House – Page 16 – Gray House Studio

Floating Shelves in Guest Bathroom

We built a pair of floating shelves to store towels and display decor in our guest bathroom.

Brent and I both took off this past Friday and it made me wish every week could include a three day weekend. It is amazing how much more we are able to both accomplish and relax with an extra day off. We didn’t have anything planned so we worked on checking a few smaller home renovation projects off our list. We managed to get two projects completed, buy supplies for a third project that we will work on today and shopped for new plants for our front flower beds and it is only early Sunday afternoon.

It has been a busy weekend but we were also able to have plenty of down time for dinner and frozen yogurt by the lake with family and enjoying one too many Girl Scout cookies while we lounged on the couch and made our way through several episodes of Bloodline on Netflix. That is one perk of living in the suburbs, it is not difficult in the slightest to get your hands on a box (or two) of Caramel deLites. They basically just show up on your doorstep.

We are excited to have Brent’s parents come visit next weekend and want to get as much of the guest bathroom spruced up as we can before they arrive. Our first project this weekend was to build floating shelves next to the shower. We are really happy with how they turned out and how quickly they came together. Today we are sharing how we built our shelves in a few easy steps.

SUPPLIES

MATERIALS

(1) 2″ x 12″ Pine Board
Wood Glue
Wood Stain in Kona
3″ Deck Screws

TOOLS

Table Saw
Ruler
Drill
Clamps
Router

How We Built our Floating Shelves

1. The first thing we did was to take our two pieces of pine (that we cut from the 2″ x 12″ to be the correct width for our space) and used a table saw cut off the back inch of the board. This created our bracket piece that we used to anchor the shelf into the wall. By cutting it off the back of the board it matched back up seamlessly with the front of the shelf.

2. For the supports that connect to the bracket anchored into the wall, Brent cut 1″ x 1″ pieces from the left over piece of pine. These boards support the weight of the shelf.

3. Then we laid out the three pieces of the bracket. This is how the completed bracket will look.

4. We used self tapping screws to connect the three pieces of the bracket together. Brent always tries to avoid screwing through any knots because when screwing into knots, that have a tendency to split. We know this from experience.

5. We dabbed some wood glue on the end of the two 1″ x 1″ boards that we then screwed into the back piece of the bracket to create strong joints so it would be nice and sturdy once it was assembled.

6. Now that we had our bracket assembled, we needed to remove slots from the bottom of the shelf to created a recessed area where the bracket could fit into the shelf.

7. To determine the area of the shelf that needed to be removed for the brackets, we simply traced the outline of the bracket on the bottom of the shelf.

8. We then secured the board to our work space using clamps to make sure it would not move around once Brent started routing the slots. He set his router to be the correct depth and put on all his safety equipment to protect his face while working on this part.

9. To route the slots, Brent used a half inch router bit. It took two passes to get enough of the material removed.

10. To route in a straight line, Brent used a piece of scrap board clamped to the shelf to guide the router. Once the first pass with the router was cut, he moved the scrap board over to guide the router again for the second cut.

11. After Brent finished routing the slots from the bottom of the shelf, he test fit the bracket. It fit perfectly. We always do a happy dance when everything works and fits together correctly the first time. It is a very satisfying feeling.

12. We used the same stain on the shelves as we used on the mirrors we framed in the previous project. The great thing about building your own furniture is you can stain everything to match.

13. After marking the studs with a stud finder, we secured the bracket to the wall with 3″ deck screws.

14. The bracket isn’t much to look at by itself but it is secure and will support the shelf which is all that really matters.

15. This is a view of what the bottom of the shelf looks like after it is attached to the bracket. We thought about trying to conceal the bracket but we like how it makes for a nice design element on the bottom of the shelf, if you happen to look under the bottom of the shelf.

This is what the floating shelves looked like once they were both up on the wall.

I styled the floating shelves with a few simple tropical elements to tie in with the shower curtain and some bathroom necessities so they are nice and handy for guests.

I love how the framed print turned out on this shelf. We purchased the digital version of this leaf print and then Brent tapped into his past experience with printmaking to help take it up a level. He tore the edges of some nice paper he had left over from when he worked on letterpress prints and ran it through the ink jet printer.

Then he mounted that on another piece of his nice paper and we put a matte around it and framed it with this large white frame I had but could never find anything to put in it. The torn edges and three dimensional feel help give it more of a fine art print appearance and allowed us to scale it larger while still only using our home printer. Check out our tutorial on framing prints to see in more detail how we did this.

Here is the progress in this room. It is such a small and narrow room that it is very tricky to photograph the whole thing to show all the changes we have made so far. We will just share each section we work on until the entire room is complete.

