A tutorial for making your own wood towel rack to spruce up your bathroom.


Unless you had the opportunity to really customize a new home, moving into a builder home leaves you with a bunch of builder-y things that lack style and personality (in my opinion). Boob lights are one of them.  (Why do they still make these things???)

DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  

Another one is towel racks.  Swapping out your boring blah towel racks for a custom wood towel rack with hooks is a fantastic way to take your bathroom decor up a notch.  And I’ll show you how to do it.  This is a bit of a rustic towel rack but you can customize it any way you want to make it look more modern.  

There are lots of different things you can use for towel storage in a bathroom.  You can use a towel ladder, towel rings, door towel racks, bars, and hooks.  A lot of what you use will depend on how much space you have in your bathroom.  Luckily, you don’t need a lot of wall space to hang a towel rack (and you can make it as long or short as you need).  

I prefer the look and functionality of hooks versus a bathroom towel bar anyway.  Why? Because the towels look less messy hung from a hook.  Trust me, if you saw how my kids think a towel should be hung on a bar you would go straight to hooks.  

Simple Black Hooks from Home Depot - in post is a tutorial for making your own wood towel rack!

Using hooks gives you plenty of room to move around in a small bathroom space.  Plus, I only hang one towel per hook to allow the towel to dry out completely between uses.  Even better if you are using waffle towels or Turkish towels because those dry quicker anyways!   

If you want to skip the DIY – I’m highlighting some good towel racks that you can buy below.  

This is a fun project and you (or your guests depending on what bathroom you are doing this for) will thank you.  Let’s go!

Things You’ll Need

DIY Wood Towel rack – Step by Step Instructions

DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  

How to make a bathroom towel rack with scrap wood and a few hooks.  

Total Time: 6 hours

  1. Measure length of towel rack

    Materials needed to make a Wood Towel Rack 

    The first step is to measure how long we want our towel rack to be.  I wanted my towel rack to be all the way across the wall in the bathroom, so I measured from the shower wall to the door molding on the other end.  That way you can grab your towel while you are still in the shower or tub if you want.  Make a note of this measurement so we can cut our furring strip to size in the next step.  

  2. Cut Furring Strip to Length

    Now that we know how long we want our towel rack to be, we will use a saw to cut it to this length.   You can use a table saw or even a hand saw for this since we are not making a difficult cut here. Be careful though if using a hand saw!

  3. Sand and Stain Wood

    Time to Sand and Stain your furring strip!  Mine did not need sanding so I skipped that part and went right to staining.  You can stain with an old, clean rag or a brush.  After the stain is dry, you will apply three coats of polyurethane for protection. With all that humidity you want to make sure your wood rack isn’t going to deteriorate on ya.   Make sure all poly coats are dry before moving on to the next steps.  

  4. Find and Mark the Studs

    How to Make your Own Wood Towel Rack - use a stud finder!

    Using your stud finder, find and mark the studs along the wall where you want to hang your wood towel rack.  For reference, I hung my towel rack 57 inches from the floor.  

  5. Attach Furring Strip to Wall 

    DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  

    Now it’s time to get that wood strip up on the wall.  You can use construction adhesive for this, but I found it easier to attach it through the studs with wood screws.  On the stud marks, drive as many screws as needed to hold up your wood.  If you find you don’t have studs, you can use anchors that will (at least) hold the weight of a wet towel.  You can also pop a few brad nails in there for extra security, but this is optional.  

  6. Measure and Attach Hooks

    DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  

    Here’s a tip:  Try to space out and line up your hooks with the screws you used to attach the wood strip to the wall.  This hides them and gives your towel rack a much more finished look.  I spaced my hooks out 10 inches.  I bought simple black hooks from Home Depot and used the screws they came with to attach them to the wood strip.  

That’s all there is to it!  You should have a beautiful new wood towel rack in your bathroom.  This is a total scrap wood project and you can make it work using wood you already have.  Get creative!  Don’t forget to hang some beautiful Turkish towels on there for a stylish look.  

DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  
DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  
DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  
DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  
DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  
DIY Wood Towel Rack in a bathroom - A tutorial for making your own plus 8 of my favorite ones that you can buy!  

And If you like this project, then you will definitely like my other scrap wood DIY projects, especially this farmhouse coat rack project.  It’s a very similar DIY but I used beautiful antique hooks instead of these simple black ones.  

Wood Towel Racks you can Buy

If you want to skip the project, here are some wood towel racks you can buy.  You can just click on any picture to get more information.  

Stylish DIY Wood Towel Rack + 8 to Buy

Thanks for visiting today!  Xo Karen

Stylish DIY Wood Towel Rack + 8 to Buy

Karen Sloan

Karen Sloan is the founder, editor and syndicated content writer of www.decorhint.com. She offers hints of inspiration for everyday living, including home ideas, DIY projects and lifestyle content. Her work has appeared on Google News, MSN, Pioneer Woman, Apartment Therapy, and Bustle, among others.