Bathroom Open Shelving Turned Built-In Linen Cabinet

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We had this open shelving in our master bathroom and as much as I tried to keep it nice and organized, it always ended up looking messy and acting like more of a catch all. I couldn’t take it anymore!

The original plan was to demo the shelves and the left wall and expand the shower. But when I got to this project, Tyler really didn’t want to deal with checking to see if it was a load bearing wall or not. Plus I had already gotten rid of the storage under the vanity and thought it would be smart to keep the storage. We did expand the shower forward about half a foot so that helped make it bigger. My idea with this was to rip out all the shelving and build a built-in linen cabinet or armoire. I wanted it to look like a piece of furniture and a little vintage feeling.

First things first: DEMO! I started by clearing off the shelves. I threw away or donated things we didn’t need anymore and organized the rest into boxes and baskets.

Here’s the first video I put together on this project.

Then I started removing the shelves. I scored the caulk line with a razor knife and then used my hammer and trim puller to pry them off. I got 2 shelves done before dinner.

Tyler must have been in the mood for demo, because I got back from my trip (I’m a flight attendant full time) and he had removed all the shelves for me.

Then I started taking the shelf supports off the same way I did the shelves. I scored them with a razor and pried them off. I got them all off but the top one, it was on there REALLY well! Tyler had to help me with it, turns out, they screwed the top one in and covered the screw head for some reason whereas the others were just attached with long brad nails. He had to hit it with a hammer until it finally broke off and he pried the rest off.

Once that was all demoed I started building the bottom cabinet out of 3/4in sanded plywood that would hold the drawers, I used wood glue, pocket holes and 1.25in pocket hole screws to put this together. I’m building this in 2 pieces because 1 piece of plywood wouldn’t reach as high as I’d like since a sheet of plywood is 8ft tall and my ceilings are over 9ft tall and I didn’t want that much wasted space at the top.

Then I put together a base for the cabinet out of 2x4s. I always do this when adding built-ins, this gives space to allow for a baseboard at the bottom, it also helps ensure the base is level. I also put this together with wood glue and pocket holes.

I installed the base by screwing it into the studs after making sure it was level. When I measured for this I left a tiny bit of wiggle room because walls are never 100% straight, the front of this opening was about half an inch smaller than the back. I did the same thing when measuring for the cabinet.

Then I had a little bit of a freak out moment because I built this cabinet in the kitchen and never once measured to make sure it would fit through both doorways!

But luckily for me it fit and I didn’t have to take it apart and rebuild it inside the bathroom! Here’s my relieved face that it fit through the doors and in the opening!

Next it was time to build the top cabinet. I’m using 3/4in sanded grade plywood for these cabinet boxes so that they are nice and sturdy since this is going to be so big. I got this one put together and then figured out that somehow I measured wrong and the ends didn’t fit! The problem with that was, the ends were correct but the bigger pieces were not. I had to take it all apart and then I was frustrated so I waited a couple days to try again.

Luckily the piece was too big and not too small, so all I had to do was take it apart and trim some width off the back piece. I got it put back together and it was perfect this time!

It was so big I couldn’t move it on my own, so Tyler helped me get it into the bathroom and set it up.

We sat it down and then lifted it up right and then came up with a game plan. He would tilt it a little so I could get my fingers underneath and then we would lift. The goal was to get the back left corner on top of the other cabinet so we could slide it in place.

It was a tight fit towards the top because again, walls are never straight and they came in about an inch at the top of the opening compared to the bottom. I’m glad I left that much wiggle room! Tyler had to get in front of it and push it in.

Then we lined up the front of the cabinets and screwed them together, then we screwed the top one into the studs, making sure it was square. This thing is going to be HUGE!

Then it was time for the shelves. I had some pieces of plywood left from cutting down these cabinets, but they were a little shorter than I wanted them to be. I ended up gluing and screwing together 2 pieces of plywood to make sure they were the length I needed them to be for this cabinet. The joint would be in the back and hard to see unless you were searching for it.

For the spacing of the shelves I decided I wanted the bottom two to have more space than the two above them, then the very top space would be large too. I used scrap pieces of wood as spacers to set the shelves on while I screwed them into place.

You can see the spacers in the next photo, I have them leaning against the sides and then when I set the shelf on them I make sure they are pushed up against the sides flat.

Look how great they look! Can you see it coming together?? Do you have faith in me??

