Warren Ignacio installs an Angle Surface Bracket. (Photo Courtesy Warren Ignacio)

DRACUT — If there’s one thing Warren Ignacio hates, it’s wasted space.

For instance, what about those sloped ceilings in houses? Or are they walls? What do you do with them? What are they good for, except banging your head?

One night, Warren was lying in his bed upstairs in the house at 306 Arlington Road he bought and renovated for his mother, looking up at one of those sloped ceilings (or was it a wall?), wondering if there was a way to utilize that space to hang clothes or a TV – anything so it was at least put to use.

The Angle Surface Bracket for hanging flat-screen TVs. (Photo courtesy Warren Ignacio)

“I said to myself, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bracket that could hang on that ceiling,’” he said. “I got up and started looking on the computer to see what was out there, and there was nothing. Being in construction, I didn’t like that. It’s just wasted space.”

So he invented the Angle Surface Bracket and – voila! – now you can hang clothes (or anything you want) from an angled ceiling. Just think of it as extra closet space.

February 11 is National Inventors Day. Warren’s Angle Surface Bracket holds patent number 10,561,242.

After realizing there was no tool available to hang items from a sloped ceiling, Warren started scrawling measurements and dimensions on pieces of paper. He has the original drawing for his eventual invention, dated January 29, 2017.

Through trial and error, by early 2018, he had built what would eventually become the Angle Surface Bracket. He proudly brought it to show his father, George Ignacio, who was appropriately impressed with his son’s creation. They took a picture together with Warren’s invention. George passed away in his sleep three days later at age 88.

“I like to think my dad stayed around so we could get that picture together and he could see the bracket I invented,” Warren said.

Warren grew up working for his father’s drywall company. George, after leaving school at age 16 to work, then serving in the Army during World War II, came home and started Glenview Drywall in Lowell with his partner, Jim O’Connor. After a few years, he opened his own company, Dracut Drywall, where Warren began learning about the building trades. (A third generation, Warren’s son Jeffrey Ignacio, still runs Dracut Drywall.)

“For a guy who had to leave high school at 16 to help support his family, my dad ended up being a teacher to his children and to all the kids he taught over the years who worked for him,” Warren said. Of his mechanical ability to visualize a bracket for angled surfaces, sketch his idea and bring it to fruition, he added, “This all came from him teaching me so much over the years.”

The Angle Surface Bracket turns angled ceilings into valuable closet space. (Photo courtesy Warren Ignacio)

Warren received the patent for his Angle Surface Bracket on February 20, 2020. The device can be easily installed on an angled surface to hold rods and shelves. The bracket is guaranteed to hold up to 125 pounds and has 25 angle adjustments.

Warren has since modified the design so that in addition to providing extra closet space, you can also buy a more expensive Angle Surface Bracket to suspend a flat-screen TV from a sloped ceiling.

“It’s wasted space,” Warren said. “Now you have a TV on it.

“You’d be surprised how much wasted space there is in a house,” Warren added. “You’re just hitting your head on these sloped ceilings. The Angle Surface Bracket takes wasted space and turns it into valuable real estate. And you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars building a closet.”

The Angle Surface Bracket sells for $58.92, the Angle Surface TV Mounting Set for $158.50. Compare that, Warren said, to the cost of having a new closet installed.

Chico accompanies Warren Ignacio to some of the trade shows he attends across the country. He has proven to be a very valuable companion. (Photo courtesy Warren Ignacio)

Warren takes his Angle Surface Bracket to trade shows across the country, and he usually brings along his Shih-Tzu, Chico. At a show in Georgia, a woman who works for a Japanese manufacturing company, fell head over heels for Chico. She and Warren got to talking, and the woman brought his invention back to her company, which agreed to produce the bracket.

The Angle Surface Bracket has received the Cornerstone Awards’ Gold Award, recognizing excellence in the building industry, from the New Hampshire Home Builders Association, as well as the Retailers’ Choice Award.

Warren tried out for “Shark Tank” – a TV show that has entrepreneurs showcase their start-ups to try to get a panel of venture capitalists to invest – last year but didn’t make it past the first round. He already has the next tryout in May in New York City marked on his calendar.

“Now I know what I need to do this year,” he said. “It’s nine-tenths preparation. The product is one thing, but the story is what they’re looking at.”

The story behind Angle Surface Bracket is about utilizing wasted space in your home while reducing the chances of bumping your head. Add in a charming dog, and you’ve got a story even a shark would love.

To find out more about Angle Surface Bracket, visit www.anglesurfacebracket.com, call 603-496-5228, or email anglesurfacebracket@gmail.com.