Day Nine-eighty-five: where to put all these shoes?

As anyone who owns an older house can attest, one thing there is never enough of is storage space in the main living area. Closets are small, when you have them. So what're we to do when our cup of shoes runneth over? Why build a new rack for them, of course.

Naturally this project, like so many, began with a trip to The Depot for some wood. In this case, we needed the 6-foot pieces of 1x6 that are on the left side. The 1x12s are for something else.

We decided to comb through our scrap wood pile to make the shelves. We easily found enough solid pine to do the trick, so we didn't need the plywood that's on top.

Our plan was to have 10 shelves, each big enough to hold a shoebox. Each shelf needed to be 5.5 inches deep and 16 inches wide (and made out of .75-inch wood). We also needed a top piece only 3.75 inches deep and two runners each 3.75x68.25 inches. How'd we come up with these numbers? Ten compartments each 6 inches high (60 inches) plus allowance for 10 shelves and one top piece all .75 inches thick (8.25 inches). Like so.

The reason for the 3.75 versus 5.5 inches depth is that the shelves needed to be deep enough so a shoebox wouldn't tip out and the narrower pieces are going to get covered up with trim.

With all of our pieces cut (plus some .25-inch plywood for the back) we were ready to paint.

All of the sides that will show got a primer coat and two coats of satin white. Then we had to assemble everything. We used our handy corner clamps to hold things steady while we put in screws.

To ensure that each shelf was exactly 6 inches above the last one, we cut a couple pieces of scrap wood to the exact height and used them as spacers.

 Eleven shelves later here's how it looked.

We added the plywood back and this part of the project is done.

As for where it's going...you'll have to stay tuned.