How to Make a Farmhouse Towel Rack
Making your own Farmhouse Towel Rack is easier than you’d think. Today I’ll show you how I made mine with just a few simple steps.
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Last week I shared our bathroom makeover, and you may have seen this darling little towel rack in the pictures. I DIYed just about everything, so I thought I’d share how I created a simple Farmhouse Towel Rack. This isn’t JUST for the bathroom, though. I think it would be a great little addition to most places in the house! (Think foyer for coats, kitchen for dish towels, or drying herbs, the bedroom for robes…)
What you’ll need to make your own Farmhouse Towel Rack
- A board of your choice, I am using a pine 1×4
- Stain, I am using Minwax in the color Early American
- Hooks, there are SO many great ones to choose from, I’m using these
- Saw Tooth hangers for hanging (Or screws, we’ll talk about that later)
When I say a “few simple steps” I mean it. Literally cut, stain, attach, and hang! It is really so simple, and if you order a large pack of hooks you’ll have extras to use somewhere else. I love those kinds of projects.
Step One, measure and cut your board
For the space I’m hanging my towel rack, I needed my board to be between 12 – 15 inches. I decided that I’d rather it be a little longer to fill the space a little better. I also love projects that I don’t have to be too worried about being too precise. Really, I would’ve been happy if the board was 13 1/8″…I’m just not too particular, ha! I cut my board with my husbands compound miter saw, but if you dot have a large saw like that I’m positive you can use a hand saw, or have those handy people at the Hardware store cut it for you! They’ll do it for so many cents a cut!
If you want to sand the edges down so they aren’t so square, or you have any rough edges from cutting, now is the time to do that! I didn’t have to sand mine. Thankfully the big saw gets the cuts very smooth.
Step Two, stain and let dry
Such a simple step, but the hardest for me. Call me impatient, but waiting for the board to dry is like torture. However, it’s pretty important you’re not trying to attach the hooks to a sticky board. I let mine dry for a full 24 hours before I attach my hooks. I also only needed one coat of the stain to be happy with the color on the board.
Step Three, attach the hooks
I usually lay the hooks on the board where I want them, and make a mark in each screw hole with a marker. For my board, placed the hooks about 4 inches apart. Measure yours to see what works for you!
My husband is a big believer in pre-drilling holes. I’m more of a just attach the hooks and skip predrilling kind of girl…He’s usually right. I am going to suggest you predrill the holes for your hooks. This keeps the board from splitting when you do attach your hooks. I did not predrill all the way through the board, just down about 1/4″ to ensure the screws would have a good start.
As a note, if you’re using the screws that come with the hooks I would suggest using a screw driver, and putting them in manually. I tried the drill on two, and it ended up being too powerful. The screw heads are soft, and strip easily…Learn from my mistakes. 😉
Step Four, hang your towel rack
Everything in this farmhouse is crooked…EVERY SINGLE THING. The top photo is proof that I used a leveler. 😉
Now it’s time to attach the farmhouse towel rack to the wall. I opted to predrill two small holes in the board, and apply the rack directly to the wall using two 2 1/2″ screws. If you’re renting or not comfortable with that, this is where you’ll attach your sawtooth hangers. You can use the same method that you used to predrill your holes for the hooks. Just measure and attach. Probably a few inches off each edge would be a good place to attach the hangers.
As you can see, I opted to hang my board, and then attach the hooks. I wasn’t sure the drill would have enough room between the hooks to attach it to the wall. It would have, but I played it safe. After I attached the board to the wall, I attached the hooks using the screws that came with them.
Overall, this was a simple project. The hardest part was waiting for the board to dry! I have a few hooks leftover that I can use somewhere else in the house, and the board and stain were already in the garage. So, over all, this project cost me $4.20 for the three hooks I used. I’ve seen these towel racks for $20 plus! That, my friends, is why I love to DIY!
Have you been DIYing lately? I’d love to hear about it!! As always, thanks for spending a little bit of your day with me.
Here’s an image to pin for later…
Here’s an image to pin for later…
