Two Small Cabinets Become One Bathroom Storage Tower

Valerie Burge
by Valerie Burge
8 Materials
$10
3 Hours
Easy

My mom recently moved into a 1 bedroom condo. And one of the first things she noticed was the lack of storage space! She just had her old broken bathroom vanity replaced with a smaller one. And that left a little space between her toilet and vanity for a storage tower. So after visiting her last weekend I came home and looked around to see if I could find something to work in that space. I found a pair of little wooden cabinets I had just removed from our living room – and I thought these could work!

Before

The first thing I did was cut the feet off the smaller of the two, using a jigsaw. I’ve only used the saw a couple of times and it did a little damage and caused some splintering.  

Feet removal

I used wood filler and a putty knife to repair the damaged spots. 

Fixing the damage

Because my mom’s bathroom has mainly white, I thought the brown cabinets might look a little drab. But I loved the doors! So I sanded everything, except the doors, with an orbital sander.

Light sanding

Then I painted everything white, inside and out. After the first coat I noticed gaps in the cabinet floors. This was not visible when they were brown! I used Dap to caulk the cracks before the 2nd coat of paint.

Gaps
Sealing the gaps
Caulked and painted

When I placed the smaller cabinet on top of the bigger one, it was wobbly. So I figured out which corner was causing the problem, and used a wood shim to make it sturdy.


I glued the shim to the bottom of the top cabinet with wood glue. I ‘buttered’ the shim using a little dollar store precision brush.


A shim to make plumb

Once the glue dried I caulked the gaps around the shim with the Dap and did one final coat of white paint.


Then I screwed the top cabinet to the bottom one. I drilled pilot holes and used machine screws and lock nuts, so there would not be any sharp screws inside the cabinet to scratch momzy.

Attached using machine screws and lock nuts

Before I put the door knobs back on I found these cool medallions that I put on first.  

Pretty antique medallions

Then I sealed the paint with Mod Podge clear acrylic sealer and it was good to go!

After

I didn't spend any money on this makeover...but used maximum $10 worth of products.

I delivered it to my mom today and she loved it. The first thing she noticed was the medallions. She even bought me and my daughter an ice-cream to say thanks. She's a sweet mommy. :)

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4 of 52 comments
  • Bucko2000 Bucko2000 on Jul 03, 2020

    Looks nice and fits right into that spot. Well Done!

  • Carol f engler Carol f engler on Jul 04, 2020

    I needed some smaller cabinets for a small space. so I built three boxes. bottom one being a bit bigger than the middle one and the smallest on top. Screed each to the other and painted them outside and used sticky wallpaper on the inside. worked for me and I use scrap wood so only cost the time to do them.

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