Saturday, August 30, 2014

Floating Bathroom Shelves

The area above our toilet needed some storage space. There used to be two white shelves there long ago, but we thought we might sell our house, so they came down. Thus, the wall has been bare for about a year. We missed the storage space and decorative possibilities, so decided to add some permanent floating shelves. We chose a simple style, inspired by this post, that would be unobtrusive and consistent with our towel racks. Hopefully, future buyers would appreciate having this extra storage as well.  

I made a trip to Lowes to pick out a 2"x8" interior board, and a nice man at Lowes cut it down into three 18" pieces for me. Why 18"? Wall studs are typically spaced 16", and are 2" (actually 1.5") thick, and our toilet was fortuitously placed exactly between the two studs. To center the shelves over the toilet and anchor into studs, I would need 16" of shelf, plus a little space from the screw holes to the edge. Once I got home, all I needed to do was sand and stain them (leftover Weathered Gray stain by Rust-Oleum from our bathroom hook project.) 


I skipped all the sanding and staining pics, here are the shelves ready to hang.


A kind neighbor let us borrow his Kreg Jig to drill angled holes into the top of each shelf. We hadn't heard of this tool before, but it's incredibly useful. The combination of the guide apparatus and special drill bit gives precise angled "pocket holes" to sink my 3" screws through the boards, and into the stud.


Joe found the wall studs and drilled the screws into the pocket holes from the top.  The level was used to ensure the shelves were straight. The longest official Kreg Jig screw available at Lowes was 2" (they were out of stock of 2.5"), and we wanted extra strength and length into the stud, so Joe used 3" deck screws. He had to be extra-careful not to strip the screw head, but in the end worked out well.


Here's the finished result!


Needed a shot from the doorway to show the whole bathroom.  We were happy with how the gray shelves turned out to coordinate with the gray mirror frame and wall hook backing.


I found the cute orchid at the grocery store today and a pretty candle for the top shelf.  The bathroom is feeling a whole lot more spa like than before.


It's so nice having stuff off of the toilet lid as well. I used a pretty clear vase for cotton balls and cotton swabs and added a picture of the kids.



Now I need ideas for what to hang above the towels. Pictures of the kids? A big piece of art.  I'll have to keep my eye out for inspiration.

Have a great weekend ya'll. I need to start planning a 4-year-old Hello Kitty Birthday party!

xo
Cathleen

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