master bath :: hook it

Seemingly the last piece of organization that needs to happen in the completely unpacked rooms of the house, is the wall organization. Not having hooks and racks to hang things on has made the walls look bare and the floors cluttered.

This is really a shame when you have bath towels that need to dry out instead of being crumpled on the tile. Temporary hooks that we had in our possession hung on the existing screws in the wall. Unfortunately, they really clashed with the design scheme going on in the bathroom. For someone like me, it was an eyesore more than it was helpful.

Finding the right hook that would be sturdy enough for a wet towel, fitting the ambiance of the bathroom, and the right size for the wall space was a real challenge. With desperation one day, I purchased some clearance hooks from Hobby Lobby only to have Brett throw his wet and heavy towel on it. When I came home, I found a broken hook (literally the metal hook was in half) and an apologetic husband.

Finally, just before Christmas, I found a bunch of hardware at Anthropologie that fit the vintage style throughout our house. With Cyber Monday around the corner, I waited to see what kind of deals would arise. Free shipping saved me over $20, and we used some Christmas money to purchase them.

To my disappointment, none of the hooks came with hardware (which I knew after reading the reviews). This left Brett and I scouring Menards for the right looking screw that would hold things securely to the walls. A variety of screws were purchased, and of course none of them were the right color. How was I supposed to have them blend in like the pretty product pictures on the website?

A simple result to making them off white and antiqued looking - chalk paint! Is there anything that paint can't do? I am convinced it could be a solution for at least 90% of DIY projects.

Annie Sloan's 'Old White' was the perfect match for the hooks. I coated the heads of the screws with a thin coat of the paint, allowed it time to dry (15 minutes), and then added a thin coat of clear wax to seal it. From my experience with drilling, I knew the drill bit would add some stress to the screw, and take care of distressing.

The precision of hanging two hooks evenly spaced on a small wall really gets me jazzy. Also to my delight, Brett received a new tape measure that is 'self-centering'. At first I had no idea what that meant, until I pulled it open to see that it gave me the measurements for half of each length. For example, the wall space was 21.25". Under that measurement, it read 10 and 5/8".

In the existing space were two painted over screws in the wrong place, some scuffs and two other small nail holes that must have been previously covered. Thankfully, our former home-owner (it is actually two owners prior), has left us all the paint cans in the basement work room. Some have been labeled, some I have figured out what they match to, but I cannot express how helpful it has been to have the color code and small amounts to patch holes. If you are selling your home in the near future, do it for the future owner and add it as a perk. It will be much appreciated.

The two screws came out easily, and I took a paint scraper to level the surface of the wall where they had caused the plaster to protrude. After they excess paint chips were removed, I applied minute spackle to fill the holes. Fun tip: I have found that using a rubber spatula like you would scrap a baking bowl with, works great for filling holes with a smooth finish. That eliminates the amount of sanding you have to do. Once the 30 minutes passed and the spackle was dry, I buffed the spots with a fine grain sanding block.

To create a consistent paint texture, I first brushed on the existing color (after the wall is washed and dry) with a 2" paint brush. While the paint was still wet, I rolled a trim roller over the wet spots blending into the rest of the wall space to give it an even texture. After 2 hours in the dry winter heat of my house, the surface was ready to mark for hanging!

Out came the level, pencil and power drill (also Brett's). Measure twice, drill once is a lesson that was learned from watching my former boss 'guess-drill' random holes in the wall to hang clothing racks. While it was quite entertaining, it also left pencil marks and holes all over the place. Before I drew any markings on the wall, I wrote down my starting measurement on a piece of paper to draw the diagram. That would prevent me from marking up a freshly painted wall in the case the measurements were incorrect.

Since there are two holes on each hook, I made sure that both marks were level horizontally. Even while I was drilling, I had the small level balanced on the hook to make sure they stayed straight. When the screws were tight in place, the distressing to the chalk paint happened quite naturally and looked like they were sold with the fixtures.

These two hooks have chalk board over the hook portion; this was a perfect way to personalize them for our home. Taking a sharpie washable paint pen (chalk pen), I wrote both our names in lower case cursive. Wah-lah! We have a custom piece for our bathroom that is aesthetically pleasing and also helps us differentiate between his and her towels. Ladies, you know what I mean when I don't want to towel off in fabric that smells like man, not to mention has burs in it - thank you forester husband.


Now, on to hanging the rest of the hardware for the walls!