Pool Towel Storage Solution
If you’ve ever had a pool you know that three kids and a bunch of friends produce a ton of wet towels. If your kids are like mine they use a towel, drop it somewhere and awhile later they’re reaching for a new dry towel. The first towel was still clean just wet. This all makes for an unnecessary and huge laundry load.
My attempt at addressing this was to install a used, re-furbished clothes dryer in my shed so I can dry towels that don’t need to be washed. I also wanted a place to store these towels outside where they will used.
I decided to see what scrap material I had in my workshop to see if I could make a quick and dirty towel storage cabinet out of recycled materials.
My solution was to build this towel storage cabinet which was large enough to store 30-40 large beach towels.
I had a piece of honed, black granite left over when they cut out my kitchen gas cook top which was the perfect size for a large cabinet. I designed my towel storage cabinet dimensions to fit under this granite piece.
I also had a bunch of scrap 3/4″ AC plywood left over from a job. I ripped my two sides, bottom and two small strops for the top.
The next was to make the dadoes in the sides and bottom to interlock the sides of the towel cabinet for strength and ease of assembly.
The dado blade is used to cut both the tongue on the bottom shelf and top slots as well as the grooves in the towel cabinet side panels.
In the background is the towel cabinet side groove. I’m holding the bottom shelf that will interlock the sides.
View of the bottom of the cabinet. I kept the bottom shelf off the floor for several reasons. One it looks better and is easier to apply a beefier face frame, two it allows for a tow kick if desired, and three the cabinet installs and sits better on an uneven floor.
The towel storage cabinet is dry fitted before gluing and nailing it together. The granite will be glued to the two slats and side panels.
If you look at the bottom shelf I was short in plywood material. I will address this by adding a nosing the the plywood to bring it flush to the cabinet sides.
Towel cabinet glued, nailed and clamped together.
Next I need to make a face frame from some scrap poplar I have left over from a bookcase I built recently. I also have a recycled cabinet door I removed and saved from a prior remodel.
My goal is to make this cabinet 100 percent recycled material by using the scrap cabinet door and fitting it to my face frame.
I used poplar and pine, not my normal cabinet making practice, for the face frame. The cabinet door used to be in my office but was removed to convert a bookcase into file cabinet drawers.
Face frame attached to the base cabinet.
The granite sits on the base cabinet and is secured with silicone.
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