I recently remodeled the small entryway of the Main House Fixer Upper to give it a proper entry space instead of just opening into the living room. Below is a photo of the finished entryway. Yes, that white cabinet does hold shoes, BUT I have a lot of shoes. And boots. And things. This post will show you how to eek out even more shoe storage in a coat closet by adding an easy built in shoe shelf.
Support Ledge for Built In Shoe Shelf:
This simple shelf will be support on three sides with a wall mounted ledger. The ledger is a simple 1×3 primed pine board I have leftover from other projects. Since I may be putting some weight on this low shoe shelf, I want to connect the ledge piece to all available wall studs with a simple wood screw. I used #10 x 3 inch screws I had on hand and connected the ledge. Make sure to use a hand level or a laser level to set the ledge pieces level.
Here is the installed ledge. You can see the screw marks at the back wall. The small blue tape pieces mark the wall studs I found with a stud finder.
Below is a photo of the ledge support at the side wall. Unfortunately I couldn’t find wall wall stud to connect to. I guess I could have extended the horizontal piece along the full wall section and likely found a stud. But I didn’t think of that at the time. So instead, I added a vertical piece at the front end to create solid bearing from the ledge to the baseboard.
The ledge pieces are connected to the drywall outside of the wall stud with small 2 inch long 18 gage brad nails using my DeWalt brad nailer. This thing has really come in handy for installing quick small nails on trim and baseboards.
If you look really closely in the photo above you can see a horizontal pencil line beyond the ledger. I drew that with a level to help place the ledger boards correctly. The support ledger on the opposite side wall is the same.
Closet Shoe Shelf Platform:
Now let’s install the actual platform for the shoe shelf. I used a simple scrap piece of 3/4 inch thick plywood that I cut to a 12 inch depth and the width to match the closet with a skill saw. You can also ask at Home Depot for them to cut you a piece to your desired size. Last I checked, the first one or two cuts were free. Each cut after that was a dollar or two.
I primed the plywood before brad nailing it to the support ledge with the 18 gage brad nailer.
Here is the shoe shelf from above. The white board laying across the top will be brad nailed to the front of the shelf to give it a finished look.
Finishing Touches:
To give the shelf a professionally finished look, I used white paintable caulk where the shelf meets the walls to close any small gaps. I also used a white wood filler to fill all the brad nail holes. Once the wood filler is dry, give it a quick sanding. The nail holes will disappear.
Then, paint the shelf to match the closet. I used a Scuff Defense paint in Ultra Bright White by Behr to match the baseboards.
Lastly, to help protect the built in shoe shelf, I covered the top with white waterproof peel and stick contact paper. I figure this will help protect the wood shelf in case someone puts a pair of wet snow packed boots on the shelf.
Below is a the test fit-up with my boots on the new built in shoe shelf in the coat closet. This closet is really the only place the vacuum will fit, so I am happy it fits in this perfect little side nook.
Here is the finished built in closet shoe shelf with that holds all our work boots. Now there is room for big boots on the floor. Plus the vacuum still fits, tucked in the corner.
Here is the closet as part of the full entry remodel. This keeps our regular shoes in the shoe cabinet and our outdoor work boots and shoes in the closet. Yes, sooo many shoes!
