DIY Towel Rack – Ikea Hack

Sharing is caring!

When we moved into our new house I needed a new DIY towel rack for our bathroom. After scouring the internet, I found these label ones from Target that I loved.

I loved the idea of having label ones so everyone knew where their towel was. We’d recently bought all new matching towels, so I didn’t want to get confused.

DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase items through my links I may earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link and you do not have to use my links. You can find our full policy here. Thank you in advance for your support.

But the perfect label hangers from Target were $6. A little too rich for my blood. So I continued to hunt for something to use in the bathroom with those perfect towel hangers in the back of my mind. I didn’t like anything as much as I loved those.

I love going to Ikea for inspiration. There are just so many things you can DIY Ikea. John and I went looking for a solution for his hats. Something to hold them all on display.

We were thinking about using a peg board for his hats. We weren’t loving the peg boards, so we purchased this tree hanger instead.

Right across from the tree hangers were the similar labeled hooks I’d been looking for at Target.

I was considering buying them, when I found this unfinished (looking) wood base that came with 5 hooks!

It was cheaper than buying all the hangers individually. I couldn’t believe my luck. It was exactly what I wanted.

So we bought it and I got to work almost immediately. My plan was to use my DIY stain to stain the unfinished wood, so it would match the floating shelves in my bathroom.

But as I said above, it’s unfinished looking wood. Looking being the key word there. The wood is actually sealed. So the stain wouldn’t take.

DIY Ikea Towel Rack

After realizing the stain wasn’t going to work, I decided I wasn’t going to use the wood piece and instead just use the hooks. So I let Bugs paint on the wood.

But after some serious thought, I decided I didn’t want that many holes in the wall and they did look super cute on the wood. So I resorted to painting.

First, I had to clean off Bugs paint. Thankfully, I gave Bugs a water-based paint. Some vinegar took it right off.

Then I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White to paint the wood. I also painted some on a scrap paper I had to make the labels.

I used the plastic inside the hooks to cut out the paper I had painted. Then used a fine tip marker to write our names. The plastic just slips right back into the hanger.

It came out super cute. I love that we all know where our towels go and there’s no confusion.

Definitely a great find!