Closets and Home Organization - where to find low-profile towel bar?

Can anyone help with where to find low profile towel bars? I know I've seen them in older houses, but can't find any in Lowes, Home Depot, or the online searches I've tried.

Our house doesn't seem to have any reasonable place to hang towels after a shower and I am getting tired of just throwing them over the shower curtain bar. The only thing I can think of is to mount towel bars on the wall behind the door of each bedroom. I don't want to hang anything on the doors them selves. The only problem is, they need to be low-profile enough to not interfere with the door opening all the way. Door stops seem to be a standard length: where can I find a towel bar that sticks out less than the length of a doorstop?

Trouble with hanging wet towels behind a door that is open is that if the towel if very wet, there is not enough air circulation for the towel to properly dry out before the next use. One option is to throw damp towels in the dryer.

Over-the-door towel hooks or coat hooks take up only about 3" depth behind a door.

http://www.organize-it-online.com/images/otdhookr.jpg
Photo Credit: Organize-it-Online

Over-the-door towel hooks or coat hooks take up only about 3" depth behind a door.

Unfortunately that is all I have found, but I really dislike things that hang over the door. The added weight affects how it swings and the ones hooked over the door tend to bang, clang, and damage the jamb. Most of them, like the one in your picture, are just hooks, so the towel is not spread out, and does stick out, reducing drying time even more and making it more likely to interfere with door opening. Doors do not seem to be easily patcheable, so once you make a hole it will always be there. When you have kids, any hook on a door will eventually get something heavy hung on it.

A simple, cheap, low profile towel bar is a better alternative and does not seem like too much to ask.

Towel bars behind doors are more durable on a solid wood door. If hollow door, then it's likely that the towel bars eventually will work loose. There are two coat hooks behind the hollow core door in the bathroom of my rental. Over the years, it looks like they have worked themselves loose and the screw hole has enlarged. I just haven't gotten around to addressing that issue or others in the bathroom.

A shopping expedition in search of towel bars is in order. Take along a tape measure to assure that the hangers on the bars do not exceed about 3". An internet search for towel bars revealed that most options report length but fail to report how far they project from wall.

I once lived in a house that had a solid bathroom door and three of those simple chrome towel bars spaced at different heights up and down the back of the door. It was great for placing fresh towels and wash cloths for a family in a small bathroom where there was only a ring for a hand towel.

Yes, that's what I'm looking for. I do have solid wood doors, but want to attach two levels of towel bars to the wall behind the doors. The only problem is, they need to be low-profile enough to not interfere with the door opening all the way and I have not found anything like that at either home center I went to or online. The closest I found was something for hand towels to fit inside kitchen cabinet doors, but I'm looking for something to hold bath towels.

This may not be the best solution I'm looking for, but it has to be better than throwing towels on hooks, or over doorknobs.

I used a tape measure on the displays and tried asking the salesclerks at both places. Online a searched for "low profile towel bars" and "towel bar behind door", plus paged through lists of standard ones looking for measurements, with no luck. Any other ideas where to look?

Do you have another alternative? How about a 2nd rack on the wall? That is what we did---one up high for my tall husband and one lower, or regular height I suppose, for me.

Would something like this work?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KC6L4C?smid=AVQWFME6BBGA0&tag=nextag-tools-tier4-20&linkCode=asn

They also have a wall mount option. The name of the company is Hinge-It and their website is www.hingeit.com