Shoe Rack

The Tale
When we moved into our house, I put a black plastic crate into the each corner of the front closet and then placed a 3/4" thick piece of white particle board on top of the crates to create storage space for our shoes. Sorry, I forgot to take the before pic, you'll just have to use your imagination. I thought the arrangement was fine, but apparently I promised Mrs. Dufresne that I would replace it with a custom DIY shoe rack.

The Design
After a brief period of contemplation, a design finally popped into my head. I would build two stacked 12" by 12" cubes on each end of the closet with two longer shelves (34") running between the sets of cubes. Fortunately I did snap a picture of the plan, so you won't need to use your imagination any further. The walls of the closet formed the ends of the shoe rack and I would use the existing piece of particle board for the top. The dimensions in the plan are not wholly accurate, as they do not account for the thickness of the materials.

Materials List for the Shoe Rack:

The size of the materials listed were appropriate for my closet, which is 58" wide on the inside. Alter these dimensions wherever necessary to fit your needs.

Screws

44 - #8 by 1 1/2"
12 - #10 by 2 1/2"

Particle Board coated w/white melamine

1 - 96" x 11" x 3/4"

1 - 36" x 11" x 3/4"

1 - 58" x 13" x 3/4"

Scrap Wood

10 - 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of wood

2 - 2" x 2" x 10" pieces of wood

At the Hardware Store / First Cuts

I had the hardware store cut 34" off each end of the 96" long piece of particle board. These pieces are the long shelves that span between the cubes. This also made it easier to fit the pieces into my car. Then at home I cut the 48" piece into two 23" pieces. These cuts left me with 2" leftover from the 48" piece and 28" leftover from the 96" piece.

The First Shelf

First attach 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of wood to each end of the 34" shelf with two #8 screws. Then clamp one of the 23" pieces between a few blocks of scrap wood so it will stand vertically. Prop one of the 34" shelves with a stack of scrap wood 7 1/2" tall and then drill two holes through the 23" vertical piece and into the 1" x 1" x 8" piece attached to the shelf. Drive a #8 screw into each of these holes. Repeat the process to attach the second vertical piece to the other end of the 34" shelf.

The Second Shelf
The process for the second shelf is similar to the process for the first shelf. First attach 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of wood to each end of the 34" shelf. Then prop the second shelf on top of the first shelf with a stack of scrap wood about 7" tall. Drill two holes through the 23" vertical piece and into the 1" x 1" x 8" piece attached to the second shelf. Drive a #8 screws into each of these holes. Repeat the process to attach the second vertical piece to the other end of the 34" shelf. Once you have attached both shelves, it should look like this:

You can see the pieces of scrap wood I used to secure the joints sitting on the second shelf. There's also another piece of scrap wood already attached to the top of the left side of the shelf unit. This will connect the top to the shelf unit.

Trapped in a Closet

Center the finished shelf unit in the closet and measure the distance from the sides of the unit to the wall. Then cut two pieces from the 28" left over from the original 96" piece of particle board. These side shelves separate the top cube from the bottom cube. They are attached to the ends of the unit and the wall using the 1" x 1" x 8" pieces of scrap wood and #8 screws. The bottom of the shelf should rest 11" from the floor.You can see in the photo on the left where I attached the scrap wood to the end of the shelf unit. The photo on the right shows the cut side shelf with the scrap wood attached that will anchor it to the closet wall with the #10 screws. Repeat the process on the other side.

Over The Top
The next task is to attach the top piece to the if you haven't done so already, attach a 1" x 1" x 8" piece of scrap wood to the top of each side of the shelf unit. Place the top piece on the shelf unit and mark where the underside of the top piece lines up with the closet walls. Attach one of the 2" x 2" x 10" pieces of wood to the closet wall with two #10 screws. The top of this piece should be level with the line you just marked. Repeat the process on the other end of the closet. Place the top piece back on the shelf unit and attach to each 2" x 2" x 10" piece of wood with 2 #10 screws.

Final Notes

My shoe rack has 1/4" gaps between the ends of the top piece and the wall. I plan on adding some 1/4 round molding to hide these gaps. The top piece was 2" wider than the other pieces, this gave the bottom shelves a recessed look that I liked. You could use lumber with a uniform width for your project. The edge of my top piece was also rounded, which I thought looked nice. I pre-drilled and used a countersink drill bit for all the screws. I highly recommend you do that as well. Particle board tends to chip or crumble if you do not use a countersink drill bit. Bar clamps were very helpful as well - you can see how I've used them in a few of the photos. Here's a final shot of the completed project without all the shoes. You can see where many of the screws are attached.