Simple Bathroom Towel Rack

With 3 kids at home the bathroom can be a crazy mess. Towels, clothes, wet snow pants, jackets, swim suits....you name it, it ends up on the floor of the bathroom. I was tired our towel rods, because let's be honest, they really aren't good for anything. Towels never look pretty on them in a real life, and you can't hang anything but towels on them. So enter the towel rack...er hooks? Usually, you use these to hang coats on in the entryway, but they work beautifully in the bathroom as well, the more hooks the better!

This one is super simple to make!

Materials:

- 1/4"x 6"x 35" board, it can be plywood, MDF, or particle board, whatever you have lying around as it won't be seen

- (1)1x3x8 pine board (furring strips work great)

- wood glue

- sand paper (120 grit works fine)

- finish (paint or stain and polyurethane)

- hooks (I used 6, but you may use more or less depending on your design. Make sure your hooks come with screws, if they don't you'll have to purchase some separately)

- 2 1/2"screws to mount it to the wall

Tools:

- tape measure

-pencil

-circular and/or miter saw (or table saw)

- paint brush, foam brush

- screw driver/drill

- hammer and nail

- stud-finder

-level

-safety equipment

The backer serves as a place to attach the 1x3s onto the front. You can cut it to fit whatever size you want, just make sure to recalculate the measurements for the 1x3s (which are actually .75"x 2.5") that are glued to the front if you change the size of the back.

Next you'll cut 14, 6" 1x3 pieces, you should only need 1 1x3x8 board, or use scraps you already have lying around. I added full pieces to the ends in my design and then cut the other 12 at 45 degree angles at the 3" mark. You can design yours any way you want! To attach the pieces, just use wood glue and wait the appropriate amount of time for them to dry. I personally like the Gorilla Wood Glue, but Tightbond would also work. Wood glue does not stain, so try clean up as much wayward glue as possible before it dries.

After the wood glue has dried, sand and paint or stain however you like, just make sure you use a poly finish on the bare or stained wood to protect it from the bathroom humidity. I like Rust-Oleum's Triple Thick Matte Polyurethane. It goes on easily and you only need one coat. Using a foam brush applicator makes it simple, and the water clean up is great.

Add some hooks and attach the towel rack to the studs in your wall using 2 1/2" wood screws. I always use a stud finder and double check the location of the stud with a nail before I mark it (you can always fill in the tiny nail holes if you miss the stud, but having the whole rack fall because you missed the stud, just plain stinks). The screws can be painted to blend in better. You could also use finish nails, but it wouldn't be as well anchored to the wall and might pull off the wall when holding a lot of weight.

That's it! Now you can get all that stuff off the bathroom floor!