I replaced the plastic towel holder in the bathroom with one made from wood + a metal bar.
Same approach works for any towel bar — washroom, kitchen, etc.
For this build, the back plate is cypress (hinoki) glue-laminated panel, and the bar itself is an off-the-shelf metal bar.
Before & After
Left photo: before. Our bathroom is mostly white, and I wanted a small accent piece to break up the visual monotony — so I picked the towel bar. Right photo: after.
[Update: I did the washroom too — see below ↓]
The Build
Materials
Wood
Cypress (hinoki) glue-laminated panel from the home improvement store.
Size: 200 mm × 600 mm × 15 mm thick.
(About 1,500 yen.)
Bar
The towel bar itself: matte-black metal bar from Amazon (1,400 yen / ~$9). 40 cm wide including end-mounts.
Cutting the back plate
Mark the cut lines, sized to the bar (a bit bigger than the bar’s footprint).
Cut along the marked lines with a jigsaw.
Sand the cut edges and the surface.
I went #120 → #240 → #400 → #800.
※ You don’t need to go that fine — typically #240 is enough.
Wax + Assembly
I wanted to keep the natural wood color/feel, so no stain — just beeswax wax.
Then bolt the metal bar to the wood with the screws that came with the bar.
Finding Studs and Removing the Old Holder
Locate studs
For solid attachment, screw into a wall stud. Most of the wall is drywall (gypsum board), which won’t hold a load-bearing screw.
(If you absolutely have to mount in drywall, use drywall anchors.)
I used a stud finder.
Mark the stud range (where I can land a screw) with masking tape.
Remove the old holder
Loosen the screw at the bottom (left photo) and the towel-holding piece pops off.
That exposes the mounting plate (center photo). Unscrew the 2 screws holding the plate.
Mounting the New One
Mount the new towel bar.
I used 35 mm “split-resistant” wood screws.
The studs were within the dashed area in the photo, so that’s where I drove the screws.
Only the center area is over a stud, so I just used 2 screws there. Towel bars don’t take much load — fine.
Done!
The natural-wood look is exactly what I was going for. Inspired me to do the washroom too — see below.
Did the Washroom Too
Liked the bathroom result enough that I did the washroom the same way.
Wood: leftover from the bathroom build. Metal bar: same model from Amazon, ordered another one.
Same process as the bathroom, except this time I added a roundover on the back-plate edges with the trimmer.
Then sanded and waxed, same as the bathroom.
■ Washroom before & after:
For the washroom I made the wood a little narrower so the look is sleeker.
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