Box to Bathroom Shelf

 Hello Readers. I repainted/redecorated a bathroom at home and I wanted a shelf. This bathroom had absolutely no storage. A shelf would give us more space. I looked a shelves online and realized I could make a fun shelf from a wooden box I already had. 

 

You would not believe how long it took to repaint this bathroom. All in all, about 3 years. I am serious, we started repainting and redecorating this small bathroom about 3 years ago. Life got in the way and we just recently, finally got it done. 

This is what we had in our bathroom. We were tired of the 2 paint colors and the wallpaper border. It seemed like an easy redecorating job. It was a small room. We could do this in a weekend right? We started patching dings and nail holes in the walls. And then it was Covid times and it sat like that for another 2 1/2 years. 

 

My husband started painting it for me this past Mother's Day. (Thanks Honey!) I thought he was priming the wall here. There was some miscommunication. 

 

He thought I wanted it white. Like a stark glaring bright white. I did not actually want this color. We have kids and a dog, white would be hard to maintain. I actually wanted the tan paint we had on hand. 

 

A couple weeks later he painted it tan. (Thanks Honey!) This is a great color when you have kids and dogs and real messy life going on in your house. It is Brown Teepee by Behr. You can get it at Home Depot. It is the color of a brown paper bag. I love it. 

OK! We were finished painting and was ready to hang a shelf. 

Here is the wooden box I used. I have had this for ages and it has never matched any bathroom in my house. I liked the cream color but not the writing on the front. I decided to paint over it because the box will be hung on the wall and the writing will look odd at that angle. 

I used some acrylic craft paint in the shade "Antique White". It matched the color of the box and would cover the writing. 

This is what it looked like after 1 coat of paint. I let it dry over night and painted a second coat the next day. When second coat of paint was dry it was ready to hang on the wall.

I wanted the box hung in the center of the wall like this. We used the level to get the box balanced and drew a line on the wall along the top of the box. That line would be our guide for the next steps.

We measured to find the center of the wall. The box should be right in the middle. 

We put 2 holes in the wall. These holes are slightly closer together than the corners of the box. 

 

Here is a look at the anchors and screws we used to hang the box. The screws are about 1 1/2 inch long. The anchors help the screws stay in the drywall.
 

We put a plastic anchor in each hole. 

 

We put screws into the anchors but did not screw them in all way. The screws stick out about 1/4 inch out. The box will rest on the screw heads. You can see the line we drew, it helped us know where to put the screws and make sure we kept the new shelf level. 

We used a Dremel to make a couple grooves in the back of the box. The grooves would keep the box from sliding off the screws. 

 

 We made the 2 grooves on the back of the box. The grooves are in the frame of the box along the top edge. 

 

Here is a look a the back of the box with the 2 grooves.
 

The box is hanging or resting on the screws and the screws fit in the grooves. That will keep the box from shifting around. 

The handle of the box naturally hangs below the box and it is perfect for holding a towel. 

The shelf is high enough that little kids can't reach the items easily but adults can. 

This is the end of our bathroom saga, thanks for reading along. I hope if you repaint your bathroom it doesn't take you as long as it took us. 

***Year End Update***- This shelf is still on the wall and it still looks great.

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the Door Storage From a Pallet

 Hello Readers. We all seem to need more organization and storage options. I made some extra storage behind the door using a small wooden pallet. It is now a handy and adjustable hanging rack. Let me show you. 

This was easy to make and the hooks can be changed as needed. 

 

Thee space behind the door is perfect for hanging items. Let's utilize it.
 

I got this little pallet from a neighbor. It looks like a small shipping pallet. (Similar here.) I cleaned it off because I wanted to paint it. 

I used some flat white spray paint that I had on hand. It was a spray on enamel that said it was good for wood projects. 

I worked outside for plenty of fresh air. I made sure I was not near any cars, children, pets, homes or anything else so the over spray would not bother anyone. I let this dry over night. 

We hung this behind the door like this. But we couldn't hang the pallet directly to the wall. We came up with a solution. I am showing you the after picture because it will make the process easier to understand. 

 

To begin, we found the stud in the wall. We want the weight of this to be hung on the stud and not the drywall, for strength.We needed to find the stud in the wall

 

We got longest screws we could find (About 3-4 inches.) and used a drill bit that was slightly smaller that the screws for this project. 

 

We used a piece of wood to hold the pallet. This piece of wood was about 10 inches long, not as wide as the pallet itself. We made sure it was level and drilled 2 holes into the piece, one hole above the other.

We drilled 2 screws through the piece of wood and into the stud in the wall. We made sure to keep it level.

 

The piece of wood was cut so that it had a place to hang the pallet.

 

We used a router to make that cut in the wood. That little cut-out will keep the pallet in place securely. 

 

You can see the cross beam of the pallet fits down into the groove we cut in the wood. This could be painted to match the wall or the pallet but it will kind of disappear behind the pallet when we are done. 

I used some simple S-hooks because I want to be able to change the location of the hooks whenever I want. 

This is great storage in a kids room or a mud room. It's perfect for hats, jackets, sunglasses or keys. And you can change the hook placement in just seconds when you need to hang something else. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun and organized for yourself.

***Year End Update***- This shelf is still on the wall and it holds so much stuff. It's almost like a small closet.

 

 

 

 

 

Baby Clothes Display Shelf

Hello Readers. I saw that my neighbors were getting rid of this shelf, so I took it. That's right, I took it. As soon as I saw it I knew what it should be.

As you can see. it was a little beat up and it appeared that it had been chewed on a little by their dog. That's OK, I can work with this.

I sanded the rough damaged areas with some sand paper. I didn't try to make it perfectly smooth, I just wanted to get the worst of the chips off.

I dusted it off and started painting with this white paint. The shelf isn't the important part of the end project, it is just going to be used to hang some special things.

It took a few coats to really cover the original brown wood. I painted really heavily on the scratches to help fill them in.

When I finished it was a nice clean fresh white. The flat paint makes the rough spots less prominent. Glossy would have made them stand out more. And it will be hung on a white wall which will also help it blend in.

It made a great display shelf for some of my little guys cutest outgrown clothes. These are all special for different reasons, so it is sweet for me to see them.  

It looks nice above his dresser. While I was hanging the clothes he was emptying the container of baby wipes. It's his new favorite activity.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.