A long time ago I showed you my bathroom. And it pretty much still looks the exact same as it did a year and a half ago. The room is nice enough that it hasn’t warranted an immediate makeover (I’ve had bigger fish to fry), it’s just boring. Builder beige walls, builder beige tile, etc.
There is one serious flaw though that has driven me nuts. The room is seriously lacking anywhere to hang wet towels. They usually get hung over the shower door or even worse, over our actual doors. I’ve pretty much lived with this nonsense for 2+ years.
I’d finally had enough. I was at our local hardware store last week and saw some large robe hooks that looked really nice. I was going to buy these hooks and mount them on some primed and painted MDF and then attach it to my wall. I got lucky though. For almost the same exact price I found 4 robe hooks already mounted on a very nice board. The whole thing was ready to go, and frankly, it is much prettier than what I was going to create out of MDF.
The only problem is I didn’t really have anywhere to hang it. I have one empty wall in the entire bathroom that isn’t taken up by mirrors or windows or a shower. However, it was currently sporting two angled ladder-style shelves I picked up at a garage sale last year, our laundry basket, and a barstool that my kids use when I do their hair each morning. (It’s easier to just do their hair in my bathroom than for all of us to go upstairs each morning and do it there.)
The wall is pretty much full from the entry door to my vanity. However, I don’t really use all the shelves so getting rid of one of the shelves seemed like a good idea. That would free up enough wall space to mount the hooks.
I consolidated all my stuff onto one shelf and moved the other one up to the guest room. Now I have room for my new hooks.
It was so easy to install. After just a few minutes it was hung. (I just followed the directions that came with it.)
I chose to buy a pre-made hook rail because it was only $2 more than purchasing the hooks separate. Plus it looks a lot nicer than whatever I was going to make. Sometimes the best solution is not always to make everything yourself. It’s really just about doing what you need to do to make improvements on your home without bankrupting you.
In addition to providing much needed storage, I think the new hooks really make the bathroom look better. I can’t stop staring at them. It reminds me of a spa.
When you walk into the bathroom this is how the hooks look. The shower, Ben’s sink, and the tub are on the left outside of the image frame.
Now if only I can get to the other two thousand little projects like this on my to-do list. I really should start working on these little things more frequently. It’s amazing how much gratification you get doing a 15 minute project like this and just checking it off the list.
Here’s a source list in case you want to know where I bought something you see in the pictures:
Shelves: from a garage sale
Wicker laundry hamper: Target clearance last year
Barstool: see here
Wooden spa bath mat in front of shower: see here
White towels: IKEA
Apothecary jars with soaps: Costco see here
Small wicker basket with hair supplies: Garden Ridge
Large fish bowl full of hair bows: thrift store
Candle: Target
White scale: Wight Watchers brand
Clock: Wedding gift 14 years ago
Mirror in hall: IKEA
Mounted Wall Hooks: our local hardware store
Looking good! I totally agree about doing the little projects. If anything, sometimes I get more satisfaction doing the little makeovers / projects. Ironically, those are the ones I set aside. I need to stop doing that. It is those projects that can have the biggest impact. Perhaps we can start off the New Year and have January be the Small Projects and Makeover Event or something like that. 😉 Hmmm…
Julie
Hi, Allison
Love hooks in the bathroom, makes life easier! Looks great and have a Merry Christmas!
Hugs,
Vanessa
I love having hooks in my bathroom, took me years too to get it done;p
I have a similar hook rail that’s been sitting in my bathroom for 2 months. I am intimidated by my drill and words like “countersink” so I haven’t installed it yet. Is it really that easy?
WOW! Allison, your home is gorgeous!
Thanks Allison for the great bathroom ideas. I immediately posted this to my Facebook page. I really like your barstool for hair detail-I do my girls’ hair in the morning 🙂
I’ve been thinking about installing something similar in our bathroom. I was only worried about the towels drying on the hooks, verses being more spread out on a traditional towel bar. Keep us posted on how you like them after you’ve used them for a while!!
I had the SAME “Crisis” issue about hand made vs –horrors!!!—store bought. I had for a million years a Native American carved hanging “pole” (basically a naturally growth pine branch with the branches at the bottom in a sort of upside down umbrella pattern) to hang things in my kitchen like my colander and sieve and other small things. When this came crashing down one fine day I had NO place to put all of this stuff. But I now DID have a corner where in all NORMAL houses there would be–oh shelves or another cabinet or—some form of HELPFULNESS in my so called kitchen. I had hung my lovely branchy hanger 23 YEARS ago when we moved in and never really THOUGHT about that space again—until there it WAS an actual USEABLE space larger than I guess I had noticed.
A great big head smack “DOH” moment.
So of course I wanted to finally make USE of it and scurried around thinking–much the same as you!–of painted or salvaged wood and antique hooks and—well that is until I went and LOOKED for them! I passed by the hardware section in a much larger Walmart than we have locally and noticed–PRE HUNG HOOKS! On finished boards in various sizes. And finishes! I now had TWO surfaces I could make use of so I grabbed 4 sets at about $6 a pop—way LESS than the cost of similar hooks and finding TIME to make backer boards and actually HANGING THEM. IT did take a few days til some one better able to hang these happened along but two of them are mounted on the wall side of the “L” corner and WORKING hard at holding my colander; sieve; cords for the elec fry pan; and some other items.
And they look–great. My old rack was nice and useful and interesting–but it turns out it was not that actually scenic and–um–as good a use of this space as it MIGHT have been.
Oh well next time will have to think of ALL of the possible fixes!!!!! Now–on to the bathroom!
Wow that actually looks really cute. I really wasn’t sure how good is was going to look, but I love it now that I see it. Great job.