Make a simple but elegant shoe rack from Ikea shelves. Shoes float out from the wall, and their own weight keeps them in the minimal looking rack.
I really like the J-Me metal shoe rack that works in the same way as this one, but I want a few of these and the J-Me ones cost 50 GBP each. Home made ones I've seen made with planks and shelf brackets all look a bit ugly, but using a few of these pre-shaped Ikea shelves is more aesthetically pleasing, uses fewer components, and costs about 8 GBP.
Stuff you will need:
Two Ikea Stripa shelves (About 4 pounds each)
Screws
Rawl plugs
Tools (not all shown)
Pencil
SD card (or something of a similar width)
Saw
Clamps
Hammer
drill
Pokey thing (Bradawl or thin screwdriver, for marking the wall through holes in the shelves)
Step 1Cut Shelf
Each rack is made out of two Stripa shelves: The bottom one is left intact, the top one is cut to about 2/3 its normal depth and mounted upside down above the first.
I did this very quickly and dirtily, and it turned out well.
Mark a line to cut on the top shelf. I found an old SD card was just the right width. Clamp it, then cut that mofo!
Don't throw away the offcut, you'll be using it for something in a bit. See notes on the images if you're new to woodworking and need more details.
step 2Plane
Use a plane to smooth the rough edge down, then use it to chamfer the inside edge at various angles until it's nice and rounded. You want a smooth edge rather than a hard angle where the upper of your shoes will be pressed against it.
The front of the shelf you cut off just happens to match the size of gap you need between the shelves on the wall (At least, that's the case for my - UK - size 9 and 1/2 shoes). Make some spacer blocks out of it, as shown in the pictures.
step 3Fix to Wall
The shelves come pre-drilled and countersunk in two places, so all that remains is to fix them to the wall. If you're going to be putting heavy boots in these, it might be an idea to drill for a third screw in the middle of each.
I found it best to drill the wall and fix one end, then line it up to mark the other hole. Remember to always do it by eye - using a spirit level is precise, but, as I rediscovered while installing this, can lead to very wrong looking results if the floors in your house slope even a tiny bit.
step 4Enjoy Floaty Shoes
That's it. It can accommodate various sizes of toe, with small toed shoes fitting between the very back of the two shelves, and large toed boots fitting between the recessed parts that offer a wider opening.
The shelves come with small metal pins and holes pre-drilled for joining them together at the ends, so you could easily run more than one of these along a wall. As it is, I find one of these can take three pairs comfortably, or seven shoes if they're crammed a bit.
Edit: Put a second one up, added some noisy phone camera shots to show it. The edge of the lens makes them look different, but both racks have exactly the same spacing.
Have a nice try.
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