RECESSED SHELVING

My wife came up with the idea of adding some decorative recessed shelving for the bathroom.

After building the recessed shell in the wall, I used #2 pine to make the shelves.

I traced out random swirls onto the shelves, and routered a shallow groove for filling with colored epoxy.

I varied the amount of coloring tint, in order to show different shades of purple. This lined up good with the multicolored wallpaper in the bathroom.

Rather than stain the boards, I tried a new product that you apply to the wood to give it an old weathered look. The finished product really blended well with the colored epoxy that I used.

Before applying the weathering product, I sanded the boards down to 1,000 grit, and then used a polishing compound on the epoxy swirls. This turned out to be a bad choice. As you can see in the second picture, the weathering didn’t soak into the wood well, where I had used the polishing compound. I had to sand the boards all down again, to correct the finish.

To mount the shelves into the cabinet shell, I used 3/16” dowels to line up with a hole in the back of the shelves, and notches in the sides of the shelves.

I used a ¼” router bit to make the notches.

I polished the shelves with paste wax for a smooth water resistant finish.