DIY Industrial Shelves for the Bathroom

In this post, I’m sharing my new DIY industrial shelves that we installed in our guest bathroom.  Shelving is a great way to add more storage, and fill empty wall space in a bathroom. A while back I ordered some industrial shelf brackets for our guest bathroom, and they finally arrived! So, I spent some time this weekend preparing the shelves and installing them in the bathroom.  I was waiting on the shelves to “finish” the space, so I’m pleased to say the bathroom is done…for now, anyway. Read on to learn more about how we created and installed our DIY industrial shelves.

Before

Here is how the bathroom looked before our shelves were installed. In this bathroom, I’ve been going for an industrial farmhouse vibe, and it was almost there, but missing something. See that big blank space over the toilet?  I was trying to decide between artwork and shelves for a while, and the shelves won out. Who can pass up extra storage? Plus, I thought this would be the finishing touch I needed for this space.

Industrial Shelf Brackets

I purchased some 6″ industrial shelf brackets from DVAMetal on Etsy.  I searched all over for brackets that looked like these, but I kept finding ones that were either too deep, or way too expensive.  These brackets were just perfect for our bathroom shelves, and pretty affordable, too!

Source: DVAMetal

Shelves

To make the actual shelves, I bought a 12″ wide pine board from Home Depot, and we cut it down to two 24″ long x 6″ wide pieces. Instead of staining them, I decided to use Miss Mustard Seed’s dark antiquing wax, which I already had on hand. I really like the subtle antique color that the dark wax creates, and it also provides a nice protective coat, as well.

Source: Miss Mustard Seed

To mount the brackets to the bathroom wall, I used standard screws (with anchors) and small washers. One tip I want to share is that it looks much better if you spray paint your screws and washers before installing. I used Rust-Oleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint that I picked up at Home Depot, and just gave a quick spray to the washers and screw heads. You could also just use black, and they would look great, too.  The screws and washers were dry and ready to use in about 30 minutes.

To mount the brackets to the shelves, I used 3/4 inch wood screws. I also spray-painted these screws because you could see them from the underside, and I really wanted them to blend it with the brackets.

I love these little shelves so much, and they fill out that blank space above the toilet perfectly. I’m so happy with the way our DIY industrial shelves turned out. They really added the finishing touch to our industrial farmhouse bathroom.