This tiny half bath/laundry room was in desperate need of storage and a decorative touch, but, as you can see, space is very limited.

The pipes are PVC, so they’re not very attractive, and there’s no room for a vanity because a tall person’s knees would hit it while sitting on the throne. A sink skirt is the perfect solution to add some style and storage.

Don’t be afraid to use something bold and bright in a tiny space. Since there is little opportunity to decorate in a tight spot like this, you might as well go for it. You’ll be surprised at the impact it will have.

The first thing you need to do is measure the perimeter of your sink, and the distance from the bottom of the sink to the floor. The perimeter of this sink on the 3 sides happened to be 36″ and the distance to the floor is 27″.

My fabric is 40″ wide. Instead of cutting it to fit 36″ around the sink, I decided to leave it wide so I could eventually add a couple of pleats to make it a little more decorative, and give the skirt a little flair at the bottom which would leave a little more space for storage.

When measuring and cutting your fabric, you will need to account for the seams and velcro that will attach the skirt to the sink. I cut my fabric so it was 30″ long to give myself plenty of extra length to adjust where I will adhere the velcro.

Once I had the fabric cut to the desired size, I taped it to the sink to determine where my pleats would go. I could have made this more precise, by measuring, but this isn’t an article of clothing, so it doesn’t need to be exact, and this is a little easier than doing the math because you can immediately see where the pleats will hit the sink.

Next, iron and pin the edges and pleats.

Sewing the skirt on a machine makes this a quick and easy job. I used white thread for the seam to give the skirt another detail. You certainly can match the thread color to the fabric if you prefer that look. You could also add rick rack, pom poms or fringe if you really want to make it fancy.

Once the seams are sewed, figure out where you want the velcro—the bottom edge of the velcro will be the top edge of your skirt, so you will need to measure from those points.

I’m adhering the velcro to the bottom of the sink, not the sides, so the velcro needs to be attached to the front of the fabric. If you want the fabric to hang from the sides of the sink, you should attach it to the back of the fabric so it’s hidden, and figure where you want the top of the skirt to start and where you want it to hit the floor before you sew your bottom seam.

Also, your velcro should fit the size of the sink—not the size of the fabric. The fabric will be larger than the size of the sink because of the corners and the pleats. When cutting your velcro, make sure it fits the sink and is attached to the correct edges of the fabric. For example, the velcro on the sides of the sink should start at the edge of the fabric that touches the wall and only go to where corner of the sink hits the skirt.

I thought it would be a good idea to sew one side of the velcro to the fabric using my sewing machine.

However, the adhesive gummed up my needle and kept jamming my machine, so I don’t recommend this. I ended up having to carefully clean the needle, so I wouldn’t ruin my next project or my machine.

The adhesive seems to be really strong, so I figured I just needed to tack it to the fabric—I didn’t want it to come loose when washing or removing the skirt from the sink. I simply stitched 3 x’s to each end of the strips of velcro, and to the center. The adhesive gums up your needle pretty good too, so if you have a favorite one don’t use it for this project.

Once you have sewed one side of the velcro to the fabric, add the other side of the velcro and remove the backing of the adhesive so you can attach it to the sink.

Because the sink is in such a small space, to make the job easier, I attached the sides of the skirt first.

Reach under the skirt to attach the front of the skirt to the sink, and give the corners a tug from the back to get them where you want them.

I love this project because it’s so quick and simple and makes such a big difference. Once the trim along the floor gets painted, this room will look neat, tidy and finished.

Plus, the skirt hides the ugly pipes and gives this tiny room badly needed storage.