With three girls in my house, the bows and headbands were getting out of control in their shared bathroom. Previously, I made some headband holders and bow holders. They were overloaded and a bit unsightly. I had several windows and shutters in my garage waiting for a good project idea to hit me. With the desire to spruce up their bathroom, I came up with the idea to use a window and shutter to create an organizer for their hair paraphernalia. I was super excited by the idea as it served as cute décor with purpose. It was definitely a win-win situation; I got a larger window and a set of shutters out of my garage stockpile and created a quick organizer for all the bows, headbands, earrings, and misc items. My girls thought it was a hit, so I hope you enjoy it as well!
The very sad looking before photo: a ribbon frame bow holder and an owl earring holder.
Bathroom Window and Shutter 411
The window started out as a single pane old window without the crossbars. My initial plan was to use a Cricut to cut a message to stick on the window. After an accidental slip causing the pane to break, I decided to go with a Plan B for the glass area. Plan B included constructing my own crossbars using a router and glue. More on that later…
Easy Refinishing Step: Painting
The shutters were in need of a color correction from the cherry red. After separating the shutters into two pieces, I spray painted them with gray. Then, the window frame needed some refreshing with some white chalk paint.
Attaching the Shutters
Then, I attached the shutters to the window frame by attaching one side with the remaining hinges and the other shutter with pocket holes. (FYI: pocket holes are created with a Kreg jig. (If you need more info check out some of my other posts: Shutter Buffet, Living Room Set)
It was after this picture that the windowpane broke. After that mishap, it was on to plan B. I used 1/2″ square dowels and a router to cut out notches for the cross beams to fit together. Essentially, you are notching a 1/4 inch into the dowels in the spots you want the dowels to fit into each other. When they are pieced together, they should remain at 1/2″ width glued together. Four dowels and 8 notches. This requires starting with a square and tape measure to ensure your notches are going to line up correctly.
Shelves:
Using 1/4″ board scraps, I made some framed shelves for the bottom of the shutters. I thought of them like window flower boxes. Then, I used a metal screen to cover the openings of the shelves. It was easy to cut them to size and hot glue them onto the inside of the 1/4″ wood. Wood, glue, and screws attached the shelves to the shutters.
Pop-out Earring Holders:
With plan B in play, I was inspired to utilize the empty space for additional purposes. I decided to replace the hanging owl earring holder with an earring holder window square. The same square dowels were used for the frames as for the crossbars. In case you are interested, I include a tutorial on constructing an earring holder with a frame and metal screening on my picture frame post.
Shutter Headband Holder:
To say it simply, my 6-year-old has A LOT of headbands. The shutter pull bar was a perfect way to hold them in place.
Towel Hooks to Finish it Off:
The builders of our home put one long bar towel holder in this bathroom, which sufficed for the last 5 years. I was tired of not having a place to hang multiple towels separately. With that notion in mind, I decided to put up towel hooks on the bottom of the window frame. I’m really happy about the added options the double hooks now provide.
Bathroom Window and Shutter Finishing Touch
Using a fairly thick wire I had on hand and some fabric, I made a wreath for the window and shutter decor. I used the wire to “sew” (aka poke holes) into the material.
Then, the bows could then be easily clipped around the wreath.
With the placement of the headbands, bows, towels, and earrings, this window and shutter bathroom organizer was complete. After all the work was said and done, it was so much more beautiful than the previous version. Thankfully, my daughters corroborated that belief.
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