Bathroom Towel Holder and Shelf

Well, I finally finished the shelf with the faucet handles. I took those two pieces of wood that I found at the Goodwill for $6 and combined them with faucet handles that I bought from ebay for $5 (including shipping!)

Here's the raw wood again:

Here's the final shelf:

I had to fake the towels stacked on top because I can't hang it on the wall yet. I have to buy a hanger system that I think will hold the shelf up. I faked the hanging towel as well.

I did buy 1x2 to add some heft to the back. The white towel holder is actually a box. So there is a finishing molding around that as well. So if I total up the paint, wood, handles and polyurethane, it comes to $21. Worth that just for the fun of making it!

Since I seem to suck at cutting wood, this thing has a roughness to it that will make it look vintage!

The reason I wanted to make my own shelf is because I bought one of those stainless steel shelves that turned into a rusty mess in no time. I resolved never to put stainless steel in that bathroom again.

I'm a Painter

I am preparing for my bathroom remodel (which so far is only in the estimate stage because I can't believe how much people want to do a 5x8 bathroom). I have a long thin wall space that will be available for art. I thought I would try painting. I looked at gallery canvases but they were $30 a pop and I'd have to buy paint on top of that. I didn't want to spend all that on something I wasn't sure would even work. Well, my junk luck came through again. I was looking around Goodwill and I found an old canvas just the size I needed for $6. Deal!

Here is the canvas before (admire that painting surface, it's like christmas all the time!)

The canvas was in good shape and I thought for $6, I could fail and not lose much.

Here's the final painting. (I think it's final, I have an idea to turn it into mixed media, but I'm not sure about that yet.) It's based off a photograph I took in Key West in the early morning. It was a little darker that morning so the water was not it's usual teal color.

I'm pretty excited about it. I'm not much of a painter, but having the sample photo helped a lot. 

Next project includes these two pieces of wood for $6 from Goodwill and some vintage faucet handles I got off of ebay for $5. I'm excited about that piece as well. Now all I need is to find a reasonably priced contractor or I'll be hanging all this bathroom stuff in my dining room.