The Hot Tub Accessory You Didn't Know You Needed -

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I know it’s been awhile since I’ve created a blog post, but I’ve been taking some time away from social media, and yes that includes blogging as well. I have been busy working on my sister-in-law and her now husband’s wedding gift, detoxing from social media, and have had some personal stuff come up that I’ve been working through.

However, today I am super excited to be sharing with you the hubs and I’s suprise wedding gift for his sister and her now husband. A little over a year ago my sister-in-law and her then fiance bought this cute house a few blocks from the ocean. It had a greenhouse, lots of planter boxes, and even came with a hot tub. When the weather starts to get colder and winter starts to kick in, that’s the perfect time to enjoy the hot tub and warm up a little.

And they most definitely enjoyed it quite a bit last year! So much, that they even requested robes last Christmas for the hot tub. The hubs and I even had the opportunity to enjoy the hot tub the night before our flight left for Costa Rica this past February. While the hubs enjoyed his time in the hot tub, he did notice that they didn’t have adequate storage to protect their robes and towels from the elements or the steam from the hot tub. That’s when we got the idea to get them an outdoor heated wardrobe. However, I couldn’t seem to find one available on the market…so that’s when I decided to make my own!

So let’s get started with the tutorial! In the beginning there were so many different plans I mocked up on paper, but ultimately I went with the simplest plan based on time and material constraints. I bought 4 plywood panels size 3/4″x4’x8′ to construct the box frame. I ended up cutting one of the panels in half to make the bottom and top of the box. You can obviously make this any size you want, but knowing that my in-laws entertain quite a bit I wanted ample storage to hang towels, robes, and put shoes in as well. I just used pocket holes to assemble the frame.

I literally built this on the fly and didn’t plan a whole lot…which meant there were plenty of trial and errors that happened resulting in many trips to the hardware store to pick up and return supplies that didn’t quite work out as planned.

Because of how I assembled the box (using the width of the plywood to make the box a tad wider) I eventually realized that just buying another plywood board was not going to actually be wide enough to be the door on the front. It took me quite awhile to come up with a solution until I realized that I was planning on trimming out the box and could use 1″x2″x4′ wood pieces attached to either side of the plywood door to completely cover the front of the box. So I bought another 3/4″x4’x8′ plywood board and 2 – 1″x2″x4′ to construct the door front.

I laid out the wood and used clear waterproof gorilla glue to glue-up the front door. Below, you’ll see how I glued these together without the use of clamps!

When you need to glue-up some wood but don’t have long enough clamps you use a moving blanket and weights to wrap and hold!

While I waited for the door to cure overnight, I attached the legs to the base of the frame. I pre-drilled some scrap pieces of 2×4 pieces for the legs to screw into (highly recommended). I then attached the scrap pieces to the bottom and screwed in the legs. I highly suggest these legs for new builds or replacement for sofas, etc. as they are of really great quality and inexpensive. They come in a variety of sized and colors as well.

In order to attach the door to the rest of the frame I bought 4 – 4″ gate hinges and an eye-hook latch to keep the door closed off from the weather. But then I realized that since I was planning on framing out the wardrobe, I needed to do that before I could attach the door, as the gate hinges would screw into the trim rather than the frame itself. Afterwards I filled in the screw holes with wood filler.

I used 1×4″ wood to frame the front sides of the box to ensure that there it would span the length of the hinges. I used 1×3″ wood to frame out the rest of the wardrobe, with the exception of the top front trim piece that was 1×5″ which I will address later.

For the top front trim piece I used a 1×5″ piece of wood to create an “overhang” when the box was open. The reason was 2-fold. The most important & practical reason was that this was going to reside outside. The overhang would allow rain and snow to run off the edge of the outside of the box rather than in between the trim and door that would otherwise have a gap and into the wardrobe. The second reason is that I think it looks more seamless from the front and side profile with the overhang.

Once all of the hardware was installed where I wanted it, I then took it all apart to sand & paint it. I bought solid Valspar exterior stain and sealer in the color Stylewood. I was only going to need 1 – 29 fl oz can of stain…until I spilled most of the can of bright blue stain all over the garage floor. I then had to venture out for another can of stain.

Here is the wardrobe mostly stained. I did two coats on most surfaces except the interior bottom and back where the pocket holes were located as I was going to be cover that area.

For the next step, I installed a self-adhesive shelf liner by Con-Tact. They have so many patterns and colors to choose from, but I chose the pattern Moderna Blue. If there’s one thing I learned from this part of the project it was that I never want to install wallpaper. I literally had such a small space to install this in and it took me forever to get it just right! The roll was not wide enough to cover the entire width of the wardrobe either, so cutting and matching up additional pieces was even more difficult and time-consuming! However, I do believe the final look was well worth the effort!

This wardrobe was made to hang robes and towels in, so the last thing left to do was install the heater, robe hooks, and a light for those late nights by the hot tub!

I bought this motion-sensored battery-operated LED stair light that would be perfect to handle the weather and would immediately turn on when opened at night – no fussing with cords! The heating element portion of the project proved most difficult to tackle. I most certainly didn’t want a fire hazard on my hands with traditional heat lamps, so I had to get creative. In the end I settled on this chicken coop heater that was made to keep chickens and their coops warm in freezing temperatures. The heater itself has 2 different heat settings, can be set in shavings (fairly fire safe?), can be placed outside in a non-insulated structure, and had a built-in auto-shut off if the surface temperature got too hot. It sounded like the perfect solution to my worries, and the bonus was that once installed you wouldn’t know it was a chicken coop heater unless you had looked at the box! Lastly, I bought 4 robe hooks.

To install all of the hardware I laid the wardrobe on it’s back and measured where I wanted to install the light, heater, and robe hooks. Initially I wanted the heat element to originate from the bottom, but given robes would be hanging and shoes would be thrown in to prevent snow from getting inside them, I ultimately decided to just mount it on the ceiling.

Quick tip to space screws appropriately for items that hang – use tape across the back of a picture (or in my case heater & light). Mark the screw holes. Remove the tape and center the tape on the wall (or in my case the ceiling). Make sure it is elvel. Hammer in nails or drill in screws using marked tape. Remove tape and hang your item!

Below are the pictures of the final product! Beware, the lighting is really dark in my garage so they aren’t the greatest pictures. I somehow forgot to take pictures of the heated wardrobe in its final resting place.

Had I planned better I would have ordered an eye-hook latch that was black. Unfortunately this was the last package Lowes had available only in this color.

Here I am trying out the wardrobe with my towels modeling! I wanted to ensure that the robe hooks were not too close to the coop heater at the top. I also wanted to see how efficient the coop heater was. It definitely worked, but it’s hard to say how well when you’re trialing it out in 80 degree weather!

The last thing I did with this heated wardrobe was drill a hole in the back bottom for the heating cord to connect to an outdoor outlet or extension cord. It would also allow excess heat to escape and air exchange to take place when the box is closed and the heat is turned on. You can also choose to secure the cord of the heater to one of the corners of the wardrobe so it does not end up moving around. I chose not to and left that up to my in-laws to take care of as they could determine how much cord they would need to utilize the heater.

I’d love to know what you think or if you’ve completed any unique projects or utilized unusual/unconventional material for your projects!