DIY Shallow Shoe Rack

Hello there! Do you have shoes constantly floating around? We do, especially toddler shoes, so I set out to find a spot to put them. We used to keep my daughter's shoes in her room, but it's just not realistic for us to travel to the other side of the house each time we want to go outside, so it's hard to maintain that system. We don't have a closet near our entry door from our garage, which is the door we use to come into our house, so I decided to build a shallow shoe rack that fits behind the door.

I didn't know if I would love this project, so I just used scrap 1"x4" mdf we already in the shop. The two longest pieces I had were 24", so that's how long I made my shoe shelf. If you attempt this, I recommend lining up the shoes you plan to store in the shelf and measure to get your length.

I mitered the edges of each of my 24" boards at 45 degrees.

Then I cut two end pieces to 2.5" - one end straight and one end with a 45-degree miter.

 

I secured the 2.5" end pieces to my 24" piece with wood glue and 1.5" nails.

I clamped the frame to my work bench before nailing to get a tighter seam, but this isn't necessary.

I needed a way to attach the frame I just built to the wall without adding much depth, so I cut a piece of 1/4" plywood the same size as the 1"x4"x24" piece of mdf to attach to the back.

Plywood is rough, so I gave all the edges a quick sand with a fine grit piece of sandpaper.

I glued and nailed the piece of thin plywood to the back of the 1"x4" frame.

That's it - we basically just built a long skinny box with no top or bottom! I ended up making two of them.

I marked the studs with blue painters tape and used two 2" screws to secure each shelf to the wall into the studs.

I caulked all the edges and then painted the shelves the same color as my wall - Benjamin Moore light pewter.

The reason I made these shelves just over 2.5" deep is because our door stopper is 3", so the door still opens all the way!

This is normally the part where I say "so cute!", but super functional is more fitting!