Adding floating shelves, framing our mirrors and putting up a bronze shower curtain rod has already transformed this room into a much more welcoming space. Our next project is to build a new towel rack!

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How to Frame Bathroom Mirrors

House, Tips + Tricks Courtney & Brent

In this tutorial we are showing how to frame bathroom mirrors. We will also show how to build the frames and how to hang them on the wall.

Remember back in January when we showed how we cut our large bathroom mirror into two pieces? Today we are sharing the second half of the project which includes how to frame bathroom mirrors and hang them back up on the wall. We have found that a simple and inexpensive way to freshen up a bathroom’s appearance is to take down the large unframed mirror and replace it with two narrow mirrors over each sink.

In both our master bathroom and now our guest bathroom we cut the large builder grade mirror that came with the house into two pieces, built frames for each one out of wood and then stained the wood to match the bathroom. By cutting the mirrors and building the frames ourselves, we saved money and had complete control over the size and appearance of our mirrors.

We really like the look of tall narrow mirrors but finding that style without the high price tag was a difficult task. Building the frames ourselves was a great solution for us.

SUPPLIES

MATERIALS

(2) 1″ x 6″ boards of select pine (1 for each frame)
Wood Glue
Rust-Oleum Wood Stain, Kona
All Purpose Adhesive Caulk
Brown Acrylic Latex Sealant
D-Ring Hangers

TOOLS

Table Saw
Clamps
Screwdriver

*This post contains an affiliate link. You can read our disclosure policy here.

How to Frame Bathroom Mirrors

1. To save money we bought a 1″x6″ board that we cut down the middle to be the width of one side of the frame. Cutting the board in half gave us both the left and right side of the frame.

2. We cut all the boards to our desired width for the mirrors. Then we made two cuts using the table saw to create a recessed area in the board where the mirror would sit.

The first cut, which is shown in the photo above, determined how far the mirror will sit inside the frame. We chose to make the lip on the inside of the frame 1/4 of an inch.

3. Next we raised the blade to meet up with the line of the previous cut and ran the boards through the table saw.

The two cuts we made removed the piece of the wood on the left. The piece of wood on the right is what we used for the frame.

4. After measuring the length of each side of the frame so we could mark where the cut needed to be, we cut the left and right side pieces of the frame at the same time and the top and bottom pieces at the same time to guarantee that there would be no variations between the matching sides of the frame and that the four pieces would make a rectangle.

5. Finally, we made two cuts on each side of the top and bottom board of the frame. This cut removed a piece of the wood allowing the side boards of the frame to be glued on top of the top and bottom board. This type of joint is called a rabbet joint.

6. This is what the top and bottom boards of the frame looked like after the previous step once the pieces of wood on each side were removed.

7. By cutting the pieces of wood out, each piece of the frame fit perfectly over the other piece of the frame. This process makes for a very strong joint and prevents the need to nail or screw the frame together.

8. We then applied glue to each board and clamped the frame together. After several projects we finally remembered to put a scrap board between the wood and the clamp. When we forget to put a scrap piece in between the board and the clamp, a lot of times the surface of the project will get indentations from the clamp.

9. To match all the other stain in our bathroom, we decided to stain the frame with a Kona stain. We learned from staining our first set of mirrors that it is important to stain the back as well as the front of the frame.

The mirror reflects the backside of the frame. If only the front side is stained, once the mirror is glued in place, you will be able to see the non stained wood in the reflection.

10. We placed the mirror in the frame and lined it up so it was centered. Then we traced the mirror outline on the back of the frame so we would know where to apply the adhesive. To secure the mirror to the frame, we used an all purpose adhesive caulk.

We could only find it in white which caused a little bit of an issue because the mirror will reflect the underside of the frame and the white caulk would be very noticeable. Our solution was to run a bead of brown acrylic latex sealant on the side of the white caulk that is closer to the inside of the frame.

The brown sealant is not a great adhesive but it does a good job concealing the white caulk that is actually holding the mirror and frame together.

11. After the adhesive dried, we screwed a D-Ring hanger in each side of the back of the frame for easy hanging.

12. The final step was to put two picture hanger nails in the wall to hang the frames on.

Now we have two (like) brand new mirrors for only the cost of the two boards since we already had most of the supplies left over from our previous framing project. It is nice to have mirrors back in the guest bathroom again and just in time for our guests coming in a few weeks.

We have a few more projects we will be working on this weekend for the guest bathroom. It is fun seeing our ideas start to become a reality in this room. I did some preliminary decor shopping last week and picked up some guest bathroom items along with a few tropical elements that I can’t wait to incorporate into the room.

