Upcycled shoe rack

I am kind of obsessed with restoring furniture, and found this beauty at Goodwill for $25. It was solid wood, and in desperate need of some love. Challenge accepted!

I forgot to take a "before" photo, but this is basically good enough. The top was scratched quite terribly, so I brought out my orbital sander and went to town. I sanded it several times as I learned from a previous project to try and take as much of the old finish off as possible.

Next, I pulled out the drawers, took off the front cabinet doors. From a technical view, I was going to need to add long pieces of wood for the shoes to sit on, so I also removed the backing. Lucky for me, the piece came with an inside shelf, that ran the length of the piece, that I was going to re-purpose after a quick trim.

A little stain goes a long way. The top of this piece was now uniform in color and stained beautifully.
I think a used Dark Walnut. I buy stain in the tiny $4 size from Home Depot. Satin poly on top. I also started hand painting the outside with a brush and chalk paint I bought from Michaels. I believe the exact color is Parchment, and its a nice antique cream color. It was at this point that I decided to remove one of the front supports as it would interfere with the shoe section.

I had some leftover cream colored latex paint, and since no one is going to look closely at the inside, I grabbed a roller and painted the whole inside too. I found these handles (LOVE THEM) from Home Depot when I went to get more stain. They are cream colored with a dark metal side. Definitely fit my vibe.

*This is where I stopped

*This is where I pondered

*This is where things got a little tricky

In order to make shoe rack shelves, I needed some sort of support on the right hand side, hidden behind the beam. I had some scrap wood and figured since this was staying in my home and not being sold, I could "finagle" it a bit.

This it what I can up with. I used leftover board and the other support that I previously removed. One rack was going to sit on the two at the bottom, them other was going to sit on the top. A bunch of L brackets and screws later, It worked just fine!

Next up was this little hiccup. I didn't notice it at the time of purchase, but one of the back legs had been snapped off. I had little pieces of trim from a previous project laying around, so I found one approximately the correct height, grabbed my Dremmel, and went to town. In case you don't have a bunch of spare parts, little scrap pieces like this are FREE from Home Depot if you dig through the cutting bins near the trim section.

I nailed the trim in place, and painted it to match. Close enough for me! Honestly, I think it looks good and lucky enough, it faces the side against the wall... so hopefully no one will ever really notice it. I added a clear coat and...

Ta-Da!

Isn't she puuuurdy?! I'm so excited about how this project turned out. I would have had to spend $200 on a piece like this EASY. But instead, a little time and love went a looooong way.

I love that it has the tall side to fit my rain boots. My plan was to put flip-flops in the drawers, but I'm not sure that will actually happen. Regardless, this was a fun project and I am quite proud. Enjoy!