How to Place Bathroom Hardware

Posted on: October 28th, 2011 | 4 Comments



A towel bar or toilet roll holder placed in the wrong location can significantly reduce the functionality of a bathroom as well as drive a home owner crazy. Placements for towel bars, toilet roll holders and robe hooks need to be considered during the concept design stage of a bathroom project and should not be installed as after thoughts.


Towel bars should be mounted 42 inches above the floor and should be sized to maximize the available space. They should not be installed behind door swings. A “hotel style” towel bar with a rack for storage can be installed above the toilet – it just needs to be mounted a little higher at 48 inches above the floor so the towels do not hit the toilet tank.


Robe hooks should be mounted at 70 inches above the floor and if there are two, they should be spaced at least 9 inches apart. Robe hooks are also great for towel storage if a towel bar is not possible due to space limitations.


Finally, toilet roll holders should be placed away from view, preferably on the inside edge of the vanity or on the back side of a drywall return. They should be mounted 8 inches below the height of the vanity top parallel to the edge of the toilet bowl to make sure they are easily accessible.


Today’s Slides:

  • http://profiles.google.com/srdan.nad Srdan Nagy

    :) great design minute! funny one…. …. still, you forgot bathroom magazine rack! :)

  • Mid Americamom

    LOL.
    Been awhile since I have been on gentlemen… like the new look.

    I feel this pain!

    We have been suffering! from an existing toilet paper roll holder location in the upstairs bath (not our fault- we inherited this from the previous owner).  The slide you have with the holder mounted behind the toilet near the floor… well picture that moved up to 3 feet off the floor, basically in the bath tile space, and the shower curtain hitting it constantly.  Our small bath (7 by 5 with an angled bathroom door) has fixtures on one wall with the toilet in the middle.  We cannot mount it across from the toilet … I just picture it getting knocked off the wall.  The side it shares with our vanity well….. the sink is a pedestal.  I was thinking of buying a toilet tissue stand  (like this one- http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_08314694000P?sid=IDx20101019x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM1226692001 ) and placing it between the sink and toilet.  Is this wise?

    Mid America Mom

  • Matthew North

    Funny that I was just saying to John recently that I wonder when we will hear from Mid America Mom again…..and then out of the blue you pop up! It is nice to hear from you and I hope all is well. A free standing toilet paper stand is really a good choice if you have no vanity to mount a toilet roll holder on. I have also see ones that are smaller and have a smaller base than the one you found……I’m scratching my head to remember where I have seen those. I’ll let you know if I remember. Thanks for the feedback on the “look” of the website. We are looking forward to having the “Join the Studio” part of the site activated. Our live workshops have been a huge hit and we want to go back to doing design projects on line again in a slightly different format – also we want to revive our “live” broadcasts (remember those from a while back?)  I hope that you are one of the first “joiners”!

  • Adrienne Lamanna

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41307c4c6d5a92419fb88edf49e45c4235fb0e8e4ee4c62f8750bb7bd10ef186.jpg

    It kills me what some people do with towel bars and towel rings. These owners of this 4 plex have no idea what they were doing in 1974. What surprises me even more that it has stayed that way for 40 some years without someone having to remove the secondary towel ring. If I was a renter over the years I would NEED to remove one of them. LOL