Shoe Displays

 I installed a new storage/display system for my wife's shoes this week.  I started off with this one, but then realized it held less than a third of her shoes.  So I expanded out and installed a second cabinet...

 ...this one.  The first cabinet will likely be for the shoes she wears less frequently, and the second cabinet for those she wears more often.  We now have most of her shoes on display!  This is important because if they aren't visible, it can be easy to forget she has them.

 The second taller cabinet holds 4.5 pairs of shoes per shelf with 7 shelves, for a total 31 pairs of shoes.  The first cabinet held 12 pairs of shoes per cabinet times two cabinets, or 24 pair.  That's a total of 55 pairs of shoes.  Not exactly Imelda Marcos territory, but not bad either!

 The first cabinets were two TMS Stackable Storage Units with Glass in Antique White.  They are sold through numerous stores online including Amazon for aboutr $120 each.  They show them as china display units, but hey we can put what we want in them!

Since the sides were open, I bought some light wood from Home Depot, glued in on with Gorilla Glue, and painted it antique white.  I left a slight gap at the top because I ran LED light into the units and wanted there to be room for the wires and a bit of air circulation to keep heat from building up.

 Here is a quick test fit in the closet.  The space where the cabinet sits in this photo used to be filled with more of the plastic storage cases you see on the left.  They worked great and two pairs of shoes usually fit in each case, but it was easy to forget what the shoes looked like.

This TMS case was really pretty well made for as inexpensive as it was.  The instructions were clear and the fits were perfect.  I was not nervous moving it around as it feels pretty sturdy.

 In case you plan on duplicating what I did, here is the paint color that matched the cabinets pretty closely.  As long as you paint an entire side, it is impossible to see if there is any slight color difference.  It looks original.

 Once I discovered we were going to need more storage, I purchased a taller unit from Ikea.  It was the best fit for the available space.  The instructions were clear that before putting on the doors, the cabinet needed to be strapped to the wall, so I played it extra safe and installed two straps.   They emphasized this alot - in every box there was a strap, meaning there was a strap in each of the four door boxes!  And it was in the instructions for each piece.

 The unit I selected was the Billy/Oxberg bookcase in white. This unit was 31.5 x 79.5 x 11 but I also bought a one shelf extension on the top that made it even taller.  The price without the extension was $160,  with the extension $220.  The San Diego Ikea did not carry it, so I drove up to Costa Mesa to purchase this unit.  If you've never been to an Ikea, you should go once.  It is a totally different experience.

 The unit fits just perfectly.  I will say that this unit felt about as cheap as they could make it.  I had to be very careful screwing into the particle board as it had a tendency to crumble very easily.  I was successful though and it will be a good unit for quite awhile - we just need to make sure it isn't move a lot or used roughly.  We are normally pretty easy on our furniture - especially furniture that is bolted to the wall! - so we should be okay.

And here it is ready for shoes.  It came with some ultra cheap handles that we chose not to install - we'll jet on down to Home Depot soon to buy better handles.  And this photo was taken before I had wrapped up the back side of the doors (holes are still showing).  All in all, a fun little project that is not too complicated.