Pool Towel Rack with Flip Flops DIY Tutorial!

Make this easy and cute DIY pool towel rack with flip flops and hooks. Grab a few pieces of wood, some paint, a jigsaw, and get to work!

Hi Friends!! With Summertime coming, it’s time to get the backyard ready for entertaining and swimming!

One of the things I have been wanting to make for a long time is a pool towel rack and I’m glad to say I finally got around to it. This flip flop towel rack project is pretty easy if you own a jigsaw or can borrow one.

I love how our pool towel holder now adds some personality and color to my patio!

So, this is what our fence looked like… just a plain pool towel rack, well not even an outside rack, just a board with some hooks. I needed it to be cuter!

Materials Needed for Pool Towel Rack

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wood – I got a 1x8x6 foot piece at Lowe’s for the base. I had spare plywood that I used to cut the flip flops out with
Paint – I use Patio paint since it’s an all in one paint for outdoors
Jig saw and scroll blade (the higher the DPI, the better. 18-20 is ideal!) – I love my Ryobi jigsaw
Hooks – I used these ones from Amazon
Orbital sander or sandpaper
Stain – I used Dark Walnut (on Amazon here) and weathered gray
Spar Urethane
Rope and flowers (optional)
Screws, glue gun, screwdriver

How to Make DIY Pool Towel Rack

For the base piece of wood, start by sanding it. I used 120 grit first and then 220 grit. Wipe off the dust and paint it whatever color you like!

For the flip flops, I used a pair of my daughter’s and simply traced around them on plywood so I had 8 pieces.

Plywood is not always the easiest to cut for me. You need to make sure it is clamped down and secure. If you have a scroll blade with a high DPI use that.

I just used scroll blade that I had on hand which was about a 10 or 12 and it did split the wood a bit. Because they are much smoother on the edges, I always end up using the side that is faced down while I cut.

Once they are cut out, sand away! Again I started with 120 grit and then finished with 220.

Then it’s time to stain or paint the flip flop towel hangers. You can use the patio paint and make them all sorts of fun colors if you want. Then you won’t have to add a sealant on top either!

I opted to stain them since I wanted the grain to show through.

I stained half of them weathered gray and half of them with dark walnut plus weathered gray on top ( I love this stain combination! You can check out my DIY Farmhouse table tutorial (click here!) where I show you the difference by adding the two together).

Brush the stain on, let it penetrate for a few minutes and then wipe it off with a cotton towel or shirt.

Once I wiped it, you can see the cool grain and gray undertones!

To seal the stain, I brushed on 3 layers of Spar Urethane 2 hours apart.

Assembling the Outdoor Rack

Once everything dried, I started assembling the pool towel hook. I cut about 7-8 inches of rope that I got at the Dollar Tree.

I hot glued the middle piece down and then hot glued the side pieces down. I made sure the sides wrapped around the back a little and hot glued them there as well so that they would be held together in between the base board and flip flop board once they were screwed together.

The hot glue does not stick very well to the sealant, but I knew I was going to put a screw through the one in front so I wasn’t needing it to be permanent.

Then I hot glued down all the flip flop boards where I wanted them. I just needed them held in place while I attached the board to the fence.

Then my hubby held it up to the fence and aligned it so it would go through the perpendicular fence board behind it and I put a long screw through the rope of each shoe. This way you can’t see the screws!

Don’t do it right where the hot glue is because it’s hard to screw through it. Just put a screw right beside it.

Then I hot glued a flower (from an old flower bunch I had) to the screw head. Then attach the double hooks with screws and you are done with pool towel hooks for a fence!