Opening hole in wall

[Steve DiMasi]

I have wall-mounted towel hooks behind the door in my bathroom and the door will not lay flat against the wall because of them. It's a small bathroom and the door not laying flat makes it appear even smaller.

My thought is to open the wall to the sheetrock on the other side, then add a 1/2 wood panel to provide a mounting surface for the hooks. The result will be a 3" recess.

The problem is that there is a stud right where I want the recessed area. Can I remove that portion of the stud and replace it with a header of two 2x4s top and bottom like this? The floor joists under this wall run parallel, so I'm pretty sure it is not a bearing wall.

Is this the correct way to frame the opening?

Thanks

Frame.jpg

[Phil Thien]

You need jack studs on either side of your new opening. The jack studs carry the weight from the new header to the new saddle. Just search for "jack stud" in google images.

[Steve DiMasi]

Thanks Phil. That really helps. It also looks like I need to stack the header vertically rather than horizontally and I'll use 2x6s to be sure it's done right.