Wooden bath mat

The top is made of construction timber (white deal aka spruce) and for the runners, I used some scrap, but better quality material. It’s generally an experiment, built to have some fan, practice skills and try new finishes. Of course, it serves another purpose – exiting a shower/bath with class.

First I needed to plane the timber slats from all 4 sides. Due to moisture content (~12%) it needed some further sanding as the planed surface wasn’t perfectly smooth and it got some tear-out. But before that, I cut everything to length on my table saw.

With my router and the smallest round-over bit I had on hand, I eased the top edges of the slats and bottom edges of the runners.

Without any glue, I nailed everything together. There were 2 reasons I did it that way – it was faster and most importantly, just in case there is any change of moisture content of wood and the joints move, there won’t be any marks or tracks left and the parts can easily move back and forth.

I applied a couple of coats of teak oil, which may become my new favourite finish. I let it dry for a few days and installed felt feet. There was no need to pre-drill holes as the timber was quite stable – another reason I like teak oil. Quick and easy project, probably finishing took more time than cutting and assembling. It serves well.