Bathroom Shelving DIY

Here are some shelves I made for our bathroom...

It all started with some wood shelves I found in our basement...

Okay, actually it all started with a Southern Living Magazine that showed this nifty little shelf project.

But then it all started for ME, with the shelves I found in our basement.

I used:

3 shelves 21"x 8"

6 dowels 4" long

About 130" rope

1 strong hook

2 brackets

Minwax wood stain in Dark Walnut

Polyurethane (High Gloss) (Matte finish would probably be better, but I already had the gloss on hand)

Paint brushes

Power drill (with an attachment to drill large holes)

Chris drilled the holes for me.  We measured the diameter of the rope and that's how big we made the holes.

I stained them with the dark walnut stain I already had around.  I painted the stain on the shelves, waited about 5 minutes then wiped it off.

I made sure to get the stain down into the rope holes.

I let the stain dry, then coated them with Polyurethane.  I already had high-gloss poly and so I used that, but I think they would have been more rustic in a matte finish.  I let that dry for about 48 hours.

I measured in the bathroom where I was going to put the hook and about where I wanted the shelves to hit.  I took the rope through all three shelves, then tied a big knot at each end after passing through the third (bottom) shelf.   Chris drilled in the hook for me.  I don't really understand it, but Chris explained to me that the hook had to be really high or else the shelves would want to flip backwards.  Who knows...I just listen to the man when it comes to physics!

Once I had the shelves hanging by the rope, I placed each shelve to the desired height using the dowels.  

I considered what items I wanted to put on the shelves when deciding on the height for each shelf.

Chris then used a nail gun to shoot nails through each shelf diagonally into the wall to keep the shelves in place.  (They don't tell ya THAT in Southern Living)

Then I accessoried!

After a few hours with my makeup basket on the lower shelf, it really started to sag!  So I added two brackets, which I painted with my trusty hammered metal spray paint.  

Although the brackets hurt the illusion of the shelves a bit, I don't mind them too much because they're only on the bottom shelf and you don't really notice them from eye level.  

Voila!

Because I already had the stain, poly, and the wood for the shelves...the whole project cost me under $10.