Water closet shelving

I had originally planned on installing a standard cabinet over the toilet in our master water closet, since there is not any other storage solution in there.  Since we eventually plan to redo our master bathroom and would be getting all new cabinetry, I decided to hold off on that idea for a while, so that everything would match.

  However, I've recently saw floating shelves in a diy magazine that were put up in a living room.  That got me thinking that maybe I could put something together now and solve my problem.

The plans I came across in my magazine used a standard wood box, attached to the wall using a cleat.  The box was made out of plywood and covered with a veneer.  Since I've never worked with a veneer, I thought I would modify the plans, eliminate the plywood and stain the wood used.

Since I changed the plans, I didn't want a plain board on the front with its edges exposed.  That lead me to run a bevel on the length of the shelf, which is much easier said that done without a table saw.  In this picture, you can see the rear support section of the self where it will attach to the cleat on the wall.

I didnt really have any idea how high to put the self up initially, so I did held it in place while my daughter took pictures until I found an ideal setup.

Here is a picture of the dry fit before staining the shelves.

Here is a picture of the cleat system I used to secure the shelves to the wall.

I love the way dark walnut stain looks, so that was an easy decision.  I used two coats of stain and two coats of poly for a nice clean finish.

Here is a picture of the first shelf going up.

Here is a picture of the finished project.