Awesome DIY Shoe Rack Bench

If your mud room or entranceway is forever littered with shoes, then this awesome DIY shoe rack bench will help solve that issue.

The inexpensive ones you can find at Amazon or Ikea will probably fall apart in no time. If you want a shoe rack that will last you will need to dig deep into your wallet.

Beth felt the same way so she came up with her own design. She made her shoe rack using a couple of wood pallets and a few other piece of lumber.

Start with two pallets. Try to get the exact same pallets and some pallets that are in fairly good condition. Also, try to find pallets that use 2″x4″ construction for the middle board. The bench finishes at 48″x18″.

 

You will need:

(1) – 1″x6″x 12′ long cut into 48″ lengths (The top, 3 cuts)

(1) – 2″x4″x 6′ long ripped down the middle cut into 18″ lengths (Center supports- 8 cuts)

(1) – 2″x4″x 12′ cut into 18″ lengths (Side supports- 8 cuts)

(1) – 2″x4″x 12′ milled down to 3″ wide (optional) cut into 18″ lengths (Bottom Side supports- 8 cuts)

Circular Saw

Drill (Seriously the Dewalt Hammer Drill is my fav!)

Lots of screws
Hammer

Chisel
4 casters

Then Beth measured the width and cut the pallet exactly in half. You can modify it to suit your needs.

At this point, decide which side you want to face front and the order you would like to stack the pallets. I had some ends that were cracked on my pallet so I faced them towards the back. Also, I put the best quality shelves toward the top of the bench because I figured you would see them more.

She decided that in order to hold the weight of sitting on it to remove their shoes, the shoe holder would need to be reinforced. Taking some 2×4’s and attaching them to the outer legs for the extra support, she then added some more blocks to the feet to increase the space for the shoes.

Beth then assembled all of her pieces and added some wheels for easy moving to clean under it.

After sanding (for weeks), staining, and applying the polyurethane, the bench is finally finished!

The total cost: Pallets (free) + wheels ($18.88) + boards ($13.25) +Stain (free, already had it) + Screws & Nails (free, already had them) = $32.13

Not too bad if I don’t say so myself!

Here are a few tips I would have offered Beth as she went along.

Rough sanding all of your parts prior to assembly will make it much easier later. 

Add some blocks to the wheels to make the bench higher. That would leave room underneath for a drip pan.

See her awesome project and step by step directions at between3sisters.com

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