Step Aside, Boring Racks — Turn An Old Chair Into A More Rustic Way To Hang Towels

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Do you need more towel storage in your bathroom, but all the towel racks that you've seen are either too boring or not within your budget? Thankfully, there's simply no need for a boring towel rack if you follow what YouTuber Neon Barracuda has done and use an old ladder-back chair that you may already own. While there are plenty of crafty ways to repurpose a chair, in the video, the DIYer paints the back of the chair, which she has removed, in black, and then adds some crackle medium in white to give it that aged look. Then, she just attaches the upcycled rack to her bathroom wall and hangs towels on the rungs.

If you'd like to give this DIY a try, you're going to need to find an old wooden chair with a ladder back. If you don't have one at home, you can always take a trip to your local thrift store where you're sure to find a selection. You'll also need some black paint, like this Country Chic chalk paint for furniture, and a jar of Country Chic crackle medium, or swap it with whatever brand or color you prefer to use. 

On top of that, you'll need a couple of paintbrushes to apply the paint and medium, and a decorative hook to hang the finished towel rack on. Something like these Rustic Decorative Wall Hooks would work quite well as long as the hook section can accommodate the rungs of the rack. You might even want to see if you can score a nice hook at the thrift store while you're picking up the chair. At least that way, you can ensure that they're going to fit together.

The first thing you'll want to do is remove the back from the rest of the chair. You want the entire piece, including the backrest and the legs. You're going to invert this when you hang it on the wall so that the legs are actually pointing upward. When you do this, you'll find that both the legs and the backrest will be a little way away from the wall, just enough for you to hang your towels over the rungs.

Once you have your chair piece, make sure you give it a good clean and then use some sandpaper to prepare the surface so that the paint will stick. If you're using a premium chalk paint, you probably won't need to use a primer. Next, it's time to apply the black paint to the chair back. You don't have to use black, as you could use any color you want, even if you're going to finish with the crackle medium. Just remember that whatever color you use will show through the crackle.  

When you've allowed enough time for the initial paint to dry, you can use a paintbrush to cover the entire piece with the crackle medium. As it dries, you'll see the cracks start to appear like magic. Now, all that's left to do is allow enough drying time and then hang the rack on the wall in your bathroom on the hook you purchased. This is just one of those creative ways to reuse an old chair, but there are plenty of other ideas you might like to explore.