Legacy Project: Shoe Rack for the Back Porch

A Scrap Wood Project



Way back in 2011 (it's painful to think that was 8 years ago already), just after the back porch remodel, I built an umbrella stand for the back porch.  After struggling with the design, it ended up turning out okay -


As a matter-of-fact the umbrella post has consistently been the most viewed post here at House 173, and that's always been a head-scratcher for me!


But there ya have it.  Probably within a week or two of finishing the umbrella stand, I was looking around the shop and noticed a stack of old hardwood bed slats that had been laying around for a couple years waiting for inspiration.  Somehow, when I saw those boards I immediately knew what I wanted to do and where it would go.  This was another one of those projects I didn't draw plans for, but I just measured the space on the back porch where I wanted it and set to work.


That picture was about the middle of the remodel, but the space in the lower right next to the outside door is where I pictured the rack going, and here it is:


It wasn't a difficult build, but I want to show a couple happenstance features.  First, in the picture below you can see that the old bed slats were chamfered.


Yea yeah yeah, I know the rack is a bit dirty, but the back porch serves as the mud room so - dirt happens!  Anyway, I made it wide enough for two pairs of shoes on each shelf.  That's six pair - if we needed more space, I figured we should just be putting some shoes away!  It's never been a problem so...no problem!  You can also see that a large bag is clipped to the one side of the rack, that's where returnable bottles are kept 'til return time.  Not particularly glamorous, but it's functional! 


I also antiqued the rack a little bit.  And that's the shoe-horn that hangs from the side of the rack.


Here's one angle of the rack in its habitat.  In the winter we put a drip tray inderneath for obvious reasons!


And here's the full-frontal!


And a final shot.  The total cost of the shoe rack was $0!  Even the paint was leftover from some other project that even pre-dated the umbrella stand!

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