Does your bathtub ever look like this?
Every evening after my son’s bath, I find that my bathtub is a menagerie of bath toys and shampoo bottles. We give him a bath in our master bath instead of upstairs in “his” bathroom, because our tub is much larger. I love that he has a great time in the bath, making up new games and squealing with delight when he gets splashed, but the bath aftermath is driving me crazy. I hate walking into my calm bathroom and seeing that mess.
I have searched high and low for some sort of bath toy storage container that blends with my bathroom decor, but all I could find where giant plastic frogs and brightly colored mesh bags. I know you know where I am going with this, right? I decided that I had to create my own bath toy storage!
I went through several different mental prototypes of the container I wanted to create, but I ultimately decided that I only needed two items to make this work – a lightweight planter and a plant stand.
Lightweight planters are easy to find. I chose a pot made from some sort of high density foam, so that it could withstand the bath splashes yet still be lightweight. This one came from Garden Ridge, but I have seen them at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and even Walmart.
I primed with planter and the plant stand with white spray primer and then sprayed them both with white paint. I used plastic spray paint on the planter and regular spray paint on the plant stand.
I’m not certain that I needed to use the plastic paint on the planter, but I was worried that regular paint would melt the foam. The first coat didn’t lay down as nicely as I thought it should, but it ended up being okay in the end. If you chose to do this project yourself, you may want to test both types of paint on the inside of your planter and go with what looks best.
After the paint dried, I used 100 grit sandpaper to antique the raised design on the planter. I just lightly sanded over those parts and was very happy with the result.
I repeated the process on the plant stand to make it look as “worn” as the pot.
Next, I used a drill to put some holes in the bottom of the pot for drainage.
When I was ready to attach the pot to the plant stand, my husband introduced me to some epoxy called J-B Kwik. It’s an epoxy that is made with steel and bonds very, very quickly. You have exactly four minutes before it’s set (I totally have that Justin Timberlake & Madonna song going through my head now).
Honestly, I think the J-B Kiwk was overkill and regular ole’ epoxy would have been fine, but Tom is obsessed with this stuff and was just dying for the opportunity to show me how to use it. We mixed it on a paper plate and used wooden coffee stirrers (that he’s apparently been taking from our favorite bagel shop every time he goes there!) to apply it directly to the planter. I then pressed the plant stand into the epoxy.
After the epoxy dried, I gave the bottom of the planter two coats of white spray paint since the J-B Kwik dries black.
After that last coat of paint dried, I flipped it over and admired my work. My new bath toy storage was then ready for it’s new home on my bathtub.
Don’t you love it? The best part is that the toys are actually inside of it right now, but you can’t even tell unless you get right on top of it. LOVE it!
Hey, Goofy! What up, dog?
Even if you don’t have children, I’m sure you could find plenty more to go inside of a water-resistant storage container like this one. Bath salts? Sponge? Razor and shaving cream? Don’t leave all that stuff lying around on the lip of your tub when you have something this custom and beautiful to hold them!
Make your container as large or small as you would like. The sky’s the limit when you are designing your decor!
Great idea. Kate takes a bath in our tub too for the same reason, plus it’s more convenient. It’s an otherwise relaxing room but the foam bath letters are overtaking the tub!!
That is genius! But I’d need a 40 gallon planter for all my dd’s toys.
pretty linds.
WOW! That is beautiful! Great job!
LOVE it! I feel the SAME way about toys, etc in my pretty bath.
I use a white/clear plastic container from Ikea. It has lots of holes, so you can even just plop all the toys in there and rinse off soap and bubbles. It also has hangers and suction cups to hang on the side of the tub.
Yours is so pretty though!
Ummm, Lindsay, you are a bona fide genius! A heads up for you: Target has little gnomes in their dollar section that would be perfect for TASSEL TOPPERS. I made two tassels out of them this weekend, per your wonderful tassel making instructions. Do I now stalk your blog? Possibly so. A blog post to follow about my new gnome-y tassels, because quite honestly I have a love for gnomes as well.
OMG. That is one FABULOUS idea. We are finally done with bath toys, but I may have to think of another reason to “steal” that idea. Have a great day!
You = Genius
Love it! Plus it looks classy!
I love this! Great idea! I think the best creations come to fruition when you can’t find what you want in the stores.
Oh what a fantastic idea! My daughter leaves bath toys around like she's Hansel & Gretel!
Veeery pretty. Great idea!! This is exactly why we don’t bathe our son in the big tub…but it sure is fun for him. 🙂 For now, the line of toys strewn through the bathroom is enough…
Love this idea!! It looks very designer! You should patent these!!
Have a great week!
Lou Cinda 🙂
I had this same problem! Except ours is a shower also, so I took kid’s sand buckets put all the toys in the buckets and hung them on the inside of the shower curtain. Out of side but handy when it’s bath time! Your idea is very cool!
J’adore that idea!!! Unfortunately, we have an old 70s tub….no real space around it to put something as cute as that. Maybe someday. Great tip, and love that you posted pics! 🙂
Oh you are so darn smart. I don’t have kids but I sure could use something pretty and functional like that in my bathroom.
great idea – thanks for sharing! I wish I had the room for something like this in our boys bathroom. the toys end up staying in the tub til next time, or til they start getting funky!
This is such a great idea and much better than the other things you could buy at the store.
Ruth
haha. hi Goofy.
What a great way to keep the toys nearby without looking run over by toys. I love it!
Katie
What a great idea. Makes me wish I had a bathtub full of toys.
Good thinking.
Sandra
WOW, that looks so cute! Your so clever!
All the best,
Allison
Great idea! I just might have to use it in my master bath. It has a garden tub that the kids love to bathe in so we always have a ton of bath toys everywhere.
I am continually amazed by other people’s bright ideas. I love this! So much better than ugly plastic bottles cluttering up the bathtub!
That looks great!
I have that same goldfish bath toy, but it always makes kids cry. I think it looks too real?
That. Is. FAB!!!!
I just love this. I need to do a little smaller version because my corner isn’t quite that big, but I can’t wait to do this and get rid of the plastic bin that’s holding them now. 🙂 Thanks for the great idea!
This is brilliant! Yours turned out just beautiful. Thanks for such a fab idea!!
What a wonderful idea! I don’t have a big enough corner to put it in our tub, but I’m thinking of making one and placing it next to the tub. I think I’ll buy one of the round cork pieces that go under planters to catch the water that drips out of it.
I love it! I have been pondering how on earth to hid all of the bath toys! Would you mind sharing where you got the pot and holder?
Thanks! You are so creative!
oops, just read that you got it at Garden Ridge…don’t know how I missed that.
So cute!
I will feature this on Home Sweet Home part of Worthington Wire all weekend.
Love it!
I love it!!! It is so decorative and adult looking. You are a genius ;o)
Hi Lindsay!
I’m new. 🙂 This is fantastic! My daughter’s bathroom doubles as a guest bathroom, and the pink plastic toy bucket just isn’t cutting it. I think I have to make one of these for myself!
Great idea…I didn’t know this stuff was around! I’m excited!!
this is exactly the project I needed to find!
thanks for showing
That's a great idea! I will definitely do something similar when we get a bathroom with enough room.
Oh, and JB Weld is my hubby's answer to everything, too. 🙂
Container
I had a similar problem and bought a cheap laundry basket and had my husband drill holes in the bottom for even better drainage. The biggest problem is the laundry basket takes up half of the space in the bathtub, and I bathe two kids at the same time.
That’s a really smart solution, Cindy!