This post may contain affiliate links.
Do you have an extra pallet and need a project to use it? Me too. This DIY towel rack was so simple to make, and looks great in our guest bathroom.
Pallets are easy to come by these days. I love them so much. It isn’t often that you can make so many useful things out of an item that most people will just give to you for free. If it was up to me alone, our whole house would be furnished with pallet made stuff. I’m slowly bringing my husband around on the idea, one piece at a time. In 15 years, I may get my wish. 🙂
Easy solution to a common problem
We bought our house newly built. We’ve never owned a new home before, and when the towel racks began falling off the walls I was annoyed. There was no sticking them back on without making more holes in the wall, so we went without them for almost a year. This seemed to be a problem for some our neighbors as well so I’m guessing it happens quite often to homeowners. The boys used the shower curtain bar as their towel rack in the meantime.
A few weeks ago we finally got sick of it, and decided to put those pallets to good use. A short trip to the hardware store for some hooks and a cooper pipe and we were ready to start building.
Gather Supplies (and prep them)
Get your stuff together in one place. At the very least, you will need:
- pallet
- nails
- hammer
- pipe piece (we chose copper but any metal or wood rod will do)
- hooks (optional)
- pencil
- level/measuring tape or ruler
- drill with bit (to make a hole for the pipe to fit through)
- saw
Make sure you sand the wood. While you want the rustic look, it won’t feel good to have splinters caught in the fibers of the towels. Not to mention the mess it will make, and time spent cleaning up the wood bits that fall to the floor.
Get the size right
You don’t want to make this beautiful rack just to have it be too long the fit on your bathroom wall. We debated on whether to make two to fill the wall and add more hanging space, but in the end we didn’t need enough rack space to hang eight towels. We will definitely build another shelf or rack to store items later, but for now we just have the one.
For ours we needed 3 short boards of the same length and 4 long boards of the same length. We didn’t pre-measure them, though that may be a good idea. We simply cut a short piece approx 1 foot in length and then held it up to the wall to see if it looked good. Since we were satisfied we just cut the other 2 to match it. We used the same approach for the long boards, they ended up about 4 foot in length. You could just cut across the entire pallet if you have one in good shape. Ours was warped and had missing pieces, so it wasn’t an option for us.
Minimal Assembly Required
After drilling the holes and cutouts in places on the short boards you can begin piecing the rack together. If you need to drill a hole completely through the side boards, go for it, just be sure to place a long screw (or something on the outside) to keep the ends from sliding out of the holes and crashing to the floor.
If you cut out holes, be sure put the pipe into position before you begin. You don’t want to have to disassemble the rack to get it into place after all that hard work. On some pallet pieces we use screws, but nails worked great and looked nice for this one. If don’t have access to a drill or if you just want to, use a pole socket.
These are pole sockets ↓
Online or in stores you can find wood, metal and plastic ones that are easy to install and look nice. I order everything off of Amazon if I can, and have it shipped right to my front door. Next time, I think I may use a pole socket instead of going through the hassle of cutting holes.
After you have it nailed, screwed, or glued together, SAND IT AGAIN. I strongly recommend it.
Add details (if you want to)
We chose not to paint ours. I like the bare wood look at this time, and if we decide to stain it later on, we won’t have to strip it. Another thing I love about this rack, I can tweak and change it as many times as I like to match my ever changing tastes. I may like the bare look and black hooks today, but a few years ago I swore I loved all things teal. Who knows what will happen in the next few years.
I wanted a few extra hooks on the sides to make it more versatile and look nicer. We went with two different ones because we liked them both, and couldn’t decide between them.
So Easy- Just give it a try
It really is a simple rack that took about 30 minutes from start to finish. Honestly, the hardest part was attaching it to the wall. I’m notorious for hanging things at an angle, even when using a level. It finally got up there and I absolutely love it. I know you’ll love yours too!
North Carolina, USA