Ecologue.com

DIY Bathroom Style

By Natural Home Staff

A New Kind of Tile

Are you looking for a unique and lovely high-end custom look for a bathroom backsplash at a reasonable price? With an open mind, you can have a new look in minutes. By using a clear sticky mounting sheet specially made for mosaics, you can turn lots of unusual things into mosaic tile: glass globs, pebbles, seashells, horn buttons, seaglass, pennies, and even galvanized steel hardware. It’s not hard and it’s a great way to get a new look in minutes!

Setting Mosaic Tile

If you’re setting tile for the first time,, familiarize yourself with the tools, materials, and techniques. Check out how-to instructions at TheTileDoctor.com.

A New Life for Tiles

For a funky border with a fun, industrial edge, use galvanized steel washers or flanges. Visit your local hardware store’s fasteners department for an array of interesting finds. The galvanized finish on most hardware makes it perfect for a humid location. Spice it up by using tiny glass marbles, or stay with the industrial, hardware theme by using nuts or tiny brass washers.

A Bigger Bathroom

Need more room? You can have a bigger bathroom by the end of the day. A swinging door needs 9 square-feet of space to operate. A sliding door needs a mere 2-inch wide slice. With bathrooms serving so many functions—laundry space, storage area, water closet— swinging doors consume too much space. Simple hardware made for sliding barn doors permits you to create sliders without the complicated carpentry required to install a pocket door. Bonus: the door doesn’t have to fit perfectly into the door opening. Visit your local architectural salvage and building surplus yards to recycle and reuse those cool old doors that can easily be found.

Barn Sliders for Beginners

Mounting your sliding barn door will require a few things. Use our list and save time! First you need:

A DOOR: It should be wide enough to cover the opening in your wall plus 2 inches. The height should cover the wall opening. It can be taller because you can adjust how high you hang the rail.

BOX RAIL: The track that the door slides in. Cut it long enough to span the wall opening plus the width of the door so it can slide all the way out of the way. Remember that nothing can be flush against the wall where the box rail is hung because the door will slide along the entire length.

BOX RAIL BRACKETS: Brackets that mount flush onto the wall and hold the box rail for the door to slide in. You’ll need one bracket every 24 inches to support the rail and the weight of the door. The brackets attach using one wood bolt.

BOX RAIL HANGERS : with trolley (the wheel assembly) and strap (the plate that attaches to the door). You’ll need two hangers for each door. The hanger attaches to the door via the metal strap using three nuts and bolts that go through holes drilled through the door. Countersink for a clean look.

BOTTOM GUIDES: There are numerous ways to make sure your door slides straight. One easy way is to attach a piece of 2x2-inch wood to the floor a couple inches out from the wall creating a “track” for the door to glide in to. This strip of wood acts as a guide only. It need not run along the threshold of the door opening, but only along the wall that the door slides in front of when open. If you like, the guide can be secured directly into the floor with decking screws.

ASSEMBLY: Measure, mark, and predrill all pieces of your door system. Assemble it completely before hanging. Attach the hangers to the doors first. You’ll need an adjustable crescent wrench or appropriate-size socket wrench to tighten the bolts. Next, slide the trolleys into the box rail and then slide the hangers onto the box rail. Attach the hangers to the wall using predrilled holes. This last step will require a second person to hold the door while you screw the hanger bolts in place. Add your bottom guide, find a chic door handle and you’re done!

One source for barn slider hardware is National Manufacturing (NatMan.com). Their hardware comes with all the elements discussed here including the nuts and bolts needed for installation.

What is it?

It’s a towel rack. It’s a photo gallery. It recycles some of those pesky jewel cases we seem to collect. It combines all those things to solve a laundry problem. WHAT IS IT? Your latest recycled project! By personalizing a jewel case and a space for a towel for each family member, they can keep track of which towels are theirs and are more likely to hang them up and reuse them. What a concept!

Fun, fun soap on a rope (or in a bag)

Don’t throw away those little slivers of soap left in the soap dish; they still have lots of use left in them. Collect several as well as a few small net bags and make a super-simple super scrubber to hang in your shower. Recycle! Reuse! Save Money!

This project takes seconds to make and the kids can even help! Cut off the end of two small net bags. Put one bag inside the other for a double layer. Tie one end of the bag closed with hemp or cotton string. Stuff the bag full of soap scraps. Tie closed with another longer length of string and tie the ends of this string into a loop for easy hanging. Enjoy your sudsy, scrubby ball of soap. If your kids need something to do, let them make the soap on a rope and then try it out for themselves. They may even come up with a cool name for your new recycled invention.

Going Green in the Bath

DIY Bathroom Style

Advertisement