If you have a small bathroom like I do, sometimes you have to get creative with storage. And one day it hit me (edited: see update below) – why not cut a few bowls in half and attach them to a board to store things like lipstick and manicure supplies? And so this wooden (half) bowl storage idea was born.
Cute, right? These can be customized to suit your situation; if freestanding storage is what you need, a stand can be attached to the back. If you’d prefer to mount it on the wall or the back of your door, that can easily be done too by adding a sawtooth picture hanger. Here’s what you’ll need for this project:
– 2 wooden bowls with a 7 inch diameter, I used these ones from Amazon
– 12 x 24 inch piece of wood
– 1/4 inch thick wooden dowel, 3 inches long (for freestanding version)
– Latex paint in the color of your choice
– Paintbrush
– Wood glue
– Saw (I used this scroll saw from Dremel)
– Drill
– Sawtooth picture hanger (for wall-mounted version)
1. First, begin by painting the top of your board. I chose white, but the sky’s the limit here.
2. Paint the backside as well, and do a second coat if the first one isn’t sufficient.
3. Be sure to paint the edges too, as they will be visible.
4. Next, use your scroll saw to carefully cut each bowl in half. The bamboo bowls that I used were difficult to cut through, so you may want to choose a softer type of wood. And be sure to wear protective eyewear… safety first!
5. Sand the raw edges of three of the bowls. You’ll have a half of a bowl left over… if you can think of a fun way to use it, please share in the comments section!
6. Now find and mark the center of the back of the board, half an inch up from the bottom.
7. [Skip this step if you will be mounting it on the wall.] Drill a hole part way through the board, taking care not to pierce through to the other side. Drill the hole at a 90 degree angle.
8. Make sure that your dowel fits snugly inside of the hole.
9. Next, measure halfway down the board on the left side and align it with the halfway point of one bowl. Place the other two bowls at the same level, evenly spacing them out along the width of the board. Mine ended up being 5 inches from the top, and had a half an inch in between and 1 inch on either end (which you can see better in the last photo).
10. Now glue the bowls in place. Let them dry thoroughly according to the instructions on the bottle.
11. If you will be using your bowl storage as a freestanding piece, glue the dowel into the hole that you drilled in step 7. If you will be mounting it on the wall or door, attach the sawtooth picture hanger to the back center about an inch down from the top of the board.
And that’s it, you’re finished! Now fill it up with all those odds and ends like lip balm and nail clippers… or anything that doesn’t have a good home.
Oh woah, this are amazing! I never would have thought to do that, but it’s so clever/useful. Nice!
Thanks!! Something a little different 🙂
Cute idea. You can often find very nice wooden bowls at thrift stores.
Oooh that’s a great idea Claudia… thanks for the tip!
This is my good friends design in Better Homes and Gardens. The exact pictures. Credit should be given where credit is due.
It’s shameful when a reputable site like Curbly rips off someone else’s idea, or allows one of their contributors to. I know Curbly is an aggregate site but that’s no excuse for not giving credit to the original source. Have some integrity.
Hi @anonymous and @Cassandra – thank you for your comments. We have updated the post to credit Pamela’s Better Homes and Gardens photo. We think it’s important to credit makers, and this was an oversight on our part. We’re sorry.
Just to be clear, the photos in this post are original and were taken by Faith for Curbly. And, I know her intention was to create a complete tutorial (which, to our knowledge, is not available online).
Thanks again for your feedback!