Shoe Rack

[Andy Kev.]

Here are a couple of pics of my second attempt at making a shoe rack:

It's made of tulip wood. The central stripe on the top is elm and the thin battens in the middle of the racks are shop-bought beech strips.

The second shot shows the construction (and mistakes). The long strips of the racks are attached to the end pieces with half-lapped dovetails. The frame is nailed to to the top with the nails being angled in a bit so it should cope with any small seasonal movement that might occur. The racks are joined to the legs with halving joints and are reinforced with tapered wooden nails going through the legs into the racks.

The reason I made it the way I did is that most shoe rack designs seem to consist of a couple of vertical boards and a few horizontal boards. There's nothing wrong with that of course but I thought that a lighter, airier design might also be possible. It also uses up less wood if that is an issue.

This is the second version. On the first version it didn't occur to me to put in the beech strips which does of course mean that small shoes couldn't be placed on the racks. The racks are 3/8" thick which I think I will increase to 1/2" on version three so that the beech rails can be morticed in. Despite the mistakes I'm more or less pleased with it. More importantly the friend I made it for is delighted with it.

Comments and criticism are most welcome (I have the hide of a rhino). What is beyond criticism though is that fact that it holds shoes.

 

[Fitzroy]

I like that, I think the top is my favourite bit, the elm on the tulip wood looks good. What finish did you use to keep the tulip wood nice and light?

One thing I would consider for version three is the depth of the shelves. To my eye if they were shallower so the top overhung the piece would feel lighter overall. It’s hard to tell without dimensions but also I think they are deeper than most shoes so could be reduced with no detriment to its function.

Fitz.

 

[Andy Kev.]

I like that, I think the top is my favourite bit, the elm on the tulip wood looks good. What finish did you use to keep the tulip wood nice and light?

One thing I would consider for version three is the depth of the shelves. To my eye if they were shallower so the top overhung the piece would feel lighter overall. It’s hard to tell without dimensions but also I think they are deeper than most shoes so could be reduced with no detriment to its function.

Fitz.

The top got three coats of Danish Oil and the rest just one coat.

It's difficult to see from the phots but the top projects about an inch beyond the shelves. I came to the view that any serious projection on a shoe rack needs to be asymmetric with it projecting more at the front that at the back because the back in most cases will probably be up against a wall and you might not want it taking up too much space in what would typically be a hallway. This would mean that a 1" projection would be alright at the back and you could probably get away with 2" at the front, more if the back were obscured by e.g. coats hanging down very close to the top of the rack. If you had, say a 3" projection then you could probably give the front a nice, elegant curve.

But you are right in that it is a key aspect of the design.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Here are a couple of pics of my second attempt at making a shoe rack:



It's made of tulip wood. The central stripe on the top is elm and the thin battens in the middle of the racks are shop-bought beech strips.



The second shot shows the construction (and mistakes). The long strips of the racks are attached to the end pieces with half-lapped dovetails. The frame is nailed to to the top with the nails being angled in a bit so it should cope with any small seasonal movement that might occur. The racks are joined to the legs with halving joints and are reinforced with tapered wooden nails going through the legs into the racks.

The reason I made it the way I did is that most shoe rack designs seem to consist of a couple of vertical boards and a few horizontal boards. There's nothing wrong with that of course but I thought that a lighter, airier design might also be possible. It also uses up less wood if that is an issue.

This is the second version. On the first version it didn't occur to me to put in the beech strips which does of course mean that small shoes couldn't be placed on the racks. The racks are 3/8" thick which I think I will increase to 1/2" on version three so that the beech rails can be morticed in. Despite the mistakes I'm more or less pleased with it. More importantly the friend I made it for is delighted with it.

Comments and criticism are most welcome (I have the hide of a rhino). What is beyond criticism though is that fact that it holds shoes.

Very smart, and I'm looking hard for your "mistakes", but they are not at all evident. If only I had shoes dainty enough to fit such a shoe rack.

 

[Suffolkboy]

I like that too. My missus wants me to build us a shoe rack. If you don't mind I will be heavily plagiarising your work.

 

[doctor Bob]

Yes I like it as well.

 

[custard]

Nice job Andy. The common problem with this type of "open" design is that it's prone to racking, but you've incorporated enough robust joinery to effectively prevent that. More subjectively, the timbers that you've chosen work together well, at least to my eye!

Hope this has given you the impetus to move on to other projects, you've certainly got the ability to tackle something bigger.

=D>

 

[Andy Kev.]

Thanks very much for the comments. It really is most encouraging.

Suffolk Boy: Plagiarise as much as you want. I'd love to see a pic of what you eventually produce.

Custard: I didn't consciously think of racking. "Stable and Square" was foremost in my thoughts, which, come to think of it, probably adds up to trying to deal with racking. What I found to be the key step in that was to do a dry fit of legs and shelves, all clamped up and from that mark the position of the joints on the long pieces of the frame at the top from the where the legs joined the feet. That way I knew that the legs would be bang on vertical and everything else stemmed from that. It was a good job that I did that because one leg developed a bit of bow (about 1/2" off true at the top) and the frame pulled it back to where it was supposed to be.