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You are visiting: Home » Decorating/DIY » Create Your Decor » DIY Chalkboard Art Towel Rack and Bathroom Accessory Holder

DIY Chalkboard Art Towel Rack and Bathroom Accessory Holder

by Lindsay Ballard on June 17, 2013 62 Comments

DIY Faux Chalkboard Bathroom Storage and Towel Hooks via Makely School for Girls

A few months ago, the gals at Shanty 2 Chic – Whitney and Ashley – posted the plans for this adorable chalkboard mail and key holder on their site.  Ashley seemingly whipped it together with her eyes closed, because she and her sister are amazingly talented.  I immediately knew that I wanted to build their simple, beginner-level plan, but I needed to figure out where I wanted it to go in my home.

DIY Chalkboard and Key Hooks via Shanty2Chic

After giving it some thought, I decided that I could adapt it for use in my kids’ bathroom as a cute place to hang towels and store bathroom accessories – a glorified towel rack, if you will. But since it was going in the bathroom, I wanted to make a little change to the original Shanty 2 Chic plan. Instead of painting the back of the piece with chalkboard paint so that it could actually be used as a chalkboard, I designed an image in Photoshop Elements that looked like chalkboard art. That way, the chalkboard would always look fresh – and hide my lack of true chalkboard art abilities.

I dry fit the piece together, measured the opening for the chalkboard itself and sized my image to fit into that opening. Tom has access to a large format printer, so he printed the image for me for a few dollars.

DIY Faux Chalkboard Bathroom Storage and Towel Hooks via Makely School for Girls

I used spray adhesive (Super 77 is my favorite) to attach the image to the backing and then built the piece on top of it per the Shanty 2 Chic plan. It turned out so cute, and I was excited to stain it. I taped off the “chalkboard” portion and covered it in plastic, and then I stained the piece with some stain I had left over from the herringbone wood wall.

This was FAIL #1. I forgot was too lazy to pre-condition the wood, so the stain came out super blotchy. Ack! I thought to myself, “Well, Lindsay. You can rebuild it or figure out something else.” I voted for the “something else” plan. I grabbed some old white paint and slapped a couple of coats on the piece. I figured I could distress it after the paint was dry and it would still look pretty cool – plus the stained wood would show through and look more authentic than bare wood.

Once the paint was dry, I removed the plastic and tape from the “chalkboard.” Um, FAIL #2! The tape, which I tested before I put down, ended up tearing the paper.

DIY Faux Chalkboard Bathroom Storage and Towel Hooks via Makely School for Girls

AAAHHH! This is the point where I almost decided to throw the whole thing in the garbage can. I came up with a plan, but that just involved eating cookies. While I was eating the cookies, I developed a second plan.

I tore off as much of the paper as I could and used my hole saw to cut a hole in the backing piece.

DIY Faux Chalkboard Bathroom Storage and Towel Hooks via Makely School for Girls

Then, I cut another piece of hardboard that would fit into the “chalkboard” space and sent Tom back to print me another copy of my image. I used the spray adhesive again to attach the image to the new piece of wood, and then I sprayed it with an acrylic matte sealer so that it will (hopefully) withstand some of the moisture from being in the bathroom.

I finished the project with the hardware that Ashley suggested and hung in on the wall in my kids’ bathroom near the shower using D-ring hangers and Monkey Hooks (my favorite way to hang anything on drywall). It’s really steady and secure.

DIY Faux Chalkboard Bathroom Storage and Towel Hooks via Makely School for Girls

The cool thing about my final project is that it turned out better than the original that I was planning. Because I cut a hole in the back of the piece, I can use my finger to pop my “chalkboard” in and out of the frame. I can design other messages to go in the frame as little surprises to my kids – like Happy Birthday, Good luck at the soccer game, etc. – and I can easily attach them to a piece of hardboard and stick them in there. Sometimes, it’s good to have a few fails.

DIY Faux Chalkboard Bathroom Storage and Towel Hooks via Makely School for Girls

Don’t be afraid to keep tackling a failed project until you come up with a solution. Getting creative when you feel stuck often times yields even better results!

About Lindsay Ballard

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Duke and Jill). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.

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Comments

  1. Ashley says

    June 17, 2013 at 8:46 am

    Hey Lindsay! Love your towel hanger! What a great spin:)) Thank you for the shout-out!

    Reply
  2. Jamie says

    June 17, 2013 at 9:06 am

    Wow, that is so cute! I really like it.

