DIY floating shelves (bathroom progress)

Hello there and happy MONDAY!! It’s feeling like one to me today. ;)

So you remember that one time when I started two bathroom renovations and took for-absolutely-freaking-EVER to get them done?

Yeah. Well, it’s time to get them done. I’ve set a rule for myself – no gardening or outside projects till the bathrooms are DONE. I may cheat a little only because I am just one person and DANG it takes a long time to finish it all up.

The basement bathroom has come up from nothing, and I have only really showed you the tile so far here. Other than that the big stuff had been installed – the sink, toilet and shower. But the room sat half painted for months.

I was determined to get this bathroom done last week and I almost got there. Just a couple more projects to finish up and I’m moving on! WHOO!

This is how the space looked up till last week – you can’t see that the wall to the left is half way painted but just imagine it. It was pretty:

Since I hadn’t installed baseboards yet I just had to tape off the shower and light fixtures with my loverly Frogtape in preparation for paint. I’ve gotten pretty good at cutting in on the ceiling so that saves a lot of time.

I finished up the paint (I listed all the paint colors for the basement here) and realized again that you can’t even tell the difference between any of the colors – I could have just painted the whole basement the same color. But OH WELL. It’s done. :)

I installed all the baseboards and quarter round:

It looks like poo there but just wait till you see the power of caulk and filler. ;) Wish I could use some caulk and filler.

Once I got the trim done it was time to address the little nook next to the shower. Yes, the shower is tiny. When it came time to decide what we were doing we realized the space would only allow for a couple shower inserts (I had originally planned on tiling the shower but didn’t for cost and time reasons). The size that worked best was this shower – and it is small.

But I have to keep reminding myself this is a basement bathroom – we will hardly EVER use this shower. Some guests might, but even that will be rare. So I would rather have some storage than a big shower we’ll never use.

So storage it was – I had the guys frame out a little spot in the empty space by the shower. All along my plan has been to put some shelves in there, and I finally got it done!

I started by adding supports – I just used scrap wood from the garage every 18 inches or so:

I was going to add a support along the back but realized it wouldn’t be needed since the space is so narrow. I only installed these with a nail gun – on our library built ins and the pantry redo I used long screws, but I knew this wouldn’t be holding a ton of weight so the nails were easier and faster.

I had a piece of 1 by 12 I cut down to use as the shelf, but it was just a smidge too small:

I ended up finding more scrap wood in the garage, took it to Lowe’s and had it cut just a bit wider than the other wood, and it worked pretty well – I stained them before I installed (for once! Are you proud of me?):

I used the dark Kona color I used here as well. Love it.

I just nailed the shelves down into the supports:

I made sure I had the right thickness of wood for the fronts before I started – I wanted it to cover the top shelf, the supports, and an extra board I installed underneath to give it a finished look:

I actually had most of that front trim too – I only had to buy one small piece to finish it up.

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! It’s a great use of an awkward little spot:

Let’s talk about that shower curtain shall we? I went through my normal Goldilocks routine to find that one (the one I LOVE).

I started with this one, but the blue tone was off with the walls:

I really loved this one and the colors were perfect:

I’m trying to go with a slightly funkier vibe in the basement and I thought that was fun. But I wasn’t crazy about it when I got it up – too graphic for this little space I think?

And then I found the one that was just right. It had a bird on it:

And there. you. go.

Since the shelves only cost my $3 for a small piece of trim (BOOYAH!), I had fun gathering a few new accessories for this spot, at Tarjay of course (all Threshold items):

I LOVE EXTRA STORAGE! Are you with me??

Here’s my little secret – I only had so much scrap wood so I didn’t even put the bottom piece on the two lower shelves:

You’d have to be sitting on the floor looking under them to notice so I’m not worried about it. Does it need to be perfect? NO.

I love having a little spot for the trash can too:

It’s the little things. ;)

Oh yeah – I told you caulk and filler make a world of difference:

Oh my, they are my BFFS. For real.

I adore how the shower curtain looks in here and ties in the blues and greens and even the dark wood tone:

I’m SO glad to have this space (almost) done. I’ll show you the whole room soon, but for now I want to look back to see how far I’ve come:

This was back in January I think?

And here’s a finished spot that makes me super happy!:

It’s a skinny little bathroom but it is turning out so pretty and functional. Love!!

DIY (hideaway) Lego tray

Hey all! Whooee, that was a jam-packed weekend! I shopped (at the vintage mart, twice!) and met up some awesome readers and fellow bloggers, went to a party, attended a school event for the kiddo, had a girl’s night with one of the BFFS, went to a Lego event at the fairgrounds and hung with my stepdaughter and her boyfriend who were home on spring break. It was a whirlwind but fun!!

