This post contains affiliate links. If you have been following me, you know that we took on a major 1930s house renovation project when we purchased our house in August 2021 (you can catch up with our journey here). Well, with a full time job and so much to do on the house, it is really really difficult to completely finish one project at a time, with so many little (and big) jobs to start and complete. We have finally finished the bathroom and today I am sharing with you how we built these shelves to hide the ugly pipes in our beautiful bathroom.
We started the bathroom renovation project back in late April/early May last year. It took the trades around 5 weeks to complete the bathroom as there was so much work that needed doing, you can read more about the process here. Once the bathroom was fitted and [nearly] completed, we had a few jobs that needed finishing, such as stripping the doors and repainting them, caulking everything and of course hide this eyesore!!!
To ensure we got the layout we wanted, there was quite a bit of plumbing work that needed to be done as pretty much everything had to be moved around!! We always knew that the 3 inch soil pipe will be an ugly eyesore that will need some clever disguise, we literally had no other place to put the toilet if we wanted the large shower and freestanding bath. I also really didn’t want a concealed toilet (as I am not really a fan and we also didn’t want to lose too much space* by installing a concealed toilet).
*our soil pipe was originally on the opposite side of the bathroom, and we couldn’t move it as otherwise it would come down to the front of the house which was a big no no, so we had to feed the soil pipe all the way around to connect to the old soil pipe and drainage.
.Originally, were going to get a joiner in to build us a nice shelving unit around, however, unfortunately he was so busy we would have to wait a couple of months before he could do it.. So I decided to tackle it myself and use up an old bookshelf that was left with the house instead.
I decided to strip the shelves apart, cut them to size and put them back together. As I started stripping the shelves apart I noticed there was quite a bit of (historic) woodworm damage. To be on the safe side, I treated the shelves using some woodworm treatment before I did anything else. I then used some woo filler to fill the holes and sanded smooth.
I cut the shelves to size and built it using some wooden noggings. I then screwed used some metal brackets to screw the shelving unit to the wall to make sure that the shelves don’t move or fall down. I cut the mdf board for the bottom shelf and using my nail gun attached it to the wooden battons I had screwed in.
The toilet was the tricky bit, not only it is curved it is also tricky to measure. I had to build a small timber frame and make sure the toilet cistern doesn’t move out of place.
I also had to cut a few oddly shaped mdf shapes to disguise the sides around the toilet and ended up chiseling a piece of my finger off in the process (ouch). I am happy to confirm I persevered, finger has healed and the tricky pieces of wood installed using lots of sticks like sh*t and brad nails. /and yes that is my blood on the mdf but just look at that fit…/
I primed the shelves and the MDF board and then painted all woodwork using Coat paint ” Good Intentions” shade (in eggshell) to match the walls. I finished the shelving unit by caulking it to hide any imperfections and gaps.
I love re-using old items and upcycling pieces, especially something that was left in the house and had obviously been in the family for many years.
Let me know what you think and come see more on my instagram page, where I share lots of behind the scenes and process in real time!
The shelves do a great job of hiding the pipe and now you have space to style and put lots of beautiful things
Wow, doesn’t it make you feel good to have one project completed?? I thought of y’all during Christmas working your buns off during the holiday, but you made good progress. I’m impressed with the bookcase & how you hid that pipe. I would have painted it white & called it “character,” haha.