I was thinking about cast iron deer door knockers I saw at the thrift store the other week. I couldn't figure out how they'd actually be used as a "knocker" but was thinking they'd make a great towel hooks. Which lead me to find these from Anthropology.

I could maybe even attach them to a rustic looking board. I saw something once with hooks attached to a board with a strip of jute webbing.

The bath and bedroom aren't total hunt lodge but they do have a masculine feel to them.

In the past I thought hooks looked sloppy or lazy but I'm liking the idea now. I was also hoping to hear if anyone has any problems keeping their towel on the hook.

Here is a link that might be useful: deer hook.

If you're looking at the towels down the hallway, I'd stick with the bar. Or, if you could use the hooks and attach something as sheesharee says.

Remember, that when there are towls on them, the hooks aren't visible. All that cuteness is hidden by when rags hanging on the wall.

You can neatly fold a towl and the bar ends still show. Make the hooks into a bar, I say! :)

CEFreeman - You don't see the bathroom from the hallway.

If the hook hangs down you should still be able to see the top part. It wouldn't work on those knockers I was talking about though. I should probably scratch that idea but they were so neat I was trying to think of something to do with them, ha.

I actually found some larger deer head hooks online. The Anthropologie ones are a bit small.

Are we talking bath towels or hand towels. I've found that bath towels dry faster when they are hung on a bar as opposed to a hook.

I have bars but I don't think hooks would be a problem. Could you add a bar later if it did turn out to be a problem and have both?

I really like the idea of deer head hooks and I think they would look great in your bathroom.

I *just* went through that same quandary. Especially cause I need a hook because I can not function with out my bath robe!

So I bought Hooks from Restoration Hardware like these. They are quite hefty and almost scary in scale but I know they will function to hold our towels and my beloved robe :^)

Hooks also work better b/c my DH is in a wheelchair when he showers and can't wear his prosthetics. Putting a towel bar at a good height for him was just too much of a challenge in our Master Bath.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hook

i like hooks. They have a more casual look to them, are easier to use. In our master, we have a towel bar for my DH but I have dragon fly hooks.

Check out the 101 best hooks article on House Beautiful. They provide the website for each hook as well which of course have even more hooks. Needless to say there is a huge variety of hooks!

Here is a link that might be useful: 101 Hooks & Hangers by House Beautiful

I have to admit I HATE hooks. My MIL has them in both her bathrooms and the bath towels do NOT dry on them. Plus, I just don't like the look of towels hanging on hooks- it looks sloppy to me.

We have hooks for our towels. But then we don't hang wet towels on the hooks. After showers, they go into the dryer and are then re-hung later. I wouldn't want wet towels hanging on a hook or a bar.

Since the decor in the bath where the towels hang is Star Trek, I got some very modern oval hooks that have a part that shows above the towels, but in addition painted the Delta Shield on the wall behind each hook, so that shows as well.

I think I would be looking to mount the hooks right below the window if you have a wide apron on the trim, or adding a piece of wood painted to match so it looks like a part of the window trim and mounting the hooks on there, rather than on the wall.

We have hooks in one bathroom and bars in another. Hooks are easier and no fuss, so we put them in the kid's bathroom.

It is a very informal look, the towels hang lower, and I agree, don't dry as well.

The towels folded on bars look more formal I would say, but require that one take the time to actually fold them and arrange them on the towel. The bars actually show off the towel better too if that is important to you, if you have monogramming or a border on them.

It depends on the look you want. Hooks: casual, fun, easy. Bars: more formal, neater look.

We have hooks for our Lands' End bath sheets.

I switched to hooks after the towels were not drying on towel bars.

I also find them easier and no fuss.... I used white ceramic robe hooks.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.

This is for bath towels. I think I'm going to try hooks this time since our towels are never nice and neat on the hooks unless I fix them and nobody else sees them.

Les - I like that idea. Would you just use a straight piece of wood underneath or remove the piece that's there now underneath? (can't think of the right name..casing?)

