Introduction: Children's Shoe Rack

After creating a large shoe rack I decided to build a small rack for children's shoes.

Rack size: 50x47x25 cm (width-height-depth; approx. 20x18.5x10 inches).

Step 1: Tools and Materials

I used two furniture board, 160x25 cm each. To connect rack parts together, you need dowels, furniture screws and glue.

List of tools:

  • Jigsaw
  • Cordless drill
  • Drilling template
  • Clamps
  • Wood plane
  • Tape-measure, pencil

I used wood stain and acrylic varnish for painting. Abrasive paper (I used 240 grit) is needed for smoothing a painted surface.

And also you need a blueprint (or something that looks like a blueprint).

Step 2: Cutting the Board

Of cousre, you can use hand saw for cutting the board. Jigsaw let do more neat cut. I used T111C blade.

Also I used rail (piece of another board) for cutting. Moving the jigsaw along this rail allows you to get very smooth cut.

Step 3: Chamfering

Furniture boards have not very smooth edges, so I decided to chamfer them. Two runs of wood plane for every edge will be enough.

Step 4: Drilling Holes

To properly align the holes in different parts, use drilling template (I used template from KWB). Do not press down drilling template too hard, because holes will not be centered.

Holes for dowels can be in any place, because they are not visible. Holes for furniture screws are should be drilled at the same distance from the edges of the board.

The drilling limiter is a very useful tool, since holes for dowels should have a certain depth.

Step 5: Trial Assembly

We need do trial assembly before painting to ensure that all parts have a good connection.

Step 6: Painting

After trial assembly was good, it's time to disassemble rack and paint it. I painted my previous rack after it was assembled, and it was not to easy. So I decided to try another way.

I colored each part twice with wood stain. After it I colored all parts several times with acrylic varnish. I used abrasive paper to smooth surfaces between painting.

Step 7: Final Assembly

Time to connect all parts together. I used some glue, dowels and furniture screws.

Step 8: Back Side

I nailed a piece of fiberboard to the rack. This gave additional rigidity to the rack.

Step 9: Result

Step 10: Previous Shoe Rack

Here are some images of previous rack. Main principles of construction were the same, the main difference is that rack was painted after final assembly. As I said, it was not so easy. Unfortunately, I didn't take enough photos to make instructables for this.