Let’s Create Some Wall Hangers

Can you have too many hooks to hang things in your home? Clothes racks, coat/hat rack, towel holders, holder for your paper towels, the list goes on and on. Again, can you have too many?! I’d say Nope ! Over the years, I’ve made several for our home. For instance, when I remodeled each bathroom, I removed the towel racks & replaced them with decorative single hooks to hang the towels. So much cuter than those aluminum ones that the Contractors think we will love – not!

Upstairs bath towel holders

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To create the towel holders for the bathrooms, I bought wooden plaques at Michaels. You can make these wood plaques yourself if you have the right tools. I may have considered making them but I have yet to buy a router, but it’s on my mental list of ‘tools needed’. Each of the plaques that I decided to buy was around $4….so, I felt they were a good value for the look I was seeking. Once I got them home, I gave each of the plaques a little sanding then two coats of paint. For the upstairs bath, I found the hooks at Lowes. The hooks for the downstairs bath I found at Habitat – I just love that place! Once I had each of the plaques painted and the hooks screwed onto them, I simply attached them to the wall with screws. Since towels aren’t very heavy, I didn’t feel the need to locate studs before installing them. For the round one, I covered screw heads with decorative pieces that I had picked up a long time ago at Habitat.

Downstairs bath towel holders

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Supplies

• Wooden plaques
• Paint or stain & polyurethane
• Small paintbrush or rags if staining
• Decorative hooks
• Screws & screwdriver

Instructions

• Paint or stain the plaque. If staining, add 2 coats of polyurethane once stain has dried
• Attach hook to plaque with screws they came with
• Attach each plaque to wall with 1 1/2″ to 2″ screws

Mudroom coat/hat rack

I created the little coat/hat rack pictured above for our mud room using a 1″ x 4″ three foot piece of board that I had in my ‘left over wood’ stash and some wooden pegs that I picked up at Michaels. The assembly on this rack is easy and fairly quick, too. To add the pegs to the board, I drilled a pilot hole with a small drill bit then used a larger drill bit to create a hole for the base of the peg. Once those holes were done, I attached the pegs with some wood glue and screws. After it was assembled, I gave the rack a couple of coats of paint.

To install it, I found studs with my stud finder, marked the rack for the location of the screws and drilled holes large enough to add little wood buttons to cover the screw heads. To attach the rack to the wall, I used 1 1/2″ screws. Once the rack was attached, I used glue to attach the little wood buttons that I pre-painted. We mainly use this rack for hats but I’ll hang my coat on it if it’s wet from rain or snow to allow it to dry before putting it in the closet so I’m glad I took the time to find studs to attach it to the wall.

Supplies

• 3′ to 4′ piece of 1″ x 4″ wooden board
• 6 – 8 Wooden pegs
• Paint or stain & polyurethane
• Small paint brush & rags if staining
• Screws & screwdriver
• Decorative wooden buttons

Instructions

• Lightly sand board & wooden pegs
• Paint or stain the board & pegs. If staining, add 2 coats of polyurethane once stain has dried
• Locate studs in wall with stud finder. Mark stud location on board
• Drill holes in the board for screws that will attach board to wall
• Create holes for pegs by drilling small hole then using a larger drill bit and drilling 1/2 the depth of the board so the base of the peg can be glued into the hole using wood glue
• From the back side of the board, use a small screw to secure each peg after glue has dried
• Once the pegs are securely attached, screw the board to the wall using 1 1/2″ – 2″ screws where you marked the stud location

Bedroom clothes hanger

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In our bedroom, we have an old steamer chest that holds some family heirlooms. Since it’s on hubby’s side of the bed it had become a catch-all for his sweats and sweatshirts. One day I decided something needed done about that situation. I searched around for a rack to hang his things but didn’t feel like paying $20-$25 for one that only had 3-5 hooks, so I looked for an alternative. I went to Habitat and found a cabinet door for $3. It isn’t real wood but has a nice burl wood look to it so I bought it. I then went to Home Depot and bought a variety pack of 6 small hooks for $8 and a pack of 3 larger hooks for $9. If you are doing the math you’ll see that I spent almost as much as buying a ready-made rack. However, since the ones I had seen only had 3-5 hooks and the one I made has 9, I felt it was a good deal!

Once I had my supplies, assembling this clothes rack was super easy! All I had to do was attach each hook with the screws they came with to the base and then screw the base to the wall.

Supplies

• Cabinet door
• Hooks
• Screws & screwdriver

Instructions

• Locate studs in wall with stud finder. Mark stud location on cabinet door
• Drill holes in the door to correspond with the stud location
• Attach hooks with screws they came with
• Attach cabinet door to wall where studs are located

Paper Towel Holder

The next hook/holder I created was for the paper towels in the kitchen. A few months ago, I decided it was time to replace the paper towel holder. The one we had was wooden and worked fine…. but since I had drilled it directly into the drywall, it was loose and needed to be removed, new holes drilled and then replaced. Since I knew that I was going to have to go through the work of doing all that, I thought it’d be nice to have a different style. I took the wood one to the garage to replace the plastic one we had there and then went online to hunt for options.

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I quickly fell in love with the paper towel holders made from steel plumbing pipes! Although my décor is not the Industrial look, I really liked the look of these paper towel racks! I considered buying one but they were quite spendy – $65 to $75! (I see they have some now for around $25) So, I thought it would be less expensive and way more fun to make one myself so off to Home Depot I went!

Since I’m not a plumber, browsing the plumbing aisle was a new & interesting experience. I noticed there were different diameters (1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, etc) of pipe as well as different materials (galvanized steel, black steel, iron, pvc). I decided to use the 1/2″ iron and black steel pieces. I would have preferred all of the parts to be iron but they didn’t carry all of the pieces I needed in iron so I compromised and bought what was available. I also bought a pack of screws & wall anchors. Total cost: $17 (I rounded the prices to the nearest $)

The first step to installing the new paper towel holder was to patch the old holes in the drywall then paint the area. I used my favorite Dap spackle since it is lightweight and dries very fast! (I have it pictured on my Products I Love building page) Although the first picture makes the wall color look different – a nice dark green – it’s just the lighting, I did not paint the wall. The next step was locating a good spot for the new holder and then drilling new holes. As you can see, I had some difficulty with getting the anchors installed (again!!) – my first drill bit was too large so the anchors just got lost in the wall – ugh! More patching and painting was needed (I should be an expert by now) but I was finally successful in getting 4 of them to hold. A bit of a mess with the drilling but easy to clean up.

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To assemble the pieces of my new, fancy, steampunkish paper towel holder, all I had to do was screw them together. The first piece to be installed was the flange which was accomplished by using wall anchors and screws. Then, before attaching the 4″ pipe to the flange, I attached the elbow to the pipe and then attached those to the flange. The last step was to screw the cap to the 12″ pipe then attach those to the elbow. Quick and easy!

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Supplies

• Floor flange $5
• 4″ pipe $2
• 12″ pipe $4
• 90 degree elbow $2
• Cap $1
• Wall anchors & screws $3
• Screwdriver

Instructions

• Attach the flange to the wall using wall anchors and screws
• Screw the 4″ pipe to the elbow
• Attached 4″ pipe to the flange
• Screw the cap to the 12″ pipe
• Attach 12″ pipe to the elbow

If you like the Steampunk Industrial look or have bronze or black accents in your kitchen, this is an easy paper towel holder to build and install. If you prefer to have your paper towels under a cabinet, you can easily install this holder there too!

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