DIY Pallet Shoe Storage Bench ($32.13)

With the onset of winter I have been drooling over some sort of shoe storage in our house. Right now, shoes get left at the door and I end up tripping over them every time I walk in. I can't imagine with winter, not only will I be tripping over them but I will be stepping in pools of water too!
I HATE wet socks!

I began looking online for a shoe storage bench. I found something like this for $112.

buy it here

Or I found this one, which is super cute, but a little out of my budget.

buy it here

I fell in love! It would be so nice to have a coat rack, some storage, and a shoe bench in my mud room!

However, I know my husband, and he would probably say that we really don't need it for that price. So one day, I decided that I could build my own. As of late, I have been obsessed with wooden pallet furniture. I thought that some pallets would make a great shoe storage bench....and they did! So here are the directions if you would like to build your own storage bench.

Start with two pallets. Try to get the exact same pallets and some pallets that are in fairly good condition. Also, try to find pallets that use 2"x4" construction for the middle board. The bench finishes at 48"x18".

You will need:

(1) - 1"x6"x 12' long cut into 48" lengths (The top, 3 cuts)

(1) - 2"x4"x 6' long ripped down the middle cut into 18" lengths (Center supports- 8 cuts)

(1) - 2"x4"x 12' cut into 18" lengths (Side supports- 8 cuts)

(1) - 2"x4"x 12' milled down to 3" wide (optional) cut into 18" lengths (Bottom Side supports- 8 cuts)

Circular Saw (This is a great one here)

Drill (Seriously the Dewalt Hammer Drill is my fav!)

Lots of screws
Hammer

Chisel
4 casters

Turn the pallets over and remove the bottom.
I did this with a chisel and hammer. I just chiseled around the nails and then used the hammer to pull them out. You want to remove the bottom to extend the spaces between shelves for bigger shoes.
Your pallets should look something like this:
Next, cut them both in half the width way. Make sure you measure so they are all even pieces. Measure twice!
Now, most likely, your circular saw won't cut all the way through the thickness of the wood, so I used a hand saw to cut the remainder.
You should have four equal sized pieces of the pallet. Stacked on top of each other, you get the idea of how the bench will look. At this point, decide which side you want to face front and the order you would like to stack the pallets. I had some ends that were cracked on my pallet so I faced them towards the back. Also, I put the best quality shelves toward the top of the bench because I figured you would see them more.
Now we need to reinforce the bench shelves to be strong enough to hold a person's weight. Measure the width of the pallet.Taking a 2"x4" board (the reason why the pallet needs to be 2"x4" construction) cut 8 pieces of the board into the width of the pallet (18 inches).
Starting with bottom half piece, attach the 2"x4" along the outside edges of the pallet, like below. I used screws to do this.
Turn the pallet over (this is your bottom rung) and measure the width of you two boards. The height of a normal pallet space is not tall enough for most men's shoes. I needed to expand this, so I did so by adding boards to the top of the supports.

You will need to measure the edges (the 2"x4" you just screwed on) and the width of your middle supports. (If using a 2"x4" pallet, it will be about 3", hence the milled board above.) You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I just didn't want any overhang, but you could easily center the height extension boards. Cut the boards down to 18" long, there will be eight cuts.

Each shelf also needs some center support boards, so I cut two center supports for each shelf and two end supports for each shelves.

You should end up with

6- 2"x4"x18" boards (2 were already used)

8- 2"x2"x18" boards

8- 2"x3"x18" boards (unless you didn't mill down the boards)

Here's my cut pile (and my son's shoes):

Next, screw your center supports into place:
Starting with the bottom shelf, screw the two 2"x3"x18" boards to the tops of each of the edges. (Note: If you plan on finishing the bench, this is the part I wish I would have sanded the bench. It was very hard to sand the bench once all the shelves were put together.)
Now, stack your next pallet shelf on the bottom. Use the pallet overhang to screw it in place to the shelf below.
You should have something like this:
Place your 2"x4"x18" side piece on the pallet overhang and then put the top 2"x3"x18" piece on the top of the ends. You are using your 2"x3"x18" to hold the side piece in place. You need to screw down the top piece (2"x3"x18") to hold the side piece in and to attach to the shelf. (Note: I drilled a hole and then screwed in the screw. I just found it easier and I didn't want to split the wood. I wasn't sure how the pallet would would hold up to just drilling a screw in.)

Repeat the process. I used very long screws because I wanted to make sure that the screw went all the way through the shelf, into the side piece of the shelf below.
You should end up with something like the picture below. (You might want to use clamps if your boards are bowed a little.)
Now it's time for the top. I purchased a 1"x6" pine board for my top. I didn't want anyone snagging their clothes on the rough pallet wood, so I thought the top should be smooth. Measure the width of your bench, in my case it was 48" (including the overhangs on the side), and cut your board into 3 pieces.
Place your boards across top of the bench (there will be gaps in between them) and mark your drill marks. I decided to nail on the top, to add sort of a rustic feel. I had some large roofing nails that I liked the look of, so I used them. I did drill holes part of the way before putting the nails in so I was easier for me and I didn't dent the wood.
You should now have a bench that looks something like this! Now you have to flip it over to add the wheels.
I added wheels to mine, to make it easier to cleaning under.
I bought these casters from Amazon.com and they are suppose to hold enough weight for the bench. I am proud to say that this is the only step I had to ask my husband for help on. I can't lift the bench to flip it over by myself!

