How to Make a DIY Outhouse Toilet Paper Holder
I had just got the hallway bathroom remodeled, and it came out great. It was a small bathroom to start, so there were a few space problems. The big one: the toilet sat close enough to the vanity that a standard toilet paper dispenser mounted there would double as an armrest. Not exactly ideal.
After scrolling around for ideas, I landed on a DIY outhouse-style toilet paper holder. A little rustic, a little funny, and exactly the kind of DIY project I can't resist making myself instead of buying. I'd already built a ladder shelf, a vanity, and a barn door for this same bathroom, so at this point I had a reputation to keep up. This one, though, I decided to build almost entirely out of scrap wood sitting in my shop pile, proof that a "someday" pile of leftover pine, poplar dowel, and 1×8 board is never really wasted.
No plans, no blueprints, just scrap wood and a rough idea of how much toilet paper needed to fit inside. Here's exactly how I built it, from framing the walls to cutting the crescent moon on the door.
Want one for your own bathroom without the sawdust? [Shop the finished outhouse toilet paper holder on Etsy →]
Materials & Tools Needed
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Some of the tool, equipment, and material links below are affiliate links.
Materials
½" pine plank scraps (side walls & door slats)
1×8 common board (back wall, floor, roof, center divider)
Poplar dowel, 1 inch diameter
Wood Screw #8 x 3/4"
Small scrap piece for the door's rotating wood lock
Small scrap piece for the door handle
Wood stain — black (e.g., a gel or gloss-enamel wood stain)
Polyurethane for finish
Sandpaper: 80, 120, and 220 grit
Tools
Rotary tool (e.g., Dremel) with sanding attachment
Miter saw or circular saw, for cutting boards to length]
Pencil for tracing/marking
Don't want to buy tools and scrap-pile your way through it? Skip the shop trip — [the finished outhouse toilet paper holder is available on Etsy →]
Safety First
Wear safety glasses any time you're cutting, drilling, or sanding.
Use hearing protection when running the jigsaw, drill, or sander for extended periods.
Wear a dust mask or respirator while sanding, especially through multiple grits.
Clamp your workpiece securely before cutting with a jigsaw — never cut a piece you're holding freehand in your other hand.
Keep fingers clear of the blade path when starting a jigsaw cut from a drilled starter hole.
Work in a ventilated area when applying wood stain, and follow the manufacturer's instructions for dry/cure time before handling.
Keep hinges, screws, and small hardware out of reach of children and pets during the build.
Step 1: Sort and Rough-Measure Your Scrap Wood
Before cutting anything, dig through your scrap pile and pull the pieces that'll work for this build. I used ½" pine planks left over from a barn door project, some poplar dowel, some 1×8 common board, and leftover black wood stain, nothing purchased new.
Do a rough measurement first: figure out how much toilet paper you want the finished piece to hold. I wanted room for four rolls total, three in an enclosed storage compartment, and one out front, ready to go. That rough measurement determines how tall and wide your side walls need to be.
Step 2: Build the Side Walls
For that old-timey, hastily-built outhouse look, use small pine planks placed side by side with slight gaps between them, you're not going for perfectly flush boards here.
Attach the planks together using wood screws and wood glue, backed by two shorter flat brace pieces running horizontally behind them.
Let the braces overhang the back edge of each side wall by the thickness of your back-wall board. You'll use that overhang as the connection point to the back wall in the next step.
To keep both side walls consistent, measure and trace your brace placement onto one wall panel first, then match the second panel to it by eye. A little bit of "not quite perfect" here is fine, it's an outhouse, not fine furniture.
Step 3: Attach the Back Wall, Floor, Roof, and Center Divider
The back wall is a single solid piece, it'll sit against the bathroom wall, unseen, so there's no need to dress it up. Cut your 1×8 common board to length for the back wall, floor, roof, and the center divider that separates the enclosed storage compartment from the open front roll.
Skip fancy joinery here, simple L-brackets do the job. Use them to attach the vertical side walls to the floor, roof, and center divider. L-brackets are fast to install, strong enough for the job, and if placed carefully, they stay mostly hidden once the piece is assembled.
At this stage, check that your structure holds together without wobbling apart when you pick it up, and confirm your intended toilet paper capacity actually fits before moving on.
Step 4: Build the Door
Build the door the same way you built the side walls, small pine planks held together side by side with flat wood braces on the back. Cut it slightly oversized for the front opening; it's much easier to sand a door down to fit than to try to make an undersized one bigger.
Test-fit the door in the opening and sand the edges down gradually until it moves freely without binding.
Step 5: Add the Toilet Paper Holder Dowel
The dowel needs to run straight through the center of the top portion of the storage compartment, which on my build, happened to land right where one of the wall braces was. Rather than reroute the whole design, I measured and marked the hole location on both side walls, drilled a starter hole large enough to fit a jigsaw blade through, then cut the circular opening with the jigsaw.
Cutting through one brace is fine as long as the surrounding braces and L-brackets are still doing their job structurally, check that your structure stays solid before moving forward.
Once both holes are cut, slide a length of scrap poplar dowel through to serve as the toilet paper roll spindle.
Step 6: Cut the Crescent Moon Detail
No outhouse is complete without the classic crescent moon. Trace a crescent moon shape onto the door, cut it out with a jigsaw, and clean up the edges with a sanding attachment on a rotary tool for smooth, rounded edges.
Step 7: Hang the Door and Add Hardware
Attach the door to the main structure with small hinges. For a working "lock," attach a small rectangular scrap of wood just above the door opening with a single wood screw, so it can rotate to hold the door shut. Glue on a small rectangular scrap piece as the door handle.
Let the fully assembled structure sit overnight before finishing.
Step 8: Sand and Finish
Sand the entire piece progressively, 80 grit, then 120 grit, then finish with 220 grit for a smooth surface. Apply black wood stain to match other pieces in the room (in my case, matching a ladder shelf, vanity, and barn door I'd built previously with the same finish). Then apply polyurethane finish to protects the piece. Let the piece dry and air out fully for a few days before bringing it indoors.
Step 9: Install and Load Up Your DIY Toilet Paper Holder
Once fully cured, set the finished outhouse toilet paper holder in place. Load the storage compartment with extra rolls and thread one onto the front dowel, ready to use. Check that it sits stable on its own without tipping when paper is pulled from the roll.
Buy the Finished DIY Outhouse Toilet Paper Holder
Made it this far and decided the scrap-pile route isn't for you? No judgment — that's exactly why the finished piece is available ready-made.
🪚 Request a Custom Order: Want a different wood species, size, or finish to match your own bathroom? Email us at LumberJim.EP@gmail.com and we'll build one to your specs.
Comments