    Reply
  3. WendiG says

    June 17, 2013 at 9:25 am

    I love this..and particularly that you post , not only your fails, but your solutions…there is nothing worse than a complicated tute that makes a person feel inadequate when they have a fail (happens often to me) and yet the person who wrote it insists on it’s ease and simplicity….but then, true creative types always try to find a way around a problem…it’s just refreshing to see someone admit it..
    Cheers!

    Reply
  4. Christine @ Let's Get Crafty! says

    June 17, 2013 at 9:29 am

    This is awesome! Love it so much! Any chance you’d offer the chalkboard image as a free printable?

    Christine

    Reply
  5. Kelli says

    June 17, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    This is wonderful! I have been following your project on IG and I love it! 🙂 (I also love the lotion with the bicycle on it! My eyes tend to wander all over the picture. 😉 ) Have a great day! ~k.

    Reply
  6. Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says

    June 17, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    I love how it turned out! It looks great!

    And I totally get the being so frustrated with a project you almost toss it and move on. Glad you didn’t this time!

    Reply
  7. Kristin says

    June 18, 2013 at 10:42 pm

    Your chalkboard/towel rack is absolutely adorable! It looks like it is straight out of a magazine. Thank you for sharing your wonderful ideas! Love it!

    Reply
  8. Julia @ cuckoo4design says

    June 19, 2013 at 6:41 am

    I saw the fail on Instagram and was wondering what you were making. Love how it turned out in the end. So fun!

    Reply
  9. Jenna says

    June 19, 2013 at 2:22 pm

    Love it! Very cool that you can now change out the board with different phrases. Thanks for sharing your DIY blunders and solutions 🙂

    Reply
  10. Miss Charming says

    June 20, 2013 at 10:48 am

    I love it in the white color. It turned out so cute, Lindsay!

    Reply
  11. Kathleen says

    August 27, 2013 at 12:12 pm

    Love this project. I love that you shared the fails and solutions. Sometimes these projects i see online look so easy until i actually dive in and find out that I’m not as crafty as I thought I was 🙂 Any interest in sharing your printable?

    Reply
  12. Sarah says

    September 16, 2013 at 1:23 pm

    I love this towel rack! And I am way over the top in love with your towels! 😉 Could you share where you got them?

    Reply
  13. jessica says

    September 18, 2013 at 11:44 am

    can you share the image file??? I love this. I am new to building and want to try this!

    Reply
  14. Inspire Me Heather says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:44 am

    Your towel rack & accessory holder looks great!! I’ve got this linked to my post on DIY towel racks too, for inspiration!

    Reply
  15. Pascal says

    November 28, 2013 at 1:47 pm

    This idea is so cute! It was fun to see the progress, and it really turned out great in the end. Thank you for sharing 🙂

    Reply
  16. deebo says

    January 3, 2014 at 7:29 pm

    Would love to know the fonts you used for the bathroom towel rack. Super Cute!!!

    Reply
  17. Helaine says

    January 25, 2014 at 10:49 am

    Hey there! I’m at work surfing around your blog from my new apple iphone!
    Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and lpok forward to all your posts!

    Keep up the fantastic work!

    Reply
  18. LISA MARS says

    May 2, 2014 at 9:31 am

    WHAT ARE THE DIMENSIONS?

    Reply
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    August 29, 2017 at 4:53 am

    I was just thinking, candles? That’ll get you a library ban!

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  22. Pablo Towns says

    April 8, 2018 at 1:26 am

    Your towel rack & accessory holder looks tremendous. I love this towel rack. Could you share where you got them? I really fix it on my bathroom.

    Reply
  23. Ronnie Stokes says

    June 27, 2018 at 12:11 pm

    This is the really beautiful post. Your bathroom accessories information is very helpful for the people. The towel rack is very essential accessories for a bathroom but another accessories very important for the bathroom as like shower panel, faucet, sink etc. Thank you for share such an informative post.

    Reply
  24. Thomas Delange says

    April 4, 2019 at 10:09 am

    This seems to be the best one that I am looking for setting my own bathroom. Thanks for your suggestion.

    Reply
  25. Kai Michel says

    June 17, 2020 at 1:58 am

    Dear, your post has one thing that caught my attention! Its information is more useful than many other articles on this topic.

    Reply
  26. Michelle says

    August 20, 2020 at 2:03 pm

    I’m glad you stuck with it because the end result looks great! 🙂

    Reply

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About Makely

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Duke and Jill). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.


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