{{!gwi}}

I use hooks in our bathroom. After a mini update to the room I wanted a new towel bar but when I removed the old one I ended up damaging the drywall. The old one was ceramic and glued to the wall. Ugh... Not wanting to repair/replace the drywall I bought a piece of wood to mount the hooks on. Here is the finished product. There are 3 hooks but only 2 show in this quick snapshot. Maybe this will give you ideas. And FWIW I love the hooks over a bar! I have not had any problem with towels not drying properly.

We have hooks in guest bathroom and I've found that they dry fine if only used once a day. But I shower in AM for work and again in PM after exercising. Towels are still wet. So I've been forced to add an AM and PM towel which just means more laundry. :-(

We have hooks, but not close together. Opposite sides of the room, in fact--and one hangs over the floor register (the one my husband uses) so as long as the furnace or AC is running, no problems with wet towels there. The one I use can leave the towel a little damp, but that's only because I take two showers a day (morning and evening). If it's too wet, I just throw it in the laundry and get a fresh towel. I can't stand dirty, gloppy towels anyway. I'd rather just have a clean one every time and don't necessarily mind the laundry.

A couple years ago, I updated our kids bathroom. Took down shower doors, added white decorative shelf/cabinet above toilet, and repainted walls to lavender. I took down towel bar and bought a tin piece from Hobby Lobby that had 4 hooks on it. The tin was stamped into the tin. Anyway, I painted it white and kept the hooks metal brown. It added texture to behind the towels while they hang. I noticed your heat vent is below the window. That will help dry the towels.

I would worry that the length of the towels placed on hooks would touch the floor since you are placing them under a window. I would measure them first. I prefer the bar in this case.

tannatonk, those are the same hooks we have, love them!

I always use hooks. I find that no one in my family bothers to run a towel through a towel rod, but it seems they can manage to throw a towel over a hook. Beats wet towels on the floor. And I have never had an issue with drying.

Tannatonk - Thanks for posting your pic. They're cute hooks!

"I would worry that the length of the towels placed on hooks would touch the floor since you are placing them under a window. I would measure them first. I prefer the bar in this case."
Kmcg mentioned something I thought would be ok until I actually held the towel up. The deer hooks would be out because the hook part would be down too far but the towels would be too close to the floor even with a regular hook. They'd be down over the base.

So, after all that... looks like I need to buy a longer towel bar.

Sharee, what about something like this? The shelf and open bottom would allow air from the vent to circulate, and still look like it belonged in your bath. It would be more interesting under the window, too.

metro towel rack

I use both in our main bath. Have a hook next to the sink for a hand towel and 2 bars for the bath towels. Works great!

In the half bath I just have a hook next to the sink for a hand towel. No room for a bar (very small room)

I think hooks would look nice in your room.

Les - I think that would be a neat idea but when I measured, the length is as wide as my current towel bar but the height is only 29.5 (the pics looked like it would be taller) and the towels would drag on the bottom rack.

Mary Lu - For the hand towel hook, do you hang it off the tip or do you drap it over the hook? I hope I'm explaining that right. I considered using a hook for a hand towel in my other bathroom but wondered if it would be constantly falling off.

I can see using a longer towel bar in ORB with monogrammed towels. I just thought of something else. Is the door too far away to hang the towels on the back of the door? You can install either over the door towel bars or separate bars screwed into the back of the door for towels. My sister lives in an apartment and uses an over the door towel bar for her towels. They dry fine. They come in many different styles.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}
something like a quilt rack style would work under the window also.
{{!gwi}}

Kmcg - The door's too far away. DH likes to grab a towel right off the rack from the shower. I also wanted towels near the window to help break up the red paint.

I'll keep looking for a rack. Walmart has one that's three inches taller but I still think it would look squatty.

I received a $10 off coupon from JCP in the mail recently and used it to buy towels. I thought I'd really like camel or gold towels but the ones I tried didn't look right to me and I ended up really liking the linen color. I have a some white monogram hand towels and I like the idea of monogram bath towels at some point.

I have an Ikea 4-bar towel bar installed in my walk-in master closet. It works great! The hampers are in there, too, so you take off your clothes, place them in the hamper, grab you towel, go shower, end up back in the closet to get dressed and hang the towel when you're there.

Also, I always hang my towel across two bars to hold it apart so it dries quickly.

