How to Make and Install a DIY Wooden Towel Bar

9 Materials
$5
2 Hours
Easy

If you have kids and your bathroom towel bar was ripped off the wall, you can make your own that should last a long time. Below is a tutorial on how to repair a drywall hole and make a new DIY wooden towel bar for the bathroom.


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Step 1 – Cut the Boards for the DIY Wooden Towel Bar


Take 1×4 board and using a miter saw cut two board to 26″ in length and two pieces to 1 1/2″. Then sand the boards using a random orbital sander. 

Step 2 – Assemble the Boards


Attach the side pieces to the backside with wood glue and 1 1/4″ brad nails using a nail gun. Then attach the front side. Try not to use a lot of wood glue so that it does not come out from the sides. It’s harder to clean the excessive wood glue once the towel bar is assembled. 

Step 3 – Stain the Boards


Brush off the sawdust and apply a coat of pre-stain to prevent stain blotching. Then with a brush apply a coat of Espresso stain and wipe it off with a shop paper towel. 

Step 4 – Remove the Old Towel Bar From the Wall


To remove the old towel bar, usually there’s a set screw at the bottom of the bar that needs to be unscrewed. Once the screws are removed on both ends, lift up the bar and take it off from the anchor clip that’s attached to the wall. If the towel bar was ripped off from the wall then you don’t have to worry about unscrewing the drywall anchor. Otherwise, unscrew both the anchor clip and the drywall anchor that holds the screw.  

Step 5 – Patch the Hole with a Drywall Mesh Tape


Usually, when the towel bar is ripped out from the wall, the drywall anchor pulls out a chunk of drywall and makes the drywall bulge out around the hole. Take the backside of the screwdriver then push back the bulged out drywall. Sometimes when pushing in the drywall it makes a hole larger, and that is fine as long as you don’t have a bump in the drywall, which will be visible once you paint over it.

Step 6 – Apply Drywall Mud Over the Mesh Tape
Step 7 – Spray Texture and Paint
Step 8 – Find the Studs


Use a stud finder to locate the studs in the wall. Mark on the wall and then transfer these marks to the towel bar. You want to make these marks with a pencil so that you could erase them later. Also, draw two horizontal marks using a level to make sure the towel bar you’re attaching is perfectly leveled. You don’t want the bar to be cockeyed. 

Step 9 – Pre-Drill the Holes for Screws and Attach to Wall
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  • Carolina's Art Carolina's Art on Oct 08, 2020

    Hey!! I like this. I might just do this and get rid of those nasty, flimsy towel hangers.

  • RC Leach RC Leach on Oct 16, 2020

    Hi! You could also screw the back onto the wall before screwing the front onto the back, to give you a straight on angle, which would also aid in setting the screw heads flush, so they never snag on the towel. Always, pre-drill the screw holes. To determine what size drill bit to use, hold the bit in front of the screw. If you can see the thread on both sides of the bit, but the body of the screw is barely obscured by the bit, it is the perfect size.

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