Shoe Rack

This was a Christmas project for my daughter. She has been curating a shoe collection and needed someplace to store her shoes. I came across this basic design while hunting for ideas. She needs a lot of space for her shoes so I decided to expand the number of shelves and make some adjustments to make the build easier. I thought about using plywood for the shelves but decided not to go that route because of the aesthetics of regular plywood and the expense associated with veneer tape if I went with an oak veneer plywood. Instead I opted for plain old pine board. I started this project really late. I think it was on about December 18th. I was really pressed for time to get it done.

The Plan

Construction

Before I could begin putting the shoe rack together I needed to cut down my raw supplies to match the plan. Here is my cut list:

• From each 1×12 board, I cut a 43 inch long shelf section. I would have just used precut 4 ft boards but she didn’t have the space for a shelf that long.
• Rip lengthwise the 2x4s into two equal pieces using a table saw.
• Cut 4 “legs” from the ripped 2x4s into 34 inches
• Cut 8 supports from the remaining ripped 2×4 sections. Since the shelves will be 11 3/4 inches deep, not really 12 inches as the name would imply, the supports need to cut to match.

Don’t forget to sand. I used a rotary sander using 80 grit. Since I’m going to paint them I figured I didn’t need to get super granular with the sanding. I decided to paint the wood right after I made the cuts. I figured this would speed up delivery but in the end it didn’t really help me but I’ll explain that later on.

I used my 90 degree clamps on opposing corners to help me square my joints. Each of those joints was made using a 5/16 dowel joint method and glued together. You can see the large clamps I used to apply pressure while the glue dried. This project is another example of where you can’t have too many clamps. I ended up using some of my long pipe clamps once I got the entire structure together. I don’t have picture of that in action but I had to use them to correct some mistakes I made.

Each of the support arms are connected to the sides using a pocket hole and a construction screw as well as glue. I didn’t bother hiding the pocket hole since they aren’t visible when looking at the shoe rack. Each shelf is attached to the support arm using my nail gun and about 1 1/2 inch brad nails. I place each shelf equally after giving myself nearly 10 inches at the bottom to accommodate boots. The plan measurements are accurate because I adjusted the plan right before starting the build. I raised the height from 24 inches to 34 inches. There is about 7 inches for each of the remaining shoe shelves.

One of my mistakes was a poor cut job on one of the 1×12 shelves. I ended up leaving a saw blades width missing on the end due to a poorly placed cut. I corrected it but I had already damaged about 4 inches before I noticed it. I corrected the problem by cutting out a shaped plug using a wide popsicle stick. I just glued it in place and painted over it once it dried.

One of my more serious mistakes happened after I started putting the shelves together on the two sides. While I did a good job of square the two sides it didn’t quite translate correctly when I added the top and bottom shelves to make a box. Screwed the top and bottom shelves into the support arms using a counter sunk construction screw in each corner. I covered the screw heads with a 5/16 plug. I also used a lot of glue to secure the shelf to the support. I let the assembled shelf dry over night but when I stood the shelves upright there was a wobble. I ended up forcing a corrected shelf but it took some muscle and those large pipe clamps.

I also applied a coat of poly to the top surface of each shelf thinking it would help with wear and tear on the surface caused by shoes being pulled out or put onto the shelves. It looked terrible with the sage green paint. The paint was too thin and needed another coat and the poly dried yellow giving the sage green a sickly look. I ended up repainting the shelves with a small roller and after a good 2nd coat the finish looked great.

I also changed the grey color to a darker grey. The original light grey was too washed out and didn’t really complement the sage green. You’ll notice the darker grey in the final pictures below.

Overall I’m really happy the way the shoe rack has turned out. It’s quite stable and will last forever unlike some of these press board furniture pieces available for sale. I didn’t finish in time for Christmas but at least I had a picture of it to give her.