Tiny Shelves

I don't think I am the first person to ever say this, but I have the dreaded Storage Blues. We have a pretty large bathroom, but there is no where to put anything new. There is a towel rack, a shelving unit next to the sink and a bunch of shelves behind the door. That's it. I suppose I could keep all my makeup and things on the shelf behind the door, but I hated having to turn around every 2 minutes to get something. Annoying, much? Yes. 

So yesterday while I was working I decided to put some very small shelves up. Then I remembered these tiny plant pots that have been laying around the house for years and years. They're too small to put an actual plant in so they were always just hanging out. One of them was a catch-all in the bathroom for earrings, tweezers, nail files, etc. I took that and ran with it. I found a board in the garage that looked like it had seen better days. I got Mr. Sandpaperandnailpolish to cut it into 4.5" squares.  I grabbed some brackets at the hardware store. It was something silly like $1.78 for two brackets and all the screws, so I grabbed three packages. So this project officially cost $5.34. Everything else was either found in the house or in the garage. 

Here is a quick picture of everything before it was painted and finished:

I sanded down the wood quite a bit. I think it was just some scrap left over from the porch that was just outside for what looked like a very long time, so it took some elbow grease to get it looking fresh. For this I had to don what Tim refers to as my "Gay Robber Look". (The elastics on all of my face masks broke so this is all I have!)

 Once I got the edges all smooth and the wood was looking good, I painted them the same color as the medicine cabinet. I went lighter on the ends so the wood grain would show through (you'll be able to see that later. I think it looks pretty cool). Please, please, please don't make the same mistake I did and leave things to dry on newspaper. What a nightmare! The newspaper was all stuck to the paint when I woke up this morning and it took about 20 minutes to pick and peel all the newspaper off. I felt like a big idiot. But they came out nicely. After I finished picking off all the newspaper (ugh) I attached the brackets. It was super simple. Put the bracket where you want it, put in a screw. Rinse. Repeat.

Then attach to the wall. I used sheet rock screws, to make sure they really stayed in there. The little plant pots are hand made from clay, so they're pretty heavy for their size. Where they were right over the toilet I wanted to make sure they weren't going to fall on anyone while they were..umm..using the bathroom..

Here is the final product!! I really like it!

 

Also, a handy storage tip for necklaces and rings that I did a few weeks ago. I found some little hooks. I don't know what their called, I think it something like "S hooks" or "Eye hooks". They look like this:

Typically you'll see these in peoples cabinets to hang coffee mugs. I found a few in the junk drawer in the kitchen and decided to plug them into the wall in the bathroom to hang my necklaces on. They never get all tangled up and knotted anymore! 

All in all, two insanely useful projects, that take no time at all. Happy  DIY'ing!