Won't you be my Pallet-ine? - Pallet Shelf

I'm so, so sorry for the play on words but seriously, I'm swooning.  I know, it's past Valentine's day, but the love doesn't end there!  This is a love that lasts!

My bathroom pallet shelf valentine

Oh... yes, my other valentine. I love him too.  We had a wonderful long weekend outside of our small, Target-less town, taking a break from the 70 degree weather to pursue sleds and snowmobiles.

I love him even more than my pallet shelf.

...aaaand back to the shelf.  This small amount of storage is enough in our bathroom, which has exactly zero.  Here is the bathroom situation - notice the vanity isn't in the same room as the toilet.  So if you ever run out of tp, or need another essential item, you would either have to call someone to hand it to you (embarrassing?) or if no one is home then... use your imagination.

Options I considered were:
a) buying a cabinet or one of those shelves that straddles the toilet.  I just don't really like those.  They always look cheap to me, and I don't really want to take it with me when we move.
b) mounting a basket on the wall.  I looked for baskets while I was out of town, but didn't find any I thought would work well.  I couldn't even visualize what I wanted.
c) building a shelf, that would look good and be cheap (or free!).

Free sounds good to me! Luckily I have all sorts of access to shipping pallets through Stephen's work.  One night after dark (6pm) we snuck in swung by to pick one up.  I ended up with two - a big one and a small one.  I was pretty picky and looked for factors like splitting wood, rotted wood... well that's basically it.  It was dark.

Then I got cutting!  Using a circular saw, I just cut along the center support, and then above the slat that would end up being the top of my shelf.

Unfortunately, a roll of tp wouldn't fit between the slats, so I had to add shims under the board so it would fit.  I also moved a board from the top to the center.  The nails they use in these pallets are DIFFICULT to remove - it would go a lot quicker if I had Stephen on standby.  But he was working.

After adding scrap pieces of wood to the bottom so things wouldn't fall through, it was time for my favorite part - PAINT!  I considered leaving it as-is, but it would introduce yet another color/texture into a very tiny room.  So I decided to go with white.

Instead of roughing the wood up by sanding, I smoothed it down by sanding with 120 grit, just so nothing would snag on it and it would be slightly more indoor-appropriate.  I didn't even bother priming. I took out a half-empty half-full can of white spray paint and started going at it!  But oh no... my spray can was malfunctioning!  It was barely spraying and not very directional-ly.

But what a happy accident!!! It looks weathered, kind of... or white washed.  If you want to try this at
home, but don't have a malfunctioning spray can, you can try 2 parts water and 1 part white latex paint, thinning with water as necessary.

Unfortunately, I couldn't center this over the toilet without blocking the light switch.  So it's a little off center, and I know that would bother some people, but I don't even notice it.  I never really look at it head on, anyway (although I guess if you're a guy that would change).

It has already come in handy!

Is it too early in our blog relationship to show
you my bathroom items?

Do you have any tips for creating additional bathroom storage?  I'd love for you to share them!