The tall shoe shelf

During one of my last projects at a client's house, I noticed their mudroom was full of shoes and boots laying in the middle of the floor. There are 2 adults and 3 teenagers, which apparently equals 50 pairs of footwear on the floor. They simply had nowhere else to put it all. They had a wall space that could handle a shoe shelf, but a store-bought shelf wouldn't fit that unique space. It needed to be a certain width, and quite tall. After speaking to one of the homeowners, it was agreed that a custom shoe shelf was needed. I was also recommended to extend the shelf quite high, to add additional storage and functionality. So, out of this necessity, I designed this tall shoe shelf unit.

Their home had a recent major renovation to their main floor - all new stairs, bannisters and a gate. All of those elements were hardwood maple. It made for an attractive upgrade to the their main entryway. Just off this entrance, was the access to the garage and their mudroom. This is where all the footwear that is regularly used lives. With the recent renovations, I recommended that the shelf that I build be made of maple, so it would match and would be strong and resilient. The client agreed, despite the increased price over pine.

I took the measurements of the wall space, ensuring the doorway and nearby sink would all have clearance. I also measured the height of their baseboards, as I wanted the unit to sit flush against the wall and have a notch around the baseboard. The other element to account for was the security panel. It was 4.5' above the ground, and the plan was for the unit to go over 6', so the shelf would need to allow access to the panel.

Boring rectangular shelf with access to the security panel and clearance for the baseboard.
Functional, but ugly.

I took the measurements to my local installation of Sketchup and drew a boring rectangular shelf. This unit would suffice, but it wasn't attractive and it would actually be kind of boring to build. If I was going to go to the effort of building a solid shelf with relatively expensive maple, I wanted it to be attractive. Curves needed to be added to the frame and the shelves. I thought this would add a sleekness to the unit. I also didn't want the unit to feel like it was crowding the room, so the top of the shelf, which would never be used for footwear anyways, could be smaller. This would allow for more lighting through the room and reduce the feeling of the shelf being overpowering in the small mudroom. Sketchup has a 2-point arc tool that I could use to create a curve on the side walls starting at the top back corner extending to 3rd shelf down from the top (just below the security panel). This curve tool was used to create the curves on the shoe shelves also, which were the lower 4 levels.

Once the curves were added, I decided I wanted to implement a feature that I had used on my own makeshift shoe shelves at home. In my own entryway, I mounted boards to the walls for shelves, keeping the board 1.5" away from the back wall. This allowed airflow to dry footwear, and also prevent dirt and debris from gathering at the back of the shelf. Instead, all the dirt falls to the ground making it easy to vacuum from the floor. Another feature that I wanted to experiment with, in combination with the space at the back of the shelves, was an angled shelf. I wanted water from melting snow and rain to run off the shelf, and not sit on the boards. So I titled the shelves downward at the toe. Doing so was something that I wanted to consult with the client on, so I sent her a graphic to explain the plan. All the shoe shelves would be angled, while the 3rd from the top and smaller ones would all be perfectly level, so you could put a cup of coffee and not worry about it. That main shelf wasn't intended for shoes anyways, as the security panel was there. 

The proposal for the angled shoe shelves for the client. She agreed to go with the angled rather than all the shelves being straight. Note the space at the back of the angled shelves, allowing water and debris to fall to the floor and not be gathered in the back of the shelf.

Fortunately, Sketchup has an online database of models that can be downloaded to use in your designs. I downloaded a variety of boots and shoes, key hooks, a coffee cup and a picture frame with a kitty cat (for cuteness and to give the top level a function). For my design, I wanted to show the client how this shelf would look, with:

• hardwood maple
• 6.5' height and 28" width
• curved frame
• curved shoe shelves
• spaces behind the shelves
• angled shelves at the back

The final design, which was agreed upon by the client

This image angle shows the curved frame and the curved lower shelves. Note how the shelves extend slightly beyond the unit. This is because of the space added behind the boards. Instead of cutting the shelves to make the space, I moved them outward, and simply curved the outer edge to fit the sides of the frame.

After designing the unit, I took the measurements from Sketchup and figured out how many boards of maple I would need. I bought them from my local hardwood vendor, The WoodSource. I have always been happy with the product I buy from them. The wood is more expensive, but the improved quality of product is worth the increased cost. Fewer knots, dents and warped boards - all will justify the increased cost per board.

The lumber needed to be cut length. Most of the boards would be laminated to another, to be double wide, and that would inevitably make the ends slightly uneven. Due to that unevenness, I would need to trim the ends, so when I did my first rough cuts, I left a bit of wood on each end. Even though I would need to trim the ends later, I still wanted the ends to be in good shape, so I taped the areas being cut - which would prevent tear-out from the saw.

Once the boards were cut to length, they needed to be joined along their long sides. To do this, there are many ways, such as tongue-and-groove, dovetails or simple dowels. Dowels were what I thought would be simpler, in combination with glue. To drill the dowel holes, I needed my drill to be perfectly perpendicular to the board, and perfectly centered - so a guide or jig would be needed. I found a plan for building a dowel jig on Tamar's 3x3 site, and built it without too much difficulty. My issue came while using it - the only pipe I could find that had the correct interior dimensions for the drill bit was copper. I used the copper pipe to line the drill guide, but copper is too soft, and the drill bit would progressively wear-down the pipe interior, allowing the drill-bit to drift. This cannot be accepted for this type of guide. The flaw was NOT with the plan from Tamar, but my execution with a soft metal for the guide. These experiments resulted in an order from Amazon for a full-metal dowel jig with steel hole guides. After some calibration, it worked perfectly.

New vises used to hold the piece while the new dowel guide made drilling dowel holes easy and precise.

Another gadget that was picked up were the yellow vise clamps you see above. The Stanley portable quick vise. Let me speak clearly...I LOVE THESE. Easy to use, and hold my work piece securely and quickly. I don't have a vise system for my workbench, but these worked like a dream. 

A few taps with a rubber mallet, and the boards were squeezed together nicely, with wood glue in the joint.

Pