Build to Organize Challenge – DIY Pipe Shelves for the Bathroom

This year I’m teaming up with 38 other bloggers for a series of monthly DIY challenges – every month I will be posting a themed project post on the 15th and then a round up of my favourite shared projects on the 30th!

Our first challenge of the year is the Build to Organize Challenge and I’ve created some extra shelving storage in our main bathroom with these DIY pipe shelves with simple pine boards!

For the past year or so we’ve had this cabinet in our upstairs hallway – it’s a great cabinet, and it’s been holding random cleaning supplies and things like sunblock and travel sized toiletries. I’d really like to relocate this cabinet to a bedrooms, which means finding a new home for all those objects.

And so, the creation of these bathroom shelves!

Chris and I really like the rustic/industrial look of pipe shelves and thought they would work really well with the shiplap in our main bathroom.

There is enough space to hold all our supplies (and then some) and there’s room under the bottom shelf for the upstairs litter boxes.

These shelves use regular pipe parts that you can get at your local hardware store. To create the shelves I used the following ½” pipe:

8 x pipe, 18” length (for uprights)

8 x pipe, 12” length (to support shelves)

8 – flanges

6 x Tees

2 x elbows

2 x caps

I wiped down all the pipe pieces with a degreaser on a cloth and then gave everything a coat of paint using Rust-Oleum Universal spray paint in oil rubbed bronze.  Once the paint was dry everything was screwed together!

Actually installing the shelf uprights is easier with two people so one person can hold the upright while the other makes sure to mark where the screws will go into the wall – use a level!

Once your first upright is installed and you’re marking the placement for your second, make sure they are level – we found adjusting the height of the bottom pipe or cap the easiest way to make small adjustments.

The shelves themselves are made from some 11” wide pine boards with a little special walnut stain and a few coats of poly.

We love our new shelves and I’m happy to say that the red cabinet is ready to be emptied and ready to moved to it’s new home!

Make sure to check out all the other challenge participants

1905 Farmhouse, Abbots at Home, Bitterroot DIY, By Brittany Goldwyn, Creative Ramblings, Cribbs Style, Delicious & DIY, DIY Beautify, DIY Danielle, Dukes and Duchesses, Girl, Just DIY, Happily Ever After, Etc, Health, Home & Heart, House by the Bay Design, House on Longwood Lane, Just Measuring Up, Kenya Rae, Little Bits of Home, Living Letter Home, My Kitchen My Craft, Pinspired to DIY, Red Cottage Chronicles, Refashionably Late, Renovating Mapleson Manor, Savvy Apron, Shine Your Light, Shrimp Salad Circus, Songbird Blog, Southern Revivals, T.Moore Home, The DIY Dreamer, The DIY Village, The Frugal Homemaker, The Handyman’s Daughter, Two Feet First, What Meegan Makes, Zucchini Sisters

16 thoughts on “Build to Organize Challenge – DIY Pipe Shelves for the Bathroom”

  1. OOOOH- I am really feeling this industrial look and had not taken the time to research how to create it – this looks easier than I thought – thank you so much for sharing! Looks awesome!

  2. So pretty and perfect for my son’s bathroom! Do you have an estimate of the material costs? Thank you for sharing!

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