I'm sort of doing both too. But our bath redo is at a stand still, so I just put these up temporarily. Please ignore the walls, which will come down when the project is restarted. First, the train rack which stores and provides a towel bar as well. It will have the blocking to support it placed behind the new walls. The towel ring as shown was the one we used before, the old one, and I might find a place to put it but who knows. And here is my favorite hook of all time, which I purchased from Lee Valley Tools. It can go behind a door and it folds up. It is also a very nautical design, since boats are always short on space. It makes a good mudroom rack where you can hang a hat on top, and then spread out the other hooks for your gloves and jackets. And then this one, on clearance at Pottery Barn and sold as a bathroom magazine rack, but it is a fantastic towel bar/rack too. Not bad on the price either, if it is still available. I'm using it now beside my sink in the bath undergoing redo.

Wonderful! Thanks Bill. I was hoping you were around today. We have two walls on the outside of the shower that are completely tiled and I was starting to get worried there would be no place to hang the towels. :-) I'll do some measuring, but drilling through the grout joints shouldn't be a problem since it is a 24" towel bar and the subways are 3"x6". Thanks again for your help! Jaymie

Locate the studs in the area where you wish to install the towel bar. Place two 3-inch pieces of masking tape, in an X design, over the areas where you will drill the holes. Mark the tape with a pencil where each hole will be drilled. Quickly drill into the tile using a carbide bit. Drilling too slowly will result in a hole that is too large. Push a plastic screw anchor into each hole. Most tile will be too smooth after drilling to securely hold the screws tightly, so a plastic screw anchor will be able to fill the hole and give the screw some grip. Position the ends of the rail over the screws to attach the towel bar to the wall. Some rails with more modern styles will screw the decorative plates directly to the wall. Attach one of the plates first. Attach the second plate loosely and push the rail into the tightened plate first, then the loose plate. Tighten down the loose plate to hold the entire rail into place. Here is a link that might be useful: Tips and trick to install

The hand towels in my guest bathroom / powder room get very wet. I think my teen son uses them to wash his face. I plan to remodel my son's bathroom next year. The first picture below is of my remodeled guest bathroom. In this room, the toilet is next to the vanity, so side of vanity was obvious place to hang TP holder, not a towel. Contractor was reluctant to hang the towel bar on the wall because the towels cover the electrical outlet. In my master bathroom, I have no towel bars, so hand towels sit on the counter. The layout in my son's room is more like the "By the Bay" Houzz photo above, there will be space for a towel bar on either the right-side side of the vanity or on the wall to the left (as in the "Art House" Houzz photo). But ... I'm thinking about keeping a medicine cabinet on the wall, so would be crowded to add a towel bar here, as in second photo below, taken at an open house in my area.