After sanding (for weeks), staining, and applying the polyurethane, the bench is finally finished!

The total cost: Pallets (free) + wheels ($18.88) + boards ($13.25) +Stain (free, already had it) + Screws & Nails (free, already had them) = $32.13

Not too bad if I don't say so myself!

In addition to the bench, I found plans for an above storage and coat hook organizer from ana-white.com. (Here are the plans: Ana White Entryway Storage Shelf with Hooks) I don't know if you have seen her site, but I am in LOVE with it!

It was very easy to build and cost about $25.

Finally, my mud room coat and shoe storage is complete!
We have had several people over since building it and I have actually had to convince people that this bench was built from pallets. It's a great way to use up some old pallets and add less to our dumps. Plus, it's cheap and easy!

Now onto the next project, which will look something like this:

buy it here

I am building a 15 shelf, 84" tall wine rack that should hold about 120 bottles of wine! One shelf is assembled already, only 14 more to go!

~Beth

Organizing The Garage Part 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Organizing The Garage for the Fall. It's the perfect time of year to do it. As I said before, I can't imagine spending the winter hunting for that screw driver or drill bit in below zero weather in the mess of a place we had, so I decided to organize it...well as much as I could.

I wish I could put up a picture like this:

source

or this
source
However, the reality is we have a working garage. We use it almost each and every day. We both do some woodworking, I do lots of painting, and really we always have a bunch of household DIY projects we are working on. The white paint in the garage would last about 2 seconds. Also, we have 5 acres of land, so we have a garden tractor, a large sprayer, and a bunch of other lawn equipment. As I would LOVE to say that the above pics are my garage, it's not and never will be. Also, we don't plan on staying in this house very long, so we probably won't be investing in an epoxy floor (however in the new place we will!)

Here is the before right side of the garage is full of yard equipment, fireworks (gotta love SD), random auction purchases, and other junk.
and the after

On the far right side, I made a sort of biking station. I like things off the ground so that I can sweep the garage easier. Under the shelves, I secured some nails and hung up all the power yard tools.
Next to the biking station is all of the yard tools. I know, it doesn't look the prettiest, but they are all up there and have a spot.
I used just nails to hang them on the wall. It's cheap and easy!
And this was the back wall of the garage before:
And the after:
I made a golfing area over to the left, a basket storage area in the middle, and a power tool station to the right. I love baskets! They look nice and hide miscellaneous junk!

This is the power tool station.
It has the saws, drills, and all the extension cords needed! (Notice our large red yard sprayer, just another large thing in the garage!)

This was the left side of the garage, which was littered with shoes, golfing stuff, screws, nails, multiple strollers, fishing gear, paint, and several ladders.

Here is the after:
Starting from the right side, I made a ladder station and covered up the existing cupboard with a curtain to hide some of the mess.
In the cupboard I put baskets to hold our work gloves, rags, and one for misc items. Also, I have a stacked storage bin that I call my safety station. It has earplugs, eye protection, and face masks.
I found a very cleaver idea to label a container of bird seed (thanks to Pinterest). Also, the tight seal lid is great for keeping mice out of it...which I have already seen one in our garage!
I love my pegboards. They were easy to make and hold so many things!

I bought some heavy duty hooks and this peg board also acts as a coat & hat rack.
I picked up this storage shelf at a garage sale. I am using it as a shoe bench though. It is heavy duty enough to hold the weight of a person sitting on it to take off their shoes.

Moving over to the left, I purchased a metal toolbox I from K-Mart that was clearance down to just $99.

Fall is the best time to buy a nice, heavy duty tool box.

If you have a lot of nails in boxes, just leave them in there. Having the easy to read labels view-able makes it fast to pick out the right screw or nail you need.

Below the nails and screws is the stroller station.
As I said before, I tried to put as many things off the ground as possible to make sweeping easier.

The far left is the painting and fishing corner.

We live on a pond so the fishing equipment is a must.
I installed some remaining pegboard so I could hang all the random fishing items we own.

The paint cupboard was a mess, but I organized it and added in some cupboard door shelves.
Stacking the paint cans in a pyramid shape allowed it easy to see each spray paint can color. Also, I LOVE keeping old coffee plastic containers. I used them to store my brushes in and while painting I like to used them to hold the paint for cutting in.
One thing I will need to change pretty quickly is the spray paint cans. I am pretty sure the garage will get too cold to store them outside, so I will be moving them into the basement storage room soon.

Well, that's my somewhat organized garage. I hope you got a few ideas from the place. As I said, I would love to have a picture perfect garage, but I just don't think it was stay clean very long with us. I like to organize the garage into "stations" so that you can easily find items and put them back in the correct place. Have you organized your garage this fall?? If so, I would love to see your ideas! Just comment with a link below!

~Beth