Quick 'n' Dirty Bathroom Shelves

When we moved into the "new" house last month, a few things had to change. The old apartment had tons of bathroom counter space, while the new house is pretty much a sink and a mirror. Ugh. I got spoiled with all that counter space.

So what to do? I'm tired of getting hand soap on my toothbrush!

The piece of curly redwood that I talked about in this post came from an 8ft board. Only half of it was nice and curly, and I've set that aside for other more decorative uses. But the rest will do nicely. Redwood does well in a damp environment, so it should make a perfect shelf!

I went with a simple "L" shape with a mitered corner, french cleats, and small braces. This was also my first attempt at pocket screws.

Everything was screwed and glued with stainless steel screws except for the shelf side cleats which were clamped with shop made clamping jigs.


4 coats of shellac finished the piece, followed by a rubdown with 0000 steel wool to give the shellac a satin sheen. I chose shellac simply because of the current temperatures. Shellac dries nicely in below freezing temps. Poly... Not so much. I'll watch the finish and if it starts going south on me, I'll refinish with poly. The cleats make it easy to pop the shelf and take it into the garage.


It came out quite nice and very useful. My teenage son and I are the only ones who use that sink, so I only needed two toothbrush notches. Toothpaste and mouthwash go on the shelf while the tall stuff like hairspray and hand lotion stay on the counter.

Simple, cheap, easy, attractive, functional! What else do you need?