How to create extra bathroom storage

Before you get cracking, grab a tape measure and measure up where you'd like your storage rack to go. Mark the position with a pencil. Don't forget to take into account the width of your baskets – you want to make sure you have enough room for everything to hang.

Once you've decided where you want your rod to go, grab your brackets and mark up their holes with a pencil.

Use your drill to drill the holes for your bracket screws to go. Make sure you drill ALL the way through your plaster.

You'll probably need to customise your curtain rod to fit your space. Mark up where you want to cut it down to – in our case, 95cm – then use a hand saw to cut to the desired length. Don't forget to wear safety glasses for this bit. When sawing, use long strokes with your elbow tucked in. Angle your saw about 45 degrees from the wood and avoid pressing down – let the saw do the work for you. And remember – it's better to saw a bit less off than a bit more as you can easily sand excess down to size but you can't add anything back on! After you're done, sand away the rough edges with some 220-grit sandpaper.

If there's no room to slide your brackets onto your rod once it's on the wall, thread them on BEFORE you place it on the wall. Don't forget to include your end caps (those rod ends are sharp!).

You may want to get a friend to help with this bit. Once you've placed your rod in the marked position, grab your drill and screw in. If you're not drilling into a stud, you can use a wall mate or a nifty spring toggle (these are great if you're working with plaster board, like we were). Thread the curtain rail bracket onto the screws, followed by the washers – this step is very important because once the toggle has popped open on the other side of your wall, it's hard to get it back out again! Once this is done, thread the toggle over the top of the screw and fold the wings down – they'll spring out once they're in, giving you a nice, secure grip in the wall. You want the holes to be large enough for the folded toggles to be able to pass through, so choose a drill bit of the same diameter as the toggle.

Once your rod is up you're ready to hang your baskets. We used brushed steel ‘S hooks' in the same finish as our rod, but anything will do the job. And you can use any kind of basket – we chose a wire version, but cane or rattan also look great. You can also add a few extra hooks to hang your towels.

How easy was that? In just a few easy steps we've created heaps more storage for our bathroom and provided an interesting and stylish decorative touch to an otherwise bland space.