Kleenex Box Off the Counter

Saturday, 11 May
Mid-Bay Shores, Maxwell-Gunter Rec Area — Niceville, Florida
Temps: Lo 63F / Hi 74F (17C / 23C)

As we were saying our farewells to Sherry and David on Tuesday, David commented about Mui’s projects.

My response was that he didn’t have any new ones on the horizon, because he was too busy “being retired.”  At the time I said that, it was true.  But a stop at Home Depot on the way home that afternoon resulted in a quicky project.

I prefer the rectangular Kleenex boxes to the upright ones.  Since there is a definite lack of counter space in the bathroom, I’ve been keeping the tissue box on the bottom shelf of the corner cabinet.  An OK solution, but other things in the cabinet can make getting to the tissue difficult.

Enter Mui.  I presented the problem to him and asked him to find a tissue box holder that we could mount on the wall.  He found plenty of options — some metal; others plastic.  Some cheap … and I mean cheap in looks and price; others expensive.  In the end, we settled on the TrippNT 50896 High-Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) Wall-Mountable Kleenex Box Holder (pictured above).  Mui ordered it from Amazon on May 2, and we received it when we arrived at Mid-Bay Shores on May 6.

The construction and quality looked good.  The only problem was the color.  White was way too bright for the dark cherry color of the bathroom wall.  No problem … a can of spray paint and Mui’s steady hand wielding the spray can did the trick.

After lightly sanding the surface of the holder to ensure better paint adherence,
Mui uses the grill as a workbench and goes to work with the spray can.

We picked this satin nickel Rust-Oleum spray to match the bathroom fixtures.
The quick-drying paint allowed handling of the tissue box holder within a couple hours.

Adhesive-backed felt bumpers, affixed to the back and top of the holder, protect the
bathroom cabinet and wall from paint transfer and scratches.

Pick-drilled pilot holes make it easier to mount the holder with self-tapping screws.

The finished product!

The width of the box holder is not much more than the towel rack; mounting it in
the center of the wall, allows for the tissue box to be slid easily into the holder.
(ooops; forgot to remove the dust cloth before I took the picture!)

Not a major mod, but any change that makes efficient use of space is a good one.