Towel Towers

If there’s one place in the house that collects everybody’s stuff, it’s the bathroom. Towels, clothes, cleaning supplies, even laundry. But some fancy design work using a couple of refrigerator wall cabinets and some cool carpentry create a niche spot that can provide a central location for all kinds of different items. Suitable even for small bathrooms, this towel tower also adds texture and color to the space. And another added benefit to this project is the seating provided by the countertop on the cabinet.

The beadboard backing for this project is made with painted 3/8"-thick tongue-and-groove pine, sometimes called carsiding. More advanced carpenters may prefer to make their own custom beadboard from hardwood and give it a custom wood finish.

The base for this project is an over-the-fridge-size wall cabinet (sometimes called a bridge cabinet). At 15" high, it is within the range of comfortable seating heights. But if you prefer a slightly higher seat (and many people do), build a 2×4 curb for the cabinet to rest on.

To conceal the seam where the towel tower meets the floor, we trimmed around the base with base shoe trim, mitering the corners. We used the same trim stock to conceal the gap where the seatboard meets the tongue-and-groove paneling. Here, however, we added small miter returns to the ends of the base shoe.