Stay tuned for more guest bathroom posts and progress photos coming soon.

Check out how to cut a large bathroom mirror into two smaller pieces.

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Schoolhouse Pendant Light

House, Lighting Courtney & Brent

For this knockoff lighting project we created much cheaper versions of our favorite schoolhouse pendant light from Rejuvenation.

You may remember in our library planning post last month that we had plans to switch out the lighting in our library. We wanted to replace the overly decorative light fixture with something that had clean lines and was simple.

DIY KNOCKOFF

We found the Rose City Classic Schoolhouse Pendant light fixture at Rejuvenation and thought the style was a perfect match. However, the price was not so perfect for our budget. Just buying one was going to be a stretch and we wanted two, one for each of the front rooms. We knew we definitely could not afford to buy two from the store any time soon so we got to thinking and decided to piece one together ourselves. We created the one above and are very happy with the results.

Today we are sharing our affordable solution for creating a classic schoolhouse pendant light that came in $137 cheaper than it’s Rejuvenation counterpart. The lower price allowed us to make two for less than the cost of purchasing one. It was a great solution for our budget.

Here is what we started with when we moved into the house. The light on the left was the light in the front room (formerly the formal living room). It was small, plain and lacked character.

The light on the right was in the library (formerly the formal dining room) and was the opposite. It was almost too ornate and long. It was a nice light fixture, it just didn’t fit with the style of our library or our house in general.

We wanted the two light fixtures to match to create a cohesive feel between the two rooms since the space between the rooms is open. So we set out to assemble matching schoolhouse pendant lights.

How We Put Together Our Schoolhouse Pendant Light

1. First, we purchased the three pieces of the light fixture we needed: the pendant, the glass holder and the vintage schoolhouse globe.

1. Light Oil Rubbed Bronze Adjustable Mini Pendant – $16.47
2. 6-in. White Glass Holder – $11.25
3. Antique Art Deco Schoolhouse Tiered Globe 14” Diameter – $49.99

*We bought the vintage schoolhouse globes off of E-bay where the seller had acquired schoolhouse globes and fixtures from an old church. They were in great shape!

1. Brent used a jigsaw with a sheet metal blade to cut a hole in the top of the glass holder large enough so the ceramic part of the pendant light fixture would fit through it.

2. In between cuts he would test the size of the hole to make sure it was the perfect fit.

3. Before painting the glass holders, Brent roughed up the smooth surface with medium grade steel wool. The scratches the steel wool makes give the surface of the glass holder a rough texture so the paint can adhere to the surface. Because the bronze pendant light fixture we bought was a different color bronze than the spray paint we already had to paint the white glass holders, we ended up spray painting the pendant light fixture as well so it would match. Brent roughed up the surface of these pieces also.

4. Next, we applied an even coat of spray paint to all the parts.

5. To paint parts of the light fixture, we wrapped the cords in plastic wrap and secured them down to the cardboard with tape.

6. After the paint was dry, Brent assembled all the pieces to create our schoolhouse pendant lights and then hung them in each room.

Yesterday not only did we hang up our new lights, we also painted the last few areas (the front room and hallway) in our house gray. That means there are only two rooms left to paint and then the inside of our house will all be painted. Two projects in one day, that is a productive Saturday! Our front room/music room/photography studio is coming along great. *Shout out to my Dad for all the help with the painting!

Here is what the room looked like yesterday morning:

Here are some progress shots of it now:

The gray paint color we used is Mindful Gray from Sherwin-Williams and is the same color we used in our library, kitchen and living room. It looks so nice to now have the front two rooms have the same wall color and light fixtures. It makes the front of the house flow really well. I would call this a successful weekend.

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DIY Concrete Planters

Decor, House Courtney & Brent

In this tutorial we are going to show how to make DIY concrete planters in geometric shapes using a cardboard mold.

Hey, Brent here! Today I am sharing these geometric concrete planters I made this past weekend using cardboard molds.

I had fun experimenting and making these DIY concrete planters to display around the house.

How To Make DIY Concrete Planters

SUPPLIES

Concrete Planter Template
Cardboard (I used a moving box)
Clear Packaging Tape
Box Cutter
Quikrete Crack Resistant Pro Finish Concrete Mix
Plastic bucket
Drill
Ruler
All-Purpose Mixer (attached to a drill)
Electric sander

FYI: This post contains a few affiliate links to products we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy.

PROJECT TEMPLATE

Get our Concrete Planter Template

Our DIY concrete planter template includes the outer mold template and the inner mold template for $3. We appreciate your support!

