Kitchen Towel Holder

I needed a kitchen towel holder, but - as I am a little short of worktop space - I wanted one that could hang on the wall.   As I had already made a couple of other bits for the kitchen from oak, I decided to keep to that theme.

I got a length of oak dowel and a scrap of board, which I cut to a bit longer than the paper towel. I then ripped the board down on the table saw to the width I wanted. 

To attach the dowel to the board, I decided to use leather straps. Using my leather strap cutter, I cut a couple of 1 inch wide straps, but you could just purchase some leather already cut into strips. 

I wanted to attach these straps to the back of the board, and have them recessed into it. I setup my crosscut sled on the table saw, then raised the blade up to the height of the strap folded over. I could then nibble away a 1 inch slot at either end of the board. 

The slots needed a bit of a clean up with a chisel, then I used the router to round over the edges on the front of the board. 

On either end of the board I instilled some brass screw inserts, that I could use to fix it to the wall. With those fitted, it was time to apply some finish. I went for hard wax oil to match the knife rack I made in the previous post. 

When the finish dried, I was able to install the leather straps. I folded them over and positioned then into the slots, and used a knife to trim off any excess. To hold them in place, I drove some screws through the leather and into the oak. 

That’s it, all done! Please watch the video below for more information on how I made this, along with a matching magnetic knife rack.