Build a small table for your bathroom

Over the years, I’ve stored extra bathroom items on the top of the toilet tank. However, space there is limited and it’s easy to knock things off due to that limited space. So, I was on the hunt for a small table to place over the tank in both of our bathrooms. I wanted something a little wider and longer than the area on the top of the tank. The table also needed to be tall enough to clear the height of the toilet. I searched far and wide and could not find one that I liked, had the right dimensions and that was also in my price range. Since I like to do lots of upgrades and projects, my goal is to do them as responsibly as possible. I’m also a big fan of reusing items and DIY so I headed to Habitat to see what I could find as ‘ingredients’ for my project.

I bought drawers for the base of the tables, cabinet doors for the table tops, and staircase spindles for the legs. All I needed was to make sure the drawers were long and narrow. They had to be long enough to have room to use the flush handle without hitting a table leg and narrow enough for the toilet lid to stand up straight and not at an angle where it would just fall back down or hit the back of the toilet occupant. I decided to start with the table for the downstairs bath.

Once I had the supplies home, I needed to figure out how to attach the legs to the drawer. The option I tried first was to place the legs inside the drawer so I could use the sides of the drawer for support. However, the drawer was not long enough for this plan to work, so the legs needed to be attached to the ends of the drawer instead so I decided I would need both construction glue and screws. The first step was to drill pilot holes for the screws then set the screws once the glue was applied. Clamps were used to secure the legs to the base while the glue dried – even though the screws were in place.

Measuring leg height
Measuring width & length

After the legs were study and dry, it was time to glue on the cabinet drawer to make the top of the table. Paint cans full of paint were perfect as weight to help the glue adhere to the drawer.

After everything was set, the next step was to apply some wood appliques to cover the screw heads. I found these at Home Depot. They are light weight so Elmers wood glue worked great to attach them. I decided on black paint – some water based interior paint I had on hand – and highlighted the appliques with some gold.

Painted
Gold applied

Happy with the finished look

Onto the upstairs bath table construction. I don’t have progress shots for the first table I made but since I decided to make a bigger one, I’ll show the steps to that one.

For my 3rd table, I decided to build the base as opposed to trying to find a drawer that was the right size. I started with a cabinet door and built a frame around it with 1×4 pieces of MDF that I had laying around. I used my nail gun and Elmers wood glue to attach the MDF to the cabinet door. Once again, I used construction glue to attach the legs but this time, I used the nail gun instead of screws for extra support. Can you tell that I love using clamps?

Since the cabinet door I found at Habitat was brown and made of something other than wood, I added a piece of bead board to the top so it would be easier to paint. Trim was added to the ends for some pizazz and also to cover the holes left by the nail gun nails. Elmers glue and nail gun were also used to attach the trim. I added a bit of wood putty on the corners where the trim met and on the nail holes then did a light sand and it was ready to paint.

Beadboard glued on
Trim attached to each end

I brought the table into the house to paint due to the garage temperature being a bit chilly. The family room doubles as my paint booth when it’s cold outside.

Ready for paint
Two coats grey paint

The size of the new table is much better than the first one. For some interest, I added a stencil that I found online. The original table is being used in the back garden as decoration and to hold up the golden raspberry vines.