Much Needed Stolen Space

Hello from the Mountain Cottage friends!

Every time we come up here, I'm grateful for little things. For one thing, a kitchen, still in the middle of a full reno, that has a faucet with running water. When you've had to walk to the other side of the house (which isn't that big) to get water from the laundry room, having a functioning sink and faucet is a BIG deal!
The bedroom and the world's smallest half bath upstairs are finished and I am grateful that it functions so well. We used every single inch of space that we could!

DIY Pottery Barn Inspired Medicine Cabinet

Well,  the worlds smallest half bath at the mountain cottage is fully functional! 

YAY!!!

Mr. DIY installed the sink, countertop and faucet last week and the little bathroom is open for business. 

(no pun intended)

There are a few more details that need to be finished up, so I can't show you the whole bathroom just yet. The wood apron on the underside of the countertop, a fabric skirt needs to be made and hung  and a doorway needs to be painted. 

In the meantime, I can show you an awesome storage detail I designed (and painted and stained) and Mr. DIY constructed... 

...a custom framed medicine cabinet...

Adding storage to every room is one of our highest priorities as we renovate the Mountain Cottage.

I figured we could build a deep medicine cabinet set into the wall and make it pretty with a stained framed mirrored door. 

Our inspiration came from Pottery Barn. 

(This mirror is no longer available)

Mr. DIY started out using the table saw to make the frame for the mirror out of   1 x 4's. The wood was trimmed down to 3" wide. 

Grooves( a dado) were cut around the frame - allowing the mirror to sit flush in the framed door

4 pieces of wood were put together to make the frame for the mirror using screws in pocket holes make with the Kreg Jig. 

Then the mirror was glued in place using construction adhesive.

The adhesive was smoothed out with a putty knife so that the hardboard would fit in the groove and tightly against the mirror. 

The Kreg jig was used to create pocket holes so that  the four sides could be screwed together Construction adhesive was used to to glue the mirror into  the frame frame and then to attach hardboard to strengthen and protect mirror

Here's how the back of the framed mirror looked at this point. 

The box is just 4 pieces of 1 x 6" cut down to 5" deep.  The Kreg Shelf Pin Jig was used to make holes so that the shelves could be adjustable. 

You can find the Kreg Shelf Pin Jig HERE

Here's the medicine cabinet box after a hardboard back had been put in. You can see the shelf pin holes drilled in the sides. The box was primed and painted with several coats of white paint

The framed mirror door is ready to be stained and the back painted. 

We found a can of MinWax Provincial stain in the workshop at the mountain cottage and I applied several coats to the frame of the mirror. 

I thought the stain wasn't quite right next to the countertop, so I bought a can of Rust-oleum Driftwood stain and applied a couple of light coats on top of the Provincial stain. 

It was perfect!
A couple of coats of clear poly was applied over the stain. 

We didn't like the look of the back of the door because of the gap between the hardboard and the frame and the pocket holes at the top an the bottom,

 so Mr. DIY found some wood scraps in the woodshed at the mountain cottage and glued them onto the back of the door. I stained the pieces of wood after they were attached. 

Here's the finished product!

You can't tell from the photo, but the Provincial stain come through in the knots in the wood and is the color the countertop is stained. (If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen how beautiful it turned out)

The door is attached with two 12" x 3/4" piano hinges

The medicine cabinet box is 22 wide x 28 high x 5" deep. 

That's 2.77 square feet of storage!

Mr. DIY attached a magnetic catch in the lower left corner of the inside of the medicine cabinet.

Our diy Pottery Barn Medicine Cabinet adds a good amount of storage in an otherwise wasted space.

What is one room in your house that could use more storage space???

Pam