Coffee Bean Make Up Brush Tutorial 2: The Sequeling!

I have been quite pleased by my coffee bean make up brush display. It's been weeks and whenever I use my brushes in the AM I still get a whiff of coffee. However, I am far from satisfied with the state of affairs in my bathroom, and I'm trying to use the coffee bean display as a jumping off point for the rest of the space.

I originally wanted to do this whole immersive zen theme, by adding in a bamboo space saver/tank topper/whatever you call it that goes over the toilet. Can we pause for a sec and just agree on what to call it once and for all? I'm going to call it the space saver, because that had the most hits on Amazon.

I was planning on purchasing a lovely bamboo space saver, even had it all picked out on Amazon, and when we moved in I saw that the previous tenants left behind their old silver space saver. Why leave it behind? Probably because it's ugly. I was chagrined at being thwarted by this turn of events. I could have just junked it and bought a new space saver, but 1) I didn't want to spend the money, honey, and 2) I accepted this as a challenge to take my design in a new direction.

I was fresh from the flush of success of the coffee bean display, and wanted to keep on with the theme of displaying my sundries. I really liked the look of old apothecary jars. And add the "lol, I'm a pharmacist" aspect to it, and it seemed like the perfect fit to use old jars to display sundries.

Problem: old apothecary jars are 'spensive. I saw them at Pottery Barn and knew the jig was up, they'd become too popular, and acquiring apothecary jars at a reasonable price would be a pain in the ass. So undeterred, I revised my design theme from "nature" to "olde apothecary shoppe" to "sleek modern calmness".

Pottery Barn / You will be mine someday!

As so often happens, I got some inspiration while strolling through IKEA. The people who work there must  be geniuses. Never around when you have a question, probably because they are coming up with the next 25 sq ft dream condo. Anyway, one of the kitchen displays used round glass jars to store mixing spoons and measuring cups, and the idea stuck with me. By the next time I was at Target, the idea had fermented into a plan. I went to the bathroom supplies aisle and found some circular glass jars. They were a bit pricey, though. My idea was to get three jars, and total it would have been around $30 - $40 bucks.  I wandered around a little more, then stumbled upon rectangular glass jars in the kitchen section that would cost me around $20 bucks. Sold! I don't know if I was paying more just because it was a bathroom item and not a kitchen item, or if circular jars are really pricier, but I was happy enough with rectangular jars.

I think the effect is the same: clean, modern, simple sundries:

Now to figure out what to do with the other two shelves of the space saver!