Towel Bar from Frames, How to

If you follow my facebook you recently saw this towel bar project I posted on Sunday.

 I promised a how-to and here it is

Driving down the road one day, after my bathroom was painted, but not yet decorated, I contemplated what to use for towel display.  I could put up the old towel bars that I had removed before painting, but that is no fun.  What could I use that was a re-purpose, I wondered.  Everything I thought of was much too cottag-y or crafty.  How about wood from old frames I thought, and then it hit me.  Why not just use the whole frame!  But how to mount it so it had space behind for the towels?  The solution quickly came to me. Use other frames as spacers and make a frame collage towel bar.  

Note the most frequently asked question I get about this project is...
"what about wet towels and the wood".  The answer is I have a separate hook for wet towels, this is for dry towels, decorative and hand towels. It's also in a rarely used bathroom. If you were going to hang wet towels, regularly, I would suggest a non wood option.

Frames are one of my "must get" items whenever I see them at garage sales and they are cheap.  So I have quite a stash of them and have used them for many projects, some you can see here.  

I gathered several frames I had in various sizes. You'll need one large one and a couple of smaller ones and the various other sizes as you'd like.  You'll want the largest one to be long enough to accommodate your towels.
First I laid out the design on the floor. Then I traced the frames on craft paper and  cut out pieces to do a mock up on the wall.  I carefully arranged, leveled and measured so that when I recruited Hubby to do the drilling we would not have to revisit the placement.

A note about getting hubbs help.  I am perfectly capable of doing this myself. But I'm impatient and not detail oriented. I'd be drilling holes all over the place with no real plan of action. Getting frustrated and damaging my walls in the process.  Hubby is an engineer and always has great ideas about how to make my projects work better. So in an effort to limit the frustrations, I asked him for his help, which he is always glad to give.

Of course all my papers fell off the wall because I used a weak tape.  LOL  Anywhoo, It was pretty easy to slap them back up there so Hubby knew exactly what I was thinking.  First he figured out where he would be drilling to allow for maximum strength.  First up are the 2 spacer frames, which I painted a Yellow color.

Line it up for one last look, then drill through both the frame paper and wall. 

Remove the craft paper and insert a plastic anchor into the hole.

Replace frame and check for accuracy. Then decide where the other holes will go and drill into the frame.  Now an important part of drilling through the frame is to countersink the screws.  We did this by partially drilling with a larger bit down about 1/8", just enough for the screw to sink below the front of the frame. 

 Hubby's tip, Switch the drill to go backwards, so you don't chip up the front of the frame.  I told you he was cleaver!

After securing both spacer frames in their proper places, it was time for the larger frame which will hold the towels. Make sure your frame is strong on the side that will be the lower rung. You don't want it falling apart.

Use a level at each part of this process to make sure everything is strait.

Drill through both frames, again countersinking your screws, secure in 4 places.  
We were careful when hanging the yellow frames, to hide some of our screws underneath where the larger frame would overlap, so that  they are hidden. 
The paper mockups helped with this process.

When finished fill in the exposed holes with wall joint compound, or hole filler. You may need to go over them a few times, as it shrinks as it drys.

 Wipe smooth after each application with a wet cloth to blend into the curves of the frame.

 Once dry and contoured, paint over the holes to blend with frame colors. 

Hang your towels and you are finished.  I added smaller frames to give it more punch. I hung those in the usual way.  You could add lots of frames or just a minimal amount. It's all up to you.

There are also some special flush wall anchors you can purchase and use, but I thought this was easier and more secure.  

These frames are so strong they are not going anywhere.