Hey, I'm Bob and I Like To Make Stuff.
Today we're gonna add some built-in storage to the bathroom.
Not too long ago we put a big closet in the attic space that was right here and
originally the door to that attic space was in this bathroom.
We've still got the opening here, I decided not to cover it up and instead we're gonna put some shelves
built into this space. Now they're really shallow, but we can use them for some
bathroom stuff, some towels, things like that.
So the first thing is we got to get some dimensions.
I took measurements of all the sides of this space, but the most important measurement I took was the angle.
I used a digital protractor
which is a super handy tool to find both of the angles in the top of that open.
Then I set the angle of my table saw blade to match.
I used my crosscut sled to cut this angle onto two pieces of wood,
making sure that they were a little bit longer than I
thought they needed to be.
Once I had those cut, I measured down from the top edge of that angle to the full length of the board.
I made a mark and then chopped it to its final length on the miter saw.
This project had me running up and down stairs a whole lot
so I tried my best to make sure my measurements were right before I took everything up to fit them in.
I made sure that these two side pieces had the correct angle, and they did, and they were the right height.
It turned out that these pieces were actually great fits
So I made some marks on the wall where one of the shelves to be and then measured up from those points.
I marked those locations on both pieces of wood relative to the floor
so that when I reinstalled them those marks would be parallel.
After another trip downstairs
I swapped out my table saw blade with my dado stack with a bunch of pieces that added up to 3/4 of an inch.
The dado stack is a great way to cut a dado, but it's not the only way.
In fact there are some places in the world where these aren't even legal.
So if you don't have access to one of these you could do the same thing with a router
or even a normal table saw blade
by making a pass, inching the piece over just a little bit, and making another pass until you get the desired width.
I ended up cutting two dados in each piece, one for the upper shelf and one for the bottom shelf.
And after I had these cut I took the pieces up and fit them in again.
I wanted to hold the side panels all the way out and measure the distance in between for the shelf.
This is one of those projects that you have to measure in the actual space rather than theoretically in the shop.
I came back down and cut two more pieces for the two shelves.
And once I was sure that these fit together
I pulled the top shelf out and wanted to add another dado to it.
The reason for this is that the top area is kind of a weird shape and to make it more usable I wanted to add
a vertical divider to split it into two separate areas.
After that dado was cut, I slid the piece back in and added a clamp
to hold the whole thing into its final position.
From there, I measured the diagonal from edge to edge for the top piece.
The angle was the same as the ones that I had cut before
so I just had to make sure that I had the right length.
All right, so I've got all the pieces cut here.
I even made this adjustable shelf.
This is gonna fit on the inside of these and can move up and down in this space.
So the last thing is to take all of these pieces and rip them down on the table saw
so that they are the right depth so
montage.
Before gluing anything I want to go up there and fit everything into place
just to make sure so I can re-cut anything if I need to.
The fit was really good everything works
so I'm gonna go ahead and glue everything up and use some brad nails to hold it together while the glue dries.
The only thing that won't be glued in place will be that one shelf that can adjust in the bottom section.
And I've also got to cut that top vertical piece
once I get the whole thing assembled and figure out the size that it needs to be.
You'll notice that some of these dados are actually a little loose.
I thought they were too small when I had it on the saw and so I added a spacer.
I should have done a test cut once I added that spacer
because it turns out that they're actually a little bit bigger than they need to be.
Due to the construction here that's gonna work out
okay because everything's still gonna sit where it needs to sit.
But they are definitely not as tight as I would like them to be.
All right, so now I'm going to measure this vertical piece
that's going to be in here and act as a divider and to do that
I'm going to measure from the taller side so I can get the same distance over that intersects here and here.
After everything was nailed together, I filled in all the nail holes and then used
a jig to add the holes for the adjustable shelves.
This is a really simple way to get a whole lot of evenly spaced holes.
It just takes a while to drill them all.
After drilling all of those holes,
I used an orbital sander to smooth out the surfaces and knock off the edges on the front face.
Then I just painted the whole thing white and let it dry.
I drilled a couple of holes on the side so that I could drive screws into the studs when I installed it.
This thing fit in really well, and I just had to knock it down a little bit so that it would slide into place.
It wasn't really gonna move, but I decided to drive in a few screws into the studs just to be sure.
The reason I ripped all these pieces on the table saw earlier
was to make sure that they were the right depth and the front face
would line up with the drywall.
That's so I could add a layer of trim around the opening.
So spent quite a bit of time with Josh trying to figure out the angle to have these pieces of trim cut.
I didn't show you any of that because it's really specific to this particular location.
I've got the trim fit around and I filled all nail holes,
so next it's time to put in the shelves here.
Now you could just put in a couple of adjustable shelves and call it finished,
but we need to store some towels on these shelves.
And since this is too shallow to fold them
we're gonna roll them instead.
Now to keep those in place
I want to put some sort of a little fence here and use the holes that we've already drilled to keep that in place.
Next I'm going to cut down a little piece to act as a front rail to keep the towels in place.
The reason I'm doing this is because it's not something that we want to keep
long-term so I don't want to fix it in there and nail it in place.
To keep it there we're gonna use these little pins.
These go into the hole and then you can set a shelf on top of that but we're going to use them in this orientation
instead, and attach them to the back side of this piece to hold it vertically.
I ripped this piece down to the height that I wanted the face of it to be
and then cut it down to length on the miter saw.
I used a punch to make a small spot in the back of these brackets to start drilling the hole.
This is a really soft metal, so it was easy to do but you can also buy these brackets with holes in them already,
I just couldn't find any.
That fit in place really well
so now I'm going to use some really small screws,
drive in through that bracket on the backside into the back of this MDF.
Then it's time to mount the other shelf touch up the paint
and we're done.
After driving in those screws to the back of these pieces I put in the pins for the adjustable shelves.
Now when you put in adjustable shelves just realize that there are actually two different standard size holes.
You want to make sure that you get the right size pin for the right size hole that you drilled.
This is overall a really simple project
and it takes advantage of some space that would otherwise be wasted.
Everybody has some weird little spaces in their house that are almost usable but not quite usable.
This was one of those. I could have just covered it up and lost the opportunity for storage,
but instead now, we have a place to put towels and toiletries and decorations inside the bathroom.
Now if you're going to do something like this in an awkward little space
it's a really good idea to build the unit outside
and fit it in.
And once you've got it in place if there's a small gap around the outside you can use trim to cover
up that gap.
This was a really easy build but it turned this useless spot into a nice feature of the bathroom.
If you've done something like this maybe taken advantage of some lost space in your house
I'd love to hear about it down in the comments.
If you like this video, I've got some other ones that you may love as well
so be sure to check those out and don't forget to subscribe.
That's it for this one guys, thanks for watching,
I'll see you next time.
Hey, I'm Bob and I like to (jumbled words)
Just to hold them in place while the glue dries,
but I want to make sure that uh that's a lie.
That thing fit in place really well, so now I'm going to drive some
(laughter)
Let's try that again.
(off camera) Take two.