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

How to Build the Outside Mold

1. The first thing I did was use my ruler to measure and trace seven triangles on cardboard and then cut out each individual cardboard triangle with the box cutter.

The PDF of the pattern for our geometric concrete planters is available if you are interested in making your own.

2. I cut out seven triangles of equal size and then arranged them into the pattern above.

3. Next, I used clear packaging tape to connect the inside seams of the triangles together.

4. Once the box was taped on the inside and assembled into the three dimensional form, I added tape to the outside to strengthen the mold.

How to Build the Inside Mold

5. To create the inside mold, I cut out two more triangles and three squares.

6. I assembled these pieces and covered all the seams in tape to create the three dimensional form.

How to Mix the Concrete

7. First, I prepped my materials which included the bucket, water and the concrete mix I made sure to have twice as much water than needed on hand.

8. Then I poured the water into the bucket and mixed in the concrete mix with the mixer attached to a drill.

I continue to add the dry concrete mix into the bucket until the mixture was thick and evenly mixed with the water.

To test for the right consistency, I dug a little hole in the mixture. When the mixture didn’t fill in the gap, I knew it was ready to use.

9. Once the concrete mixture was ready, I filled the bottom of the outer mold. Then I placed the inner mold into the outer mold.

The inner mold acts as a plug and creates the hole in the planter for the plant.

10. When you mix concrete it traps air bubbles inside of it so after I poured the concrete into the mold I used an electric sander to vibrate the concrete forcing the air bubbles out which gave me a smooth finish.

11. I let the concrete sit in the mold for several hours and then I removed it from the cardboard.

I found that depending how long you leave the concrete in the mold, you get different textures on the concrete which I like because it makes each planter unique.

12. You can see the difference in the photo above. For the planter on the left I let the concrete dry in the mold for approximately 18 hours which gave me a smoother texture.

The planter on the right was the first one I made and I only let it dry in the mold for around 3 hours which gave me a rough cinderblock like texture.

I planted succulents in them and placed them on the nightstand in our bedroom. These were so easy, inexpensive and fun to make that I am sure I will be making many more to add throughout the house.

*** Thanks so much for supporting our small shop – Moon Rock Prints – this holiday season! ***

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DIY Record Stand

Decor, House Courtney & Brent

For all our fellow record lovers out there, check out this quick and easy project, our DIY record stand, to show off your favorite albums in your home.

You may have noticed in our last post on our library shelves that we are displaying a few of our favorite records on the shelves.

They are sitting in custom built stands that Brent built out of wood. By displaying them on these stands we have easy access to grab our favorites.

If you have a few of your favorite records that you want to display but want to make sure they stay in good shape, this DIY record stand is a great solution.

Plus, it is completely customizable. After it is built you can stain it or paint it whatever color you want to match your decor.

How to Make a DIY Record Stand Out of Wood

SUPPLIES

FYI: This post contains affiliate links to products we used and liked for our DIY record stand. As an Amazon Associate Gray House Studio earns from qualifying purchases. This is at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy.

STEPS

1. First, we measured the 1 in. x 6 in. select pine board to prepare to cut the base of the stand and the top braces. The base is 12 1/2 inches wide. The two top braces are 11 inches wide.

For more details on the exact dimensions, download our DIY record stand plans for accurate measurements.

2. Next, we used a miter saw to cut the boards to the sizes we measured.

3. To create a slot in the base for the record to sit in, the blade guard of the table saw needed to be removed.

This allows the blade to cut only partially through the board. By placing the board next the blade it is easy to see how deep the slot will be in the base.

4. After each pass over the table saw blade, we moved the table saw fence slightly to cut a wide slot.

The back of the stand needs to sit at an 80 degree angle so we had to cut the bottom of the bottom brace at a 10 degree angle.

5. We used the Joint Genie and a drill to make holes that would connect the pieces via dowel pins.

6. The Joint Genie makes it really easy to line up the holes with the dowel pins.

7. No matter how many times Brent drills holes to join two blocks of wood together with a dowel pins, he still gets excited about the final result every time.

8. Once the base was connected to the bottom vertical brace, we drilled holes into the two vertical braces so we could connect them with the dowel pins.

The great thing about building the stand this way is that no glue is needed so it can easily be disassembled and reassembled and consists of just three pieces.

Also, album cover artwork can make for an interesting alternative to traditional art. The six records we choose for our library were ones where we liked the design of the covers and thought had a visual appeal similar to the other art in our home.

We searched for record stands but most of the ones we found had no back or had a back that was half the height of the record. We have found that stands built these ways do not fully support the record and can eventually damage it by warping it over time.

