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Are you looking for a super easy way to organise your shoes in your entrance hall? This easy DIY shoe rack could be the perfect solution for you.
Are you on a spurt of tidying and organising to welcome the New Year in? Or a bored husband desperate for some DIY projects to occupy him?!!
My daughter hates our shoe baskets in our entrance hallway with a passion, so she was delighted when I suggested my husband come up with a solution for organizing our shoes.
After much discussion about supplies in the shed, he had a rummage around, created a pile of books on the floor and announced combining two bookshelves to create our easy DIY shoe rack was the perfect solution!
The shoe rack is made to fit our hallway, and the volume of shoes in our four-person home (admittedly we have recently had a good clear out of old shoes!). The concept is simple attach two book cases together, paint and add a solid oak top.
Let me show you how, although please bear with me regarding the photographs as the project was made in the evening under artificial light.
Our two bookcases measure 20 by 30 1/2″ (with the depth of the shelves 10″) – these were originally bought as one tall wide bookcase. It has seen various purposes over the last twenty years, initially cut so it was not as wide to fit at the end of the bed, then at some point it was cut into half to create two bookcases for different locations.
Place the shelves on your bookcases at the suitable heights – ours are positioned as 7″ from the floor, the next two 9 1/2″ apart, with the top 7 1/2″ from the last shelf.
Using wood screws attach the sides of the bookcases together, to form the middle of your new shoe rack.
Prepare the shelving shoe rack for painting by filling any holes with filler.
Then sand the shelves, you may have loose paint from moving shelves around.
Next paint the shoe rack (which currently looks like two bookcases screwed together!). We have chosen to use a soft winter grey chalk paint from the shed. We had a conversation re the choice of paint, between gloss and chalk paint. The advantage of chalk paint is that you do not need to apply undercoat.
Apply two coats of chalk paint and allow to dry.
Next apply a top to this super easy shoe rack. My husband chose a lovely piece of oak from the DIY store and cut it a little longer than the shelving. This is attached with Modesty Block Wood & Furniture Jointing Connectors screwed to the sides and the top (from underneath!).
Lastly finish your shoe rack with a coat of wax, applied with a lint free cloth.
I have to admit our finished shoe rack is a cast improvement on baskets! Plus there is room for my hat, gloves and pile of clean facemasks.