The only towels we have hanging in our bathroom are decorative.

Here is a link that might be useful: Towel Bar

If you live in W.Europe you would have an electric towel rail warmer and have a neat place to hang towels, instant drying and cosy warm towels when you get out of the bath/shower. I am always surprised that they have not caught on here in N America

In our newly built house, master bath, I had no usable space for bars, so I used hooks, and now hubby's towel doesn't dry. I hate it. I wasn't raised to use a clean towel after each shower and hate the thought of constant towel washing, but hubby's towels have an odor even after washing at the 3-day mark. ICK! UGH!! Of course, he exits the shower sopping wet. Me, I use my washcloth to take most the water off before using the towel. Even with hair to dry, my towel is never that wet and always dries. I've tried teaching him to use a washcloth, but maybe that's not a guy-thing (or rather, he grew up without one).

Oh well....if I had a choice now, I'd choose bars.

Am I the only one in the world who uses bath towels only once? I only have have hand towels hanging from a ring.

This is just the way I was raised - my parents had a dry cleaning/laundry business. Everything went in a big canvas bag that was by the back kitchen door and returned washed, dried, and folded by 6 PM!

Sorry for wasting natural resources...

Tracey, put your husband's towel in the dryer after he uses it. I can't believe that so many people hang up wet towels. 10 minutes or so in a dryer after everyone has showered, and the towels are fresh and dried, and the bathmat isn't a soaked mess.

Pardon me, Shee...
WHERE did you girls get the dragonfly hooks? Perfect gift for my SIL. TIA!

When we redid our kids bathroom, I put up a towel bar for guest towels, but did hooks for the kids towels. They don't ever take time to hang them neatly so a towel bar would have been a constant mess of towels. The hooks are hung on the back of the door so the towels do not show from the hallway. We have the best of both!

Thanks for the suggestion, Les.....so now I'm wishing the w/d were closer to the MBR like in our last house.

"...hooks for the kids towels. They don't ever take time to hang them neatly so a towel bar would have been a constant mess of towels." I agree with Sandra!

sheesharee, I've never considered towel bars and hooks to be an 'either/or' thing. I have both in most bathrooms and use the hook for my robe, the towel bars for towels, and also have rings for hand towels. I think you could get a longer bar, not past the molding tho. Is there somewhere else you could put a bar? We have bars on the backs of doors in a couple of baths, as well as on the walls.

rucnmom, you are not the only one who only uses a bath towel once, but that is another 'loaded' topic best left alone. ;-D I've now reformed and in the interests of not wasting natural resources I dry with a hand towel and only use my bath towel to wrap myself in while I'm moisturizing, brushing teeth, choosing clothes, etc. so can use it for a week.

Sorry, Shee, I tried to find a link to email Loribee directly but there's not one on her page...

I found my hooks in the clearance bin at Home Depot or Lowes. They were about $4 each and are very nice!

Here is a photo of the hooks we use in our main bathroom. This setup has helped so much over the years -- especially with a pool and lots of towels. There are hooks on the back of the door for robes etc. too.

And we have a smaller wire version of hooks in our master bathroom.

We have both hooks and a towel bar in our bathroom. I use the towel bar and my husband uses the hooks.

My towel always dries much faster on the bar than my husband's does on a hook, unless he hangs his towel across all three hooks.

Even though it's not as cute as hooks, I do think you'll be happier with a bar.

"I can't believe that so many people hang up wet towels. 10 minutes or so in a dryer after everyone has showered, and the towels are fresh and dried, and the bathmat isn't a soaked mess."

Sounds nice, but in our case, it would be more work and I'm trying to reduce unnecessary resource consumption in our household. Our bathroom is two floors up from the dryer and I don't have that kind of time in the morning, to run towels down, remember to pick them up when they're done and run them back upstairs. We simply hang our towels, and they're dry by the time we get home from work. We don't need them done any faster than that, and I don't have 2 minutes to spare on running towels around when I'm trying to get out of the house by 6:30am. I'd rather sleep the two extra minutes. ;)

Rings.

Tannatonk....THANKS so much!
Jan...great pix!!