I had a problem. Not a serious one. A first world one. Very first world. Not a 1% problem, certainly, but at least top 10%.

I was given a DC Brau Beer sign by my Father-in-law. I hung it on the wall using some Tapcon concrete screws (the wall is covered in an adobe, then a plaster/concrete, then cinder blocks). But it hung on a wall on the other side of a large mirror from three guitars. What’s the best way to match three guitars? Three beer signs, duh. Ok, maybe this is a 5% problem.

So I bought a couple more signs from two of my favorite breweries —  Saranac and Dogfish Head.

But the problem arose when the holes in the other two signs were not big enough for the Tapcon concrete screws. There are kids starving in our cities, and this is how I spend my time. Anywho!

I bothered my friend over at 1426ives. He suggested instead of attaching them directly to the awkward adobe wall, use a shelf. Brilliant!

I wanted a rustic, simple floating shelf, similar to this West Elm shelf, but without brackets and $70 cheaper, because I am cheap. It had to be over 50″ wide to accommodate the width of the three signs. So I ordered some blind shelf brackets for $20, which connect to the wall and insert into the shelf from behind, which makes the brackets invisible from the front.

I went to Community Forklift, out local recycled building supply store, and found a 10′ length of well-loved true 2″ x 6″ pine (I knew it was old because it was actually 2″; today’s 2×4′s etc. are only 1.5″x3.5″), that was likely once a ceiling joist. It had to be at least 5″ wide, or the brackets would stick out the other side, which would ruin the “floating” effect. I cut it down to 50″. Though they made me pay for the whole thing, it only cost me $10.

I brushed off the significant debris, but didn’t want to lose all the lovely patina the wood had earned over the years.

I even left the old nails etc. in it, since the shelf would not be in a place where people would catch themselves on them.

Then I slapped a coat of polyurethane on it to contain the dust etc., and let it dry.

Meanwhile, I worked on mounting the brackets to the wall. They came in three parts — the  bracket, the two-way screw, and the long metally dealy (technical term) that goes into the wood.

The two open holes receive regular screws (#8) that attach the bracket to the wall.

So, after marking the bracket hole placements on the wall while using a level, I drilled four holes into the wall to hold the two brackets to the wall that hold the screw to the metal dealy that support the shelf that would support the beer signs.

And screwed in the brackets…

Another problem — the brackets did not hold all that well. They went though a half inch of soft adobe and plaster/concrete before biting into real concrete blocks. I didn’t trust that they would hold, so I chipped away the adobe and plaster/concrete and reattached the brackets. They held much better.

Next I held the polyed and dried shelf up to the brackets, and Wif marked where the brackets hit the wood while the shelf was level. I was annoyed to discover I needed a 7/16″ bit to drill the holes in the wood to hold the shelves. I considered using a half-inch bit before thinking better of it. I bough the 7/16″ bit and drilled the marks. I also chiseled  the bracket profiles in the shelf so the shelf could sit flush against the wall.

All that was left was to slide the shelf into place and add the signs. And enjoy the fact that most of my problems are really, really frivolous.

Since our bathroom is so small, we had to be creative with storage solutions.  Here’s what we came up with.

Towel racks.  Wish we’d installed them a little further apart so the towels didn’t touch.  You live, and you learn.

Hand towel ring.  Not much to add.

Toilet paper holder.  Boo yah!

We had the contractor add this shelf in between the studs of the wall on the far side of the tub. 

We thought the shelf between the studs was such a good idea, we had our contractor build an extra shelf in the wall of the main part of the bathroom, but it’s only a dust collector so far.

Any ideas?

We’ve been done with the bathroom renovation for quite some time, but I didn’t post about it because I didn’t upload the pictures.  I’m just that lazy.

But finally, here they are!

Before:

Full Bathroom

During:

Destruction

After:

Full Bathroom Complete

For the illusion of additional height, we bought an extra long shower curtain and hung it very close to the ceiling. Plus we had the contractor tile all the way to the ceiling around the bath.  We only tiled the bath and the floor, and got a complementary paint color to do the rest.  The  light, mono-chromatic color palette also gives it an airier feel.

Before:

After:

A more pleasant place to urinate

Read more about this toilet’s sordid past.

Before:

After:

Before:

Old Sink Faucet

After:

New Sink Faucet

Before:

After:

We bought these here.

Before:

Old Medicine Cabinet

After:

New (to us) Vintage Mirror Off of Craigslist

The new light is from Lowes.  It was called “schoolhouse” something, and is similar to this, but I can’t find the exact same light we bought.

Floor Before:

After:

The floor is one of our favorite aspects of the renovation.  It looks like wood planks, but it’s 6×24″ porcelain tile with light smokey-sand colored grout.  We bought all the tile at Morris Tile in Hyattsville.  Besides inconvenient store hours, we found them awesome.

Gratuitous Shower Shot: