Recycled Pool Towel Rack - Patina & Paint

Happy Mother’s Day and Welcome to $10 on the 10th! Each month a few blogger friends and I get together on the 10th and share ideas for under $10. This month our theme is Upcycled or Recycled. Which is right up my alley!

I love it when I’m able to use bits and pieces of other left over projects to create something useful. Today I’m sharing my Recycled Pool Towel Rack.

We are in the process of putting in a pool here at the Castle. Which means that we’ve had to put in a new fence mandated by our HOA. The Hubs decided to build the fence himself, board by board. So we had quite a few 2 x 4 cedar wood scraps left over. They were perfect for what I had in mind. Which was to make a towel rack for the pool area!

Here was the plan. I knew I wanted to make a 40″ x 12″ rack, painted in blues and browns. Lots of distressing, but very colorful. But then I realize that it really wouldn’t match anything that I planned to do in the backyard. So, I went to plan 2.

The size was still going to be 40″ x 12″, however the colors changed. I pulled the spa tile sample and chose all of the blues in it to paint my towel rack.

Now, it made sense!

So here’s how we made it. The boards were a little thick for what I wanted. The Hubs was kind enough to to cut them in half for me.

After The Hubs gave each board a good sanding, they were ready for paint!

Using the tile samples, I chose 5 different paint colors.

I painted the 9 boards 4 different colors of blue, then painted the cross braces navy.

Once the boards were all painted, I gave each several coats of clear poly spray paint.

I know that it may be over kill, however since this towel rack was going to be outside it needed a protective top coat.

Next, we put the towel rack together using waterproof wood glue and a nail gun.

I found these hooks and bought a set of 5 for $6.81 which includes the shipping and tax.

I attached the hooks to every other board. Since we had 9 boards, this allowed me to put one on each end, as well as a few in the middle, leaving plenty of room for towels. Each hook has two arms, so the rack will hold a total of ten towels.

Perfect for when we have the family over to swim.

Once we were finished putting the towel rack together, the holes for the nails really bothered me. Not the look I was going for. At. All. So I filled them with a little wood filler. Repainted each board and gave it a couple of coats of a poly top coat.