Boot Rack

This post was originally published in April 2014. It has been updated and reworked for your reading pleasure.

 

After tripping over muck boots, tennis shoes, and flip flops for the millionth time, I knew that this idea from Chickadee Homestead was the perfect solution. Our entry way from the front door into the classroom area is fairly narrow which means that all those piled up shoes are not piled up out of the way. No. They are piled right. in. the. doorway. Utilizing a small wasted space between the A/C closet and the door frame with this boot rack solved the problem!

The beauty of this project is that it is a really simple project. I took an old 2″ X 4″ I had lying around in my “lumber yard” and some 1/2″ dowels.  I cut the 2″ x 4″ to the size I needed to fit the door width and drilled 1/2″ holes.  You could drill them to whatever depth you want.  I just drilled mine all the way through out of simplicity.  However, if you don’t want to drill all the way through your board, here is a little tip for drilling holes of the same depth.  Measure the depth you want on the drill bit and wrap a piece of tape leaving a little “flag”.  The “flag” will sweep away drill bit shavings when you get to the correct depth.  

To determine the spacing between the dowels I made sure that the distance I chose was sufficient to allow the kids smaller boots to fit but also to allow the larger adult boots (and the kids new boots as they get replaced with larger ones) plenty of room as well.  I took my boots (as they are the largest) and determined the most narrow width that I could squeeze them into and found that it was narrow enough for the kids boots as well.  For me this distance was 6″ on center.  (That’s the measurement from the center of the first hole to the center of the second hole.)  I put my first peg hole 1″ in from the end on each end and then marked my second hole on each end.  

 

I then dry fit everything, made sure everything fit and worked as it should, then glued up my dowels. One benefit to not drilling your holes all the way through is that it is much easier to glue the dowels as the glue tends to push out the back if you drill all the way through the board. I let the glue set overnight as it was late in the day when I finished this portion of the project.

   

I measured the thickness of the board and the thickness of the door I was planning to hang the boards on and added an extra 1/4″ for the length of my bolts.  That came to a total length of 3-1/2″.  I chose carriage bolts for no particular reason other than it made attaching the boards to the door simple.  If I were going into studs in the wall instead, I would have used lag bolts.  To help ensure that the nut didn’t pull through the door when tightened, I used a large fender washer and nut on the backside of the door.  

 

I spread all of the boards out at even distances vertically on the door to give plenty of room for all the boots.

 

As you can see, the great thing about these boot racks is that it not only gets the boots up off the floor and out of the way, but it keeps them upside down which prevents creepy craw-lies from climbing in and waiting for your foot the next time you put your boots on and in Texas that can mean anything from spiders to scorpions to snakes. It’s one thing to find a grass snake curled up in your boot. It is quite another to find a baby rattle snake enjoying the warmth of your boots. You can finish the boot racks off by sealing them with polyurethane (although I didn’t) to help seal against moisture. We are pretty dry around here so I didn’t worry about it since the 2 x 4’s were pressure treated lumber. I hope you enjoy these boot racks as much as we are. Have a great day and God bless.