Odd Shaped Bathroom Shelves

[glenn bradley]

LOML has a double-sink vanity area squeezed between the bath/shower room and the main bedroom. Storage is at a premium here and she really needs some more shelf space to put her stuff on.

There is an odd sort of a niche between a support pillar and the shower area door. I've pondered it for a couple years waiting for the right design to hit me. Well, hit me or not, I am going with a shaker-ish wall shelf something like this:

deb-bath-shelf-3.jpg

The bandsaw is great for ripping unrefined slabs:

1- deb shelves rip.jpg

This shows the inequality in the side depths:

2- deb shelves sides.jpg

The sled does its usual great job in sizing like objects and providing a clean crosscut:

7- deb shelves sled.jpg

Tape the sides together and run the dados:

6- deb shelves dado cut.jpg

Try to make the top, bottom interesting. This curve will be echoed on the shelf transition:

8- deb shelves ready4curves.jpg

Tape the shelves together for the transition cut:

9- deb shelves gang cut-2.jpg

Like so:

10- deb shelves gang result.jpg

I'll keep you posted.

[John Keeton]

Glenn, neat little project! Is this going to be another through tenon piece?

That is some really nice oak, BTW - or, at least, that is what it appears to be.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks John. Right, red oak to match LOML's bedroom set. Being a native SoCal guy I have seen red oak my whole life and am therefor more of a walnut, mahogany, anything-else kinda guy. The customer is always right, even if it is a surprise.

This will just be straight dado construction. The niche it will fit into hides both outer sides so nothing fancy going on there. Real utilitarian with just a touch of style (I hope). It will almost look like a built-in. The inside of each side panel will be visible . . . at least until she loads them up ;-)

[John Thompson]

Will look great Glenn. Post a final picture....

[glenn bradley]

Milled the mounting cleats and then used them to measure the notch size as well as act as guides for the Colt and a pattern bit. Now a little hand sanding, tape off the parts that get glue and I can pre-finish with some BLO to start.

[glenn bradley]

Just to follow through with the "SketchUp to Installed" flow here . . . I got the OK on the color match from LOML. I was planning on just doing a partial coloring prior to assembly but this piece is so basic I went on ahead through the whole finishing protocol and then assembled.

16-deb-shelf-color-1.jpg17-deb-shelf-color-2.jpg

I'll close with a pic from the actual install site in a couple days but this "propped up in the doorway" shot will give you the general idea. Shelf spacing is based more or less on what she'll put on them.

18--deb-shelf-topcoat-1.jpg19--deb-shelf-topcoat-2.jpg

Thanks for riding along . . . .

[John Thompson]

Simple and functional Glenn... they look good!

[glenn bradley]

And here we are installed showing the reason for the oddball shape. LOML will see it when she gets home from work today which . . . just happens to be her birthday.

[gary Zimmel]

Say happy birthday to your wife from all us crazy Canucks Glenn.
I'm sure she will be pleasantly surprised.

Great job and thanks for all the pics.

[Sam Layton]

Great job Glenn. That really worked out good.

Sam

[Jim Rimmer]

Really nice and a great start to finish thread. Thanks.