We couldn’t find one out there that exactly fit our needs so we built our own that was all these things we were looking for: simple, sturdy and supportive.

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Pipe Shelves Build

Furniture, House Courtney & Brent

Creating a cozy home library was at the top of our must-have in our house list. We challenged ourselves to build a large wall of floor to ceiling pipe shelves to store all of our books. We made plans if you want to build them too!

Both Brent and I enjoy reading and liked the idea of having lots of shelves filled with books on display. We wanted lots of shelving but didn’t necessarily want to build a large conventional bookcase.

We decided on building the support system out of pipes. By going with an industrial design for our library shelves, we needed less tools and could piece it together over a few weekends but it still visually packs a big punch in the front of our house.

There is nothing better than a big blank canvas ready for a DIY project!

How to Build Large Industrial Pipe Shelves

Supplies:

FYI: This post contains an affiliate link to a product we used to make this project. Gray House Studio does receive commissions for sales from these links but at no extra cost to you. We appreciate you supporting this site. Read our privacy and disclosure policy. You can also easily shop our recommended products here.

Pipe Shelves Project Plans

Purchase Pipe Bookshelf Plans

When you purchase our DIY pipe shelves plans you get a PDF with a detailed materials list, a cut list, exact dimensions for each piece, and building instructions – all for only $10. We appreciate you supporting Gray House Studio! Join our e-mail list to get a 20% off coupon code.

Steps:

The day we bought the wood for the shelves was a doozy. I think I “worked out” harder on that day than I have in a long time. Helping Brent get those giant boards down off the shelf at the hardware store, into the truck, off the truck, into the backyard, up onto the platform to stain and then back into the garage was quite the job for my tiny little arms.

One criteria Brent had for the shelves was he wanted to use thick boards. He decided on using seven 2″ X 12″s in 10′ lengths. The reasoning behind this was we wanted the shelves to be sturdy and substantial in both functionality and appearance.

This is the centerpiece of the room so we really wanted to build something that would grab your attention as soon as you walk in our door and dinky little shelves just wouldn’t cut it.

The other element to the shelves were the pipes and fittings that would run through the boards.

The pipes were kind of gross when we got them (see photo above). They are coated so they don’t rust but since we were using the pipes and fittings indoors we had to spend a lot of time cleaning them.

It was a tedious task that consisted of wiping down roughly 150+ pieces of pipe with a paper towel and a little bit of paint thinner.

1 | We stained each board using the same stain as our nook wood plank wall, Kona wood stain.

2 | After I stained the board, Brent measured and marked where he would need to drill the holes so the pipes would go through the board.

He drew up all the plans himself and I was pretty impressed because each calculation and measurement had to be precise to ensure that every board would be same distance from the wall and line up with each other so the pipes could run through all them.

You can find the exact measurements in our DIY pipe shelves plans.

3 | Next he used a hole saw attached to his drill and drilled four holes into each board.

4 | Once Brent drilled the holes, there were some areas exposed that had not been stained so I filled in those spots with stain to achieve a seamless look.

5 | He used a Kreg Jig and Kreg face clamp to drill four pocket holes that were measured to match the stud layout in that wall.

6 | We checked and double checked that each board was straight using our level.

7 | After each board was level we secured the board to the wall by screwing it into studs through the pocket holes.

For the bottom half of the shelves this was done on the bottom of the board and for the top half of the boards this was done on the top of the boards so that the holes in the boards would not be visible.

8 | We built the pipe shelves board by board adding the next row of pipes as we went up the wall.

We started by putting the 3/4″ flange pieces at the bottom of each of our pipes. This piece will eventually also go at the very top where it connects into the wall at the top.

This was our progress about half way. The photos below show closer up how the boards and pipes fit together.

These are the pieces of pipe we used to assemble the shelves:

Get the detailed instructions for building and assembling the pipes for the DIY pipe shelves.

9 | After our DIY industrial shelves were installed, it was time to arrange all of our books and vintage pieces. It took me awhile to style the shelves and to be honest I will probably restyle them several more times.

Our book collections combined were not enough to fill up all the shelves so we added some really cool antique items that Brent has collected over the years like this cool radio and typewriter.

I love old family photographs so I also wanted to display some of our grandparents in their younger years as well. Brent also built a stands to showcase a few records from his collection.

We are so happy with how our DIY industrial shelves turned out. They really add the wow factor when you walk in our door that we were looking for. Of course one project leads to another and now I am daydreaming about replacing that carpet with wood floors because that would really make the room cozy and make the industrial look of the shelves make more sense.

Featured in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

Our DIY pipe shelves project was featured in the October 2015 issue of Better Homes and Gardens.