Shoe Box Bench

In Hawaii, we take our shoes off at the door. Consequently, the floor inside our front door was often cluttered with shoes and sandals. Sometimes it is easier to put shoes on sitting down.

After thinking about the storage and sit problems for awhile, Sketchup was used to sketch a box/bench that would fit in the space between the open door and duplex outlet.

An inventory of what I had laying around, precipitated a trip to Home Depot.

Cut 1 x 12 Home Depot common board into 9 pieces.

• (1) 32"
• (1) ~ 30.25"
• (2) 16"
• (5) 5"

Cut two pieces from a scrap of 1/4" plywood.

• (1) 12" by 32"
• (1) 12.75" by 32"

I used glue and finishing nails to assemble the box. Once glue set, the dividers were fixed in place using same glue and finishing nails method. My 5 dividers were used to make 6 equal size shoe pockets. You might want more smaller pockets or fewer bigger pockets depending on your footwear.

Glue used was West System G/flex Toughened Epoxy. I have used G/flex before to laminate cedar for a Greenland style paddle. The glue alone is probably strong enough, but nails make it stronger and helped hold the box in position while the glue cured.

The lid has four parts plywood, foam, fabric and common board.

• Common board tapered and shaped to fit the top of the box.
• The foam cut from a camping sleeping pad. Cut lines had been traced from 12.75" by 32" plywood piece.
• Foam and plywood wrapped with fabric.
• Fabric stapled in place.
• Common board screwed to covered foam/plywood.

Shoe Box Bench should probably be painted, but it already has shoes and sandals in it.

Shoe Box Bench is bottomless so dirt can fall through to be swept or vacuumed up.