Every Man Should Have a Place to Put His...Deodorant

When I was a little girl there were two things every dude needed to be eligible for a man card. One was to serve in the military.  The other was knowing how to fix things.  All the men I knew had done those things so I thought it was just something guys did.  So when Señor Hotness needed a bathroom shelf solution, clearly he, being a guy, knew how fix the problem himself.

So even though our new house is beyond fantastically awesome.  Our master bathroom is somewhat humble as far as master bathrooms go these days.  I'm just happy to be able to take baths in peace without little ones randomly wandering in disrupting that peace and tranquility.  That being said we do have double sinks (bonus), and ONE medicine cabinet...on MY side.

See isn't it pretty.  Better yet it holds all those things that make women mysterious.  Like, tweezers, nails clippers, and...deodorant (this should be read in a breathy voice thus upping the MYSTERY).

According to Señor Hotness he too needed a place to shelve his goods, but because he's a man not interested in mystery, he wanted to do a small open shelf.  So after sketching, then coming up with a design he liked, it became a bit of brain bug for him that he couldn't get out of his head.  You know the kind that keeps you awake at night, that you think about day and night (this is not factual), and talk to your wife about none stop (totally true)...

So we wanted to procure some galvanized pipe fittings for this little project.  However, that is where we ran into our first snag.  Someday I'm going to do a project with no snags.  It will be glorious, to be sure...but I digress.  They didn't have everything we needed in plain galvanized.  They did, however, have a plethora of options in blackened pipe (which basically looked like a super greased galvanized pipe), and the best part was that they were actually cheaper.

Here is Señor Hotness degreasing the blackened pipes. Please excuse the mess.  I'd like to give a good excuse for this, but truthfully its just a by product of extreme laziness.

All clean...

After removing the old towel ring he then pre-drilled for the wall anchors.  Don't worry peeps he didn't hang extraordinarily heavy pipe simply using wall anchors.  Two out of every four holes lined up with a stud, because my stud knows how to find the studs.  Sorry for the bad pun, I couldn't resist. Actually I could, but I didn't want to.

He secured the middle piece first.

Then he double checked it to make sure it was all plumb.  For those not in the know, plumb is achieved when the bubble is in-between the lines on the middle gauge of the level.  The more centered the better, but anywhere in between those lines is totally fine.

At this point he joked that his vision had been achieved.  Clearly I'm not the only one with a sarcastic sense of humor in this relationship...our poor children.

The board he was using was a 1x6 piece of oak.  Just FYI, oak is known for being a hardwood.  So to save himself time, and effort we (and by we I mean he) held the boards up there while I pencil marked the holes so he could pre-drill them.  My one useful contribution to this project.  I'm of course not counting all the many times I offered him up my witty replies, and useful insight.  I'm just kidding I was pretty much just a smart aleck in the background with a camera on this one.

Also as you can see from the kid head in the corner of this picture.  It was hard for me to truly help because all of our littles were on deck and ready to lend a helping hand.  The teen and the tween couldn't be bothered to help out on this one.  The finished product did get their stamp of approval though.

After he finished pre-drilling he assembled the other pieces for easier installation.

The hardest thing about the assembly was working around the pipe to get all the screws properly secured.

Here it is partially done.  Then through the magic of the blogosphere...

Bam! Its done.  Well, mostly at this point we had not yet stained the wood.

Here are just a few up-close shots of the fittings.

I love that you can see the "1/2" that is on the pipe, and that he added a towel rod.  I'm in love with a very industrial country feel to things, and I love when the metal is married into design.  I especially love it if it seems aged, and that is the exact feel that we get once we cleaned to goop (technical term) off of those blackened pipes.  

I couldn't resist staging things just to get a glimpse of how awesome it could be, but...

Then it was time to bring this project home.  So we, and by we, I mean Señor Hotness, took this out to the man room off the garage to stain it.  The stain he used was American Heritage made by Minwax.

After letting it dry overnight he gave it a coat of polycrylic.  I don't think it really needed the protectant coat badly, but with it possibly getting toothpaste or shaving cream residue on it I wanted the surface to be washable.

Staining the wood really steps the whole thing up a notch.  I love how the stained wood really adds a whole other depth of color to the entire piece.  The pipes seem to be a richer color when in truth all that happened was the boards got a darker shade.

This was Señor Hotness's first attempt at staging for a photo.  It was a nice effort kid, but...

I think mine looks better.  The ibuprofen looks so incredibly awesome in the glass jar that I may decide to do that with my vitamins too.

But always in the end I like to keep it real so this is what it usually looks like.  It adds a super rustic vibe to our bathroom, and it turned out so incredibly cool its not even funny.  

linked up at: jannolson.blogspot.com, thededicatedhouse.com, savvysouthernstyle.net, www.funkyjunkinteriors.net, www.shakentogetherlife.com, the-chicken-chick.com