As for the ring, I have them in our powder rooms, and put them in our kids’ bath in the last house. I figured no one had to worry about folding it neatly on a bar, and they stay in place well. They dried just fine.

As for putting them over all those outlets and switches, nope. For one thing, inconvenient when you want to flip a switch or plug the blow dryer in.

Thanks, @bpath. Glad to hear the towel dries just fine on a ring. I do like the little real estate a ring takes. Inconvenient placement on the above for the reasons you mentioned. I also wondered about water drips when grabbing the towel.

That towel bar placement is just craziness.

Because I can’t be bothered to arrange a towel nicely on a bar or ring, I just have a hook for the hand towel to hang from. So many more options for interesting hooks, and the towels dry fine between uses.

Whether there's an outlet or not, I've moved the rings not right over the sink/vanity but forward of it, so it is to your side for hand drying. (I have one bathroom where there's no outlet there, but I didn't want water drops from hands to end up in that narrow space between sink and wall.)

The ring (or a hook) is fine and the placement makes sense -- it is the switches/outlets that are poorly placed in my book.

Agree - bad switch/outlet placement

Ugh, that would get so annoying (towel over switches/outlets).

We use rings for our hand towels and hooks for big bath towels.

Good luck with your project! Can’t wait to see. :)

The hand towel rings in my master bathroom are like this and the towels hang over the outlets. It irritates me. Just sloppy planning in my opinon. When I remodeled the bathrooms in my old house, I would measure the drop of the towels from the towel rings and position them high enough or forward or back on the wall to make sure the outlet and switches were never covered.

@lascatx, I didn't think of the placement of the outlets! Where would you have located them?

I don't have a lot of wall in my bathroom to hang the towel and was wondering if the side of the vanity would be viable. Anyone do that?

You could also do a vanity-top towel holder.

Yes, I thought of that as well, @bpath. Don't think I'll have enough space though. Probably going with a 30" vanity and the goal is to keep its top clear to facilitate daily sink cleaning. Right now, the counter clutter makes a simple sink swipe a pita. I was thinking of adding a shelf under the medicine cabinet to collect the "essential" daily clutter. (We're very much "out of sight, out of mind" people so putting everything away in cabinets is a pipe dream.) Yes, the shelf will be a pita to clean as well but it can be done weekly.

ETA: @Sueb20, what's the trick to choosing towel hooks that actually hold towels? Is there a desired angle range for hooks or should I be sewing loops into my towels to make sure they don't fall off? I see so many hooks that aren't hooks. We had a simple metal hook on the door and the towel often ended up on the floor. In any case, after so many years, the hollow core door was no match for it and the hook came off. Command hook now does the job but I'll be wanting a more aesthetic option when we remodel. And the hooks will be on the wall, not the door. I need to figure out their placement so I know where to add wall support. It's these little details that I want to get right because they affect the functionality of the space and therefore my enjoyment. I don't want to redo this space only to end up with the same "issues".

This is the similar shape to the hook we had.

This is from CB2. I don't know how well that would hold a towel in place??

The devil is in the details, they say. Maybe I'm possessed and not obsessed. :P

I, too, have towel rings that allow a standard size hand towel to hang over the outlets in every bathroom in the house. Annoys me beyond reason! I’m considering taking down the towel rings. Since last year, I’ve been using large-ish washcloths for single use hand-drying instead of towels. I keep them folded on a hand towel tray with a basket nearby for dropping them in after use.

Tartan, we have this one in our main bath.

In the other bath, which I’m too lazy to run down to, we have a very simple hook kind of like this:

No loops in the towels, they’re just draped (on the long side) over the hook.

We have hooks in the kitchen for a dish-drying towel. DH hangs the towel so that they all now have holes in the exact same place. Be sure you use hooks sigh a wide hook end.

Since last year, I’ve been using large-ish washcloths for single use hand-drying instead of towels. I keep them folded on a hand towel tray with a basket nearby for dropping them in after use.

I like this idea, @bbstx! Might steal it for another bathroom. Thanks for sharing.

@bpath: thanks for the tip about the hook ends. And you reminded me that I'm not overthinking this towel placement stuff. I'd overlooked it in our kitchen remodel years ago and never found a viable solution since.

Thanks for the hook pics, @Sueb20. You have an eye for these kinds of details so the charming hook in your bath is no surprise. :)

Thank you all for chiming in. You've all been very helpful!

Instead of a hook in the kitchen, I put a towel bar at the end of the lower cabinet nearest the sink.

When I remodeled one of my baths a few years ago, I had one of these installed for the hand towel. They are very high quality/sturdy and beautiful - comes in many different finishes. More of a peg than a hook and the towel stays on it easily. No holes poked in them. I'm redoing another bath and will put the same thing on the wall between the outlets switches. Electricians just don't seem to think about anything beyond their own installation. In the original post pic, I would have had those boxes stacked, far forward toward the front of the sink.

Ann at Home