We surprised the Bub with a trip to the Lego event yesterday – to say he’s a a fan would be a huge understatement. He got started on Legos when he was only four (he could never be bothered with the bigger, toddler ones – he only wanted the smaller, big boy sets), and from that very young age was putting together sets with 600+ pieces by himself. It blew our minds but he’s been hooked ever since.

Which for use means a LOT of Legos. I mean…people. They are everywhere. I’m working on getting them corralled to the basement and succeeding…it’s slow but sure. And I think I finally found a storage method that works for us – I’ll show you soon. (It’s not what you think either.) ;)

Anyhoo, a couple years ago I got this Pottery Barn table off of Craigslist for the playroom:

My goal for two years now was to paint it and then cover the top with Lego sheets so it would be a big huge table for him to play on. Well, it moved downstairs about a year ago, into the almost-finished basement, and I swear to you I haven’t seen the top of it since.

We (he and I) were always throwing stuff on it and even when it was kinda cleared off he rarely sat at it and used it. He’d much rather be on the floor doing Legos (or games/toys), or at a higher table, like in the kitchen.

What’s funny is we gained all this additional square footage with the basement, but all I’ve done is get rid of stuff that was down there. I want the basement family room to be open and non-cluttered but when that’s the goal there’s less room down there than we thought there would be.

So a few weeks ago I came up with a plan. First part was to get rid of the table – it was a clutter-catcher and a beast. Huge. To set things up the way we wanted there was just not a spot for it so thankfully a friend took it off my hands.

The second part of the plan is this tray I came up with. I’ve made wood trays before – you just start with a base:

I got a piece of wood from the hardware store and had them cut it down to 30 inches – I wanted it that size for a number of reasons. First, I wanted it HUGE so the Bub had a ton of room to play on it. I also needed the Lego tiles to fit just right and they were ten inches wide.

I didn’t take pics of putting it together, but you can see how I made the tray in our family room here:

It was the same exact process for this one.

Initially I was just going to stain the sides of this one because I knew the bottom would be covered with Lego sheets. But at the last second I had an idea and stained the whole thing. I used the dark Kona stain I used for the top of the basement cubbies and then added hardware:

I got these from Lowe’s – they were inexpensive and simple but I wanted the handle to be really easy to grab.

We laid out the Lego mats and immediately the kiddo was playing:

He loved it! When this idea came to me I planned on gluing the tiles down, but later decided not to (more on that in second). They stay in there just fine. And at one point the width was just slightly under 30 inches so I had to cut down a couple of the Lego mats just a tad – but I just did it with regular scissors, so easy!

My boy was in heaven – the first set up was a basketball game because he’s absolutely obsessed with it right now (thanks to Daddy and the Big Ten Champs IU! Whoot!):

Legos are not cheap but we are happy to encourage his love for them (well, I’m not happy when I step on pointy ones in the dark, but whatever) – I love how his creativity comes out – he found pieces to make basketball “hoops”:

 

Did you know Harry Potter was a basketball player? Me neither.

So here’s the thing – I made this tray so it did something extra special:

 

Awww yeah bay-bee! It hides perfectly away under the sectional. Ours is really low to the ground and it still clears it just fine (I was prepared to raise up the sectional ever so slightly if I needed to). That is why I wanted the handles to be easy to grab.

It’s accessible from both sides of the sofa but he likes to pull it out in the open space behind. WE LOVE IT.

Another reason I made this so big was so we could use it for other reasons too – we can easily carry it over to the top of the ottoman down there so he can put sets together up higher. But we also use it to play games:

At first I thought we would remove the mats but there’s no need at all. They are a great surface for the game boards:

And I’m so glad at the last second I decided to stain the bottom too – because now we use it for movie nights, pizza dinners, snacks:

Again, we could just leave the mats on (it takes 30 seconds to take them off or put them back on) and most of the time we probably will. (With them removable that means I can wash them too!)

I love how big it is because it fits over the ottoman perfectly – it’s like it was made for it. ;) And it’s sturdy enough we can put our feet up on it and it’s not going anywhere.

So I was able to get rid of a big table that was taking up tons of space and not being used and replace it with a multi-functional one that we can hide away when we’re done:

Love!!

The cost to make the tray itself wasn’t too bad – I think about $20 for the base and $4 for the handles (I had the trim pieces for the sides), which I didn’t think was too bad for that size. The Lego mats were the cost here – but we will use this and the mats for years to come so it was a worthwhile investment for me.

I love figuring out a way to make things work better for everyone in the family, but I’m most thrilled that the Bub loves it so much. He uses it every day.

So do you have a Lego-obsessed kiddo (or adult??) in your house? I gotta admit, even though they drive me bonkers some days they are fun to do – almost cathartic in a way. And I love seeing what my son comes up with!

Linking up at Traci’s Best of March party!