My first thought when we bought a house with a clawfoot tub: Oh goodie. My second: Where do I put my stuff? The only thing I found online was a tray that stretched across the tub -- it cost $60 and wasn't exactly convenient for keeping shampoo and soap in easy reach. Then I discovered this fantastic DIY shower caddy.
I found the idea on the Portland blog Biscuits and Jam, run by a lovely lady named Caitlin. She also had grappled with the conundrum of clawfoot shower storage until her hubby had an epiphany during a trip to the hardware store. Unfortunately, he hadn't posted the instructions, so I immediately wrote to Caitlin for the how-to, which she kindly sent me.
Here's what you'll need:
• A stainless steel basket. I found mine at Target for around $12. I got a second smaller one from the kitchen aisle to hold my soap and razor, though I haven't installed it yet.
• Electric conduit strap (like this)
• Speed nuts (like this)
• Small machine screws and nuts
(Total cost: About $15)
Here's how to do it:
• Attach the speed nuts (which are like little clips) onto the basket at a width that matches your conduit hanger. You'll need pliers to pry them slightly apart and to clamp them back together once around the wire.
• On one side only, line up conduit hanger with speed nut and affix with machine screw and nut.
• Wrap around shower riser, and line other side into the speed nut, then affix with machine screw and nut. It should something look like this from behind (photo by Caitlin):
(Total time: About one hour, but I'm inept with tools)
I only used one strap on my caddy, and because my shower riser is so thin, I wrapped kitchen twine around the riser to act as a stopper for the strap (there must be a better way, but I haven't found it yet). The caddy tilts forward ever so slightly, but is completely sturdy and looks really stylish. OK, not as stylish as these awesome ones at Ace Hotel, but it's an easy and cheap solution if you have a riser shower without a wall to support a suction-mounted caddy.
Images: AnnaMaria Stephens
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maybe a hose clamp to be a stopper for the strap?
I would have used an over the rail flower basket.
i'd really love to see more posts for clawfoots... i share my apartment with 4 other people (it's huge), 2 bathrooms, but only one shower - that happens to be a clawfoot tub. The builders initially did a great job of putting up the full surround shower rod situation, and we have both a shelf and a couple of hanging caddies that work to store things (perhaps not super attractively, but still - adequately).
My upset is the shower curtain. Currently it is two clear vinyl liners that fit all around, and they've been cut short to avoid the vacuum-billowing thing that can happen, but it's really hard to remove them and keep them clean. i've googled all over the place and seen several posts on AT, but never found a really good/attractive *different* solution to the clawfoot tub-shower curtain thing.
I have one as well - with four overlapping shower liners that go all the way around, and I spray bleach solution on after my shower to try to keep the mold down. I am definitely going to rig up something similar to this though, for holding all our stuff! Excellent idea.
Molly H: I hear ya! I have three hemmed curtains that surround the tub. They're white until they become pink with grody serratia, and boy do my arms get a workout every time I wash them. I will do my best to scout out some creative solutions for clawfoots.
@nothinlikeadame: That's a clever idea! My shower is really high, though, so I'd have to reach pretty far to get my stuff if I went that route.
For those looking for an easy solution to keep shower curtains clean, put them in the washer with a extra towel on the hot cycle. With just a bit of detergent the curtains get sparkly clean.
I simply used a store bought stainless steel hang-over-the-shower-head type organizer that had removable suction cups. In order to stabilize it, I attached it to the riser with a translucent zip tie. The zip tie easily hides behind your soaps and the unit does not budge or slope!
@god_dynamit: how high is your shower head? i tried the over-the-shower-head caddy, but it required quite the reach to get bottles out ...
I also have a claw foot bathtub- I wash the bottom of the shower curtain with Murphy's Oil Soap on a green scrubby sponge.
The soap slips under the soap scum and grossie pink slime and all you have to do is just wipe it on, wipe it off.
99.9% all natural-smells good (like a church)-I swear by it
The people who lived in our house before us simply hung a stainless steel chain from a hook on the ceiling and attached a regular over-the-showerhead caddy to that with a stainless carabiner. It works pretty well.
I just hung an over the shower head caddy from the shower curtain rod with a few shower curtain hooks
Molly_h, when I had a clawfoot tub, I bought white fabric curtains. (From Ikea? I think?), and hemmed them. They were a kind of water resistant fabric. Then I could just pop them in the washing machine. Worked like a charm.
The fabric is resistant enough that I never had water coming out. Having 3, you have enough for a generous overlap.
If you don't sew, the fabric probably won't unravel, so you would just have to make a really careful clean cut.
Like Ginna, we use around our clawfoot. That way we can just put them in the washing machine (with bleach if they get particularly grotty).
That should be, we use white fabric shower curtain liners. With the link as above.
Does anyone have a resource for reasonably-priced shower rod and converter for clawfoot tubs?
We can’t bear to drop $1000+ on basic bathroom fixtures from Restoration Hardware and such, but our existing pipes are cheap and terribly corroded.
Uccellini: from the drain to the top of the organizer is about 76" and the tallest "shelf" of the organizer is about 14" below that. So for me, at 5'7", it's not a stretch. Come to think of it, that shelf is at my mom's height and, as much as she would hate it, pretty good noogie territory from my vantage point. So yeah, no real reach.
I just moved into a place with a clawfoot tub and am figuring out where to put the shampoo. Thank you, god_dynamnit for the easy ziptie solution which works great for now. To molly_h, I started with some magnets at the bottom of my curtains to prevent the billowing thing at least. I'm sure I'll have to deal with mold soon enough.
Okay so I bought everything to make this , and then just got lazy and afixed it to the riser with two conduit hangers and four cable ties... It worked really well... So thank you for the great idea!
Also I found an extra wide liner at OSH... Wasn't big enough to go all the way around... But it helped!
It seems like this wouldn't work without that bulbous metal component shown on your riser. I can't imagine it's a coincidence that you've placed the basket so that the conduit rests atop it. My riser doesn't have one of these, and I'm imagining the supplies I just bought will be heading back to the store soon.
If anyone has a workaround for this, please let me know. I liked the concept..
I can't thank you all enough for this information! I found a little metal basket at our local free-store and attached it to the riser on my clawfoot's shower with very small zap straps. It seems to be working fine so far. Cost me about 10 cents.