Build a Stylish Shoe Rack

Shawna Bailey
by Shawna Bailey
4 Materials
1.5 Hours
Medium
Shoes, shoes everywhere and not a pair to wear. In my house shoes are the hardest things to wrangle up. The minute we have to leave the house, my kids announce that they don’t know where their shoes are and scurry around trying to find them. To solve this problem I decided to make a shoe rack with enough space for all the shoes we most commonly wear.
•Please note the instructions are slightly different from the video, because it looks better in the video to introduce each piece one at a time, rather than do all the pilot holes at once.


Step 1: Plan your design
I measured the shoes I planned on putting in the shoe rack before deciding on the heights and widths of my shelves. I included my measurements here, but you will want to adjust those measurements to fit your needs (and the space you will be putting the shoe rack).


Step 2: Get your pieces cut
Home depot will cut all the wood for your project if you can give them the measurements. Here are the measurements for all my pieces.


Step 3: Drill pilot holes in your boards
I drilled pilot holes in my boards to make sure the wood wouldn't split and the screws would go straight through.


Step 4: Drill pilot holes in your dowels
This step is even more important in the dowels than on the boards. Once my pieces were prepared, I was ready to start attaching everything.


Step 5: Attach dowels to each corner of the 10"x 18" board
This small top board got the shortest dowels in every corner.


Step 6: Attach center dowel to the other side of that board
I flipped the board and attached a single dowel (of the shortest length) to the center of the side of this board on the opposite side. This will allow The shelf above it to cantilever (I’m a big Frank Lloyd Wright fan).


Step 7: Attach this board to the 45"x 14" base
I attached this board to the bigger base board with 8 inches on the sides, to allow for the width of my wellie boots.


Step 8: Attach two dowels to one side of the 10"x 20" board
I screwed two dowels onto one side of my next shelf board, which was a bit bigger than the first one (its other side will be supported by the pillar I attached to the top of the other board).


Step 9: Screw 10"x 20" board to the single pillar
Attach this shelf to the pillar in order to support it.


Step 10: Attach bottom base to dowels of 10"x 20" board
Screw through the base into the dowels to secure this shelf to the base


Step 11: Add 45"x 8" board on top
I attached the longest dowel to the corners of this piece and then to the base. You’ll notice that the top shelf is significantly more shallow than the base and the middle two boards are in between. This is for two reasons: first, to allow easier access to the shoes, and second, because my girls shoes aren’t as big and don’t need as big of a shelf.
After it was all together and just spray painted it and brought it inside! What do you think? Ready to enjoy your personalized shoe rack?
Suggested materials:
  • Sandwich wood   (Home Depot)
  • Wood screws   (Home Depot)
  • Drill
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Frequently asked questions
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  2 questions
  • Katrina Katrina on Dec 01, 2016
    Have you found this sturdy enough for the average adult to sit on? I do not have children so I would make a small custom adjustment with the center cubby self (black sneakers), still existing, but the right side vertical continuing up to the top. Thanks for any answers! :)
  • Barbara Martin Barbara Martin on Jan 16, 2017
    LOVE THIS PLAN!!WHAT IS SANDWICH WOOD?
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