Now that the shelves were in I could make the face frame. I used red oak that I picked up from Home Depot for this because it’s a nice dense type of wood that doesn’t warp as easily as softer woods do. It’s also really pretty and I used it on my vanity so I wanted all the wood in this bathroom to be the same (with exception to the TP cabinet). Always use wood glue!

I had Tyler stand on the end of it so it wouldn’t move since this piece was way too big for one of my clamps to hold together.

Then Tyler got busy and Mia helped with the other side. Mia: “Are you almost dooooone???”

Then a test fit!

I also have another piece here to add but I wanted to stand it up in place and mark where it needed to go before adding it. It’s to separate the drawer cabinet from the shelf cabinet.

I got that marked and put onto the face frame using pocket holes on the back and held it up again for a test fit.

Before I installed it I wanted to stain it first because it would be way easier that way vs. having to tape off the inside of the cabinet and the wall and stain it after it’s installed. But I had a small problem, it had been a few months since I stained my vanity and the stain was sitting in the hot garage and probably not sealed well. It hardened and was unusable. My neighbor gave me this stain so I wasn’t sure where he got it. Home Depot and Lowes carry Varathane, BEHR and Minwax stain, but I wasn’t sure where to get DuraSeal. Luckily when I went to their web site I found a location not too far away and Tyler stopped by and grabbed me some!

Once he brought that home I was able to stain the face frame!

I decided to add the dividers in the face frame before I installed it, I used 1×2 red oak boards for this and used pocket holes to attach them.

This was so exciting! It finally started to look like a piece of furniture! I could see it in my head just holding it in place!

Then I held it in place while I made sure it was level and used my brad nailer to attach it to the wall and cabinet.

Proud moment right here! I love using Red Oak!!

After the face frame was attached I started installing the drawers. My thought was that I’d climb into the cabinet and install the drawer slides…

…but I didn’t fit past the drawer openings! So I had to do it the hard way! My arms are short and I could barely reach all the way to the back. I started by adding spacers to the inside so that the drawer slides would be flush with the face frame. I used wood glue and brad nails to connect these 1/4 in poplar pieces since I made the face frame opening 1/2in smaller than the cabinet opening, if that makes sense?

Then I installed the drawer slides on top of those. These are by far my favorite drawer slides! They are soft close and work really well!

After that I got to work building the drawers out of 1/2 in plywood. It’s lighter and cheaper than 3/4in plywood and perfect for what I needed it for. I cut the drawer pieces to size and then used wood glue and brad nails to build them. You want the drawers to be 1in smaller in width than the opening since the drawer slides are both 1/2 each.

Then I got the other side of the drawer slides installed on the drawers and slid them into place.

It was going great! Then I broke the middle drawer slide somehow. So I had to order another one and wait for it. I don’t know if it was something I did wrong, but these still are the best drawer slides I’ve ever used.

Looked like the back soft close feature somehow broke off. So I just left the drawer in there until the new slides came in. The box was open and damaged with the drawer slides sticking out when it was delivered, so I think that slide was a little bent.

While I was waiting on that package I started on the doors. My plan here was to add arched doors. This was going to be a challenge for me, but I saw Lauren (@Farmhouseish on Instagram) made something similar to what I wanted so I rewatched her highlight on her dining room built-ins to create a game plan. Below you will see Lauren used pocket holes to attach 1x2s to a piece of plywood, then drew a half circle using a string and cut it out with a jigsaw creating the arch on the inside of the doors leaving the outside square. (Check it out! she has her husband stand on things too! haha)

They looked great! But I was planning on staining them and not painting them so I couldn’t use plywood. I went to home depo and picked up a 1x10x96 piece of red oak that cost me over $100! But it would be worth it!

I cut it down to size and started on the doors. I was using 1×3 boards instead of 1x2s like Lauren used, but they looked too thick so I trimmed them down by about 1/2in to make them a true 2in wide, a 1×2 is actually only 1.5in wide. I would have bought 1x2s but they were warped at the store and I needed them as straight as I could get them. I lined the 1x3s up with the 1×10 that I cut down and marked where the would go, then I took a string and tied it to a pen holding the other end of the string at the corner if that makes sense? Then I drew a quarter circle on each door.

I cut the quarter circles out with a jigsaw.

But the oak is super dense and the blade didn’t cut perfectly straight so you can see the slope where I cut. But I used this flush trimming router bit with my router to fix it and it was just fine.

I put the doors together just like Lauren did and brought them in to test fit them before I got them stained.

They fit! I was so excited I had to do a little dance!

I routed out the back where I could sit a peace of glass, then I stained the doors and got them installed with these super pretty vintage looking butt hinges.

I was a little frustrated once I got them in because they weren’t lining up correctly at the top or bottom. I thought the doors were warped somehow.

But they sure were pretty!

I put that problem aside for now and I used that 1×10 piece of red oak and cut it down to size for the drawer fronts and then routed the edges with this decorative router bit.

Once the drawer fronts were all routed I sanded the rough edged down a bit and got them stained and ready to install! Look how pretty that grain is!!

For the first drawer front I installed the middle one first to make sure it was equal distance from the top and bottom drawer and made sure it was equal distance front the left and right, made sure it was level, held it on with my foot and shot a couple brad nails in so that they could hold it in place as I opened it. Then I held it in place better with a couple clamps and screwed it in from the inside.

I did the same with the top and bottom drawer fronts.

My neighbor, Shane, suggested I place the hinges closer to the top and bottom, so I removed them and relocated them more spread apart and it seemed to do the trick for the most part on what I thought was a warping issue.

Then it was time for the door hardware. I was scrolling Pinterest when I found this photo and fell in love with the hardware! I had to search for what it was called, turns out they are called Cremone Bolts and they are vintage, beautiful and exactly what I wanted for this space!! I reached out to a few different companies to see if they would do a collaboration, this hardware in exchange for social media content. I was fully prepared to pay the price for these as a splurge but I figured I’d reach out first. Signature Hardware got back to me and sent me a couple Cremone Bolts and I was ecstatic!! I love their store and I love working with them as well! It was time to get them installed, they are pretty straight forward.

Except the screws that came with them were the pretty antique color but they were a soft metal and stripped really easy since this wood is so dense. We ran to the hardware store to find some better screws that would work better with the oak, then Tyler helped me get them installed. These are actually made for a door so we needed to cut the metal pieces down that go from top to bottom. My neighbor, Toni, works on cars and luckily has a cut off wheel that can cut metal and a grinder to smooth the ends out.

I installed the lower pieces while Tyler helped me with the top pieces because I couldn’t reach. The way these work is you turn the handles and they push the metal rods down into the metal pieces at the bottom and same with the top to lock it and you twist the knobs the other way to unlock and open.

They are just so pretty and perfect for this cabinet!

I didn’t know the first clue about where to get glass, but I knew I wanted it reeded. Then I was at Home Depot one day looking at their plexiglass and I found this plastic material that looks reeded, it’s often used for the walls of a greenhouse. This stuff is super light weight too!

I brought a sheet of this home and measured the width of the opening of my doors and then measured from the bottom to the very top of the arch.

I cut down the pieces with my jigsaw and a new sharp blade. I brought the piece in and held it up to place and traced the arch with a sharpie and then brought it back out and cut the arch out. I had to use the air compressor to blow out some pieces of plastic that got inside the hollow reeded part but that worked great!

I taped the pieces up at first to make sure they were going to work, then I brought them in and installed them with hot glue. The hot glue wasn’t the best idea so I need to go back and secure them better.

I had to take a step back to see what it looked like, I wanted to make sure it didn’t look like plastic. Turns out it looks amazing!!! Exactly what I wanted!

Next, after I did the ceiling treatment (more on that in another post), I added the top trim piece to this cabinet. I used a 1×2 red oak board I had left over and routed out a decorative edge and then stained it and installed it. I cut the corners at a 45 so they would wrap around the sides and I used my nail gun to secure it in place.

See the difference??

I added some door stops inside the cabinet at the top and bottom so we don’t HAVE to use the Cremone Bolts if we don’t want to.

Here’s a video explaining everything in a VoiceOver.

Then the linen cabinet aka armoire was done! Here’s a reminder of the before, when we first moved in.

And the beauty it is today!

What do you think? I had a lot of people tell me I was dumb for creating the cabinet boxes on the inside and that it was a waste of material. But my thought process was that I could have just attached the face frame to the drywall and left the original shelves, but I didn’t want this to look like a cheap DIY project, I wanted this to look like a piece of furniture that’s well made and that will last. Plus the drawers and doors are way more sturdy this way than they would have been if I took the “easy way out”.

Next up, the thing I’ve been excited about and dreading all at the same time! The shower!