Bathroom Shelf

Some of the old barn board siding that was removed from the
wall of the bathroom.  

    In prior blogs there used to be stories and pictures about things that I built plus every now and then I would throw in a picture of the wife's cat.  (I'm not sure why I did that although there seemed to be more positive comments coming back about the cat than there were about the things that I built.)    Lately I noticed that my blogs have seemed to focus on the basement bathroom remodel job.   I am wondering if this bathroom thing is going to be a life time project.   (Is there life outside the John??)

For those of you that would rather see cat pictures then
board Pictures. 

    I am one of those individuals that if I were a hermit - once I had my home set up it would probably just stay that way til I died.   While a fresh coat of paint and a new vinyl shower look nice (What ever happened to my man cave bathroom?)  I find myself reminiscing about the previous big old dark brick shower thing that I used for years and the crooked mirror hanging above the 40 year old vanity and above that were three low watt light bulbs.    It wasn't necessarily pretty but it it was mine. 

Barn  boards trimmed to size.   

 
     
Change is hard for some.  I must be one of those type of individuals.    Half of our old basement bathroom was covered with old weathered barn board siding that someone found and used.  We left one wall as it was, but the rest of the barn boards were taken down.   Most people would have discarded those boards.   If it is made out of wood, I just can not seem to throw it away.   Maybe that is why I can not seem to shrink my sacred wood scrap  pile.

One thing about working with weathered boards is
you do not have much in the way of sanding. 

   After the initial remodel job, one of the things I missed right away was my clock and I wanted to make some kind of shelf to set my clock on.    (When you are retired and you are coming out of the shower you will want to know how much time you have left before the news comes on.  It's a DAG thing.)     Pam purchased a new clock for the one of the walls in this bathroom, but it wasn't hanging on the wall that normally held the clock.  (Yep! Change is hard for some.)

A new shelf for a clock

    One of the things that happens as you saw old weathered barn boards is that the new sawn edges are no longer weathered.   I had not done this before, but wanted to play around with the idea of creating a weathered look.    I even painted the exposed knots with a little red paint and then sanded those areas back a little.  Actually, that seemed to work quite well.

An old shelf for a clock

   Next I purchased some gray stain and I applied that to all the new sawn areas of wood.    I even dabbled a little gray stain here and there on the sides of the barn boards. 

   I did not apply any varnish or coating to the finished shelf. 

   Then I mounted it on the wall where it would be out of the way and mounted my clock where I can find the time first thing.   

    Yep!   Four hours and twenty nine minutes til news time.   (Let's see now...  where is my doggone bath towel...)