Shoerack Bench finished

Here is the finished Shoerack/Bench. I believe it turned out good. As with all things one makes, you can always pick out the imperfections. There were good lessons learned on this project which can be applied to future works.






I finished it with just a coating of Minwax Paste (Natural finish). I did not want to stain it, it would have turned blotchy for sure looking at the wood now. Most of our furnishings in the house are lightly finished anyway (notice the bamboo flooring), so it will blend it quite nicely. There is no gloss to the finish yet. I think I will do another coat in a few days after we live with it for awhile.

Shoerack/Bench 3

Here is the current incarnation of the Shoerack/Bench. It is almost done. I need to drill the holes for the 3/4" dowel, these will be placed at the back of each shelf to support long shoes (ie. Hill family shoes). I will be using a brace and auger bit to drill the holes. I got the brace from amazon and the auger bit from Lowes.

This is a shot of the front.

This is a shot from the rear. The dowels are trimmed off, but there is glue still poking out everywhere.
I will be trimming all the glue off, giving it a light sanding and rounding all the edges. For the finish I have decided to use Minwax Paste wax (Natural color).

Shoerack Bench 2

Here is a photo of the rails clamped on the shoerack/bench. I put rails on the top front and back to support the seat and then one rail on the bottom. The bottom rail will be in front and serve to keep the sides from splaying out and as the catch to keep shoes on the shelf. If you look you will see I added dowels to the sides for reinforcement. I will be adding those to the rails after they dry and to the shelves after they are installed.


Here is a close-up of the dowels. They are 1/4" oak and extend 1" into the top. I'm not sure they really add that much strength but I always like they way the look. Obviously they will be trimmed flush once dry.

Shoerack Bench

So here is the background to the wood in this project. I work in a scientific laboratory and get all sorts of deliveries. The pallets that scientific equipment comes on are usually hand built and if of European decent, than it is birch plywood. This wood came from pallet that an ultracentrifuge from Germany was shipped on. It is NICE wood. Anyway on to the details.

I cut the sides as a stack so the diamond detail would be accurate and line up. The bottom was cut the same way.


I took each side half separately and cut the rabbet to accept the top. In hind sight I should have waited till I had the sides glued together to cut the rabbet because now I have some trimming to do to make the top sit flat in the rabbet.


I then glued the sides and top halves together to form solid pieces. After trimming the rabbets and squaring the top, one side and the top were glued. Tonight I will trim the other rabbet and glue that to the top.