DIY Apartment Towel Rack

When moving into a tiny apartment my first thought was storage. How am I going to utilize the space I have and possibly create even more? Personally, I have a ton of skin care, hair care, and beauty products and I knew the standard under-the-sink storage was not going to be enough. So, to fix this problem I decided to construct a DIY shelf which would also double as a hand towel rack. Being a college student with little money and not a ton of DIY space, I went on the hunt for supplies. In my head, I knew the look I was going for would be rustic but modern. I wanted to avoid having to buy a saw/finding someone to cut wood for me so the first place I went was Michaels Craft Store. At Michaels there is a huge wooden supply section that consists of boxes, crates, and other craft materials. Not quite sure what I wanted, I stumbled upon a 1/8th pallet linked here.  Considering it was relatively cheap and I could return it if I decided not to use it, I picked it up. My next stop was Lowes for the more difficult supplies. From Lowes, I picked up a couple different grit sandpapers (one high and one low) because the 1/8th pallet I got from Michaels was pretty rough and I knew if I was going to stain it, it would need a good sanding. So now I needed to figure out how I was going to get the look I wanted with stain. I knew I wanted it to have an aged look so I began to look for stains and materials that could achieve this. I decided on Minwax Classic Grey stain linked here and I found the BEST product  to make the aging process super easy. Valspar Antiquing Glaze. This is an AMAZING product and I have since used it on many different DIY's.

After finding my stains, I walked over to the piping section to look for something I could use as a towel rack and get the rustic feel that I wanted. Here is where you can get creative with the color of the pipe/shape you want to do. Personally, I bought dark 1/2 inch, 18 inch long galvanized pipe. You're also going to need two 1/2 inch elbows and two 1/2 inch floor flange fittings to attach the piping to the pallet. The last supplies you need are any sort of old rags/staining rags to apply your stain and antiquing glaze, gloves, brackets to attach to the back of the pallet which you can find at Walmart, and screws to attach the piping to the pallet.

Assembly of the towel rack is pretty easy! First, I wanted to give the pallet a little bit of texture to add to the antique look, so I took a hammer and hit around the edges to make it look a little rougher. I then gave the pallet a good sanding before staining it so I wouldn't have an uneven looking stain, and this makes the overall process of staining much easier. After sanding, follow the directions on the back of the Minwax stain and make sure not to shorten drying time or else the stain will begin to look 'chunky'! After staining I gave the pallet a good 48 hours before starting the antiquing process. Using the Valspar glaze gave me a ton of artistic control in how I wanted the pallet to look. You can use a lot of the glaze for a darker look or go light handed for a more natural wood look. Shown in the picture below is a good representation of the stain and antiquing glaze, and how you can vary the color.

Basically, after the staining process, the hard part is done! Now time to assemble the piping and screw it into the pallet. I connected the piping (the straight piece with elbows at either end, and the elbows attached to the flange fittings) but before attaching it to the underside of the pallet I wiped all the piping down with a paper towel to remove the grease that was applied before buying it at Lowes. I then screwed though the holes of the flange fittings to attach the piping to the pallet. 

 TADA! You now have a towel rack. The last thing you have to do is remove your pre-installed towel rack (which you can attach back before your lease ends), attach your brackets to the back of the pallet and mount it to your wall. I love the look of this shelf and that it is multipurpose! I have found that having multipurpose items in a small apartment is really the best way to utilize your space.  I have done many DIY's using the same items I purchased to make this towel rack and cannot wait to share them with you!