Reclaimed Wood Shoe Stand

Do you have an old set of shelves that you're about to throw away? I did!

They were cheap, poorly made, and were practically falling apart. However, before I made a trip to the dumpster, I realized that I could really use a new place to store all my shoes. Rather than let the wood go to waste, I decided to reclaim the wood and turn the old shelves into a new shoe stand!

The shelves you choose can be any size, shape, color, or material, but for this Instructable I will go over specifically what I did to reclaim the shelves that I had. Your experience may differ slightly, but the steps I go over here should be general enough to follow for any kind of scrap wood! As an added bonus, you should be able to use all of the hardware (screws, pegs, etc.) that came with the old shelves.

That's right... building what I am about to show you is 100% FREE.

All you need is a screwdriver, a measuring tape, and a saw. If you have access to power tools, then the job just gets easier!

Decide which shelves you will be reclaiming!

The ideal choice is a set of shelves that might be flimsy or old, but is made of decent wood that isn't water damaged or cracked.

The shelves I chose were ones I had laying around my apartment that I was about to toss out! They had a few blemishes, but nothing that couldn't be covered up with a little paint.

Take the old shelves apart!

Undo all of the screws, remove all of the pegs, and lay everything out.

Set aside all of the screws and shelf pegs because you will need them to put everything back together later.

I laid a pair of my shoes on one of the pieces of wood to see how big I should make the new shelves. I found that one of my larger pairs of shoes fit snugly inside of a 10 inch section.

Use a measuring tape or a ruler and mark off the lengths of your new shelves with a writing utensil.

I was able to get two new shelves out of every one old shelf, with only a couple inches left over!

Find a sturdy surface on which to cut the new shelves!

I used clamps to hold down the shelf while I was making the cuts to make things easier.

Set aside the new shelves and either throw away or save the extra inches of scrap. We won't be using them in this Instructable.

Now you should have all of the pieces you need!

Begin to reassemble the new shelves by replacing the screws you took out in Step 2.

No need to drill new holes, just use the same holes that were already there!

Once the top and bottom shelves are secured with the screws, you can add the pegs back into the existing holes and start adding the shelves.

Add your shoes to your now-finished shoe stand!

I even added a little desk organizer on top as a spot for my keys and wallet.

EXTRA CREDIT:

If you want, you can go to a hardware store and purchase more shelf pegs so that you can use more of the leftover wood for more shelves.

Additionally, you can buy spray-paint and give your new shoe stand a fresh look!