right above the sheet rock, and the center leg is bolted into one joist, and the two end legs are bolted into the joist next to that.  You should measure how far apart the joists are where you want to attach the rack to the ceiling. Since the rack will flex some (think of a wing flapping), the bends made in long piece don't have to be precise, since the legs will "flap" to allow some adjustment if you didn't get it exactly right.


Construction

....is exceedingly simple.  The three short pieces are the legs that go up to the ceiling.  At the ceiling, they are bent at a right angle for a 2"x2" foot or pad that gets bolted up against the ceiling.  It comes down to the horizontal long piece.  I had a machine shop knock this out for me: they bent the pieces and welded the joins of the leg to the horizontal long piece, the whole thing taking them an hour or so.  It would be fancier in stainless steel
An end and center leg look like this in close up:

  

Cost:

The bar stock will cost about $10 for mild steel, more for stainless steel.  Machine shop time maybe $50-100.  A dollar for the lag screw.

The Hooks

....come verious lengths and prices....I've acquired them over time, and as you can see, they are of different types, some just bent from handy wire, others plant hangers and some designed and sold specifically for pot rack hangers.  Google "pot rack hooks".  The ideal shape is like this, not like this.  You want a full curve that comes back up, like the hook on the left hand of the right-hand picture above...that sort of hook can take more than one pot.  When you're jostling pots on and off hooks, pots can ride up and fall off a hook that points forward like this.  You can get more pots on the rack and have an easier time with them if at least some of the hooks are of different length.  Plant hanging hooks are good for this, as they come in different lengths at you local garden supply or elsewhere.

Siting and height:

You want the rack height set so that you can easily hook pots on the hooks.  In my case, the leg pieces were 9" overall, with a 2" square foot (for bolting against the ceiling) that left 7" sticking down.  This worked pretty well for someone 5' 6" and above.  You will notice that some pots hang down further than others. Also, you need to have to place the rack somewhere where your head won't bash into the pots.  Mine is over the kitchen table.

Disclaimer: If your rack is put together in a workmanlike fashion, it should be reasonably strong and hold a lot of pots safely.  However, I make no guarantees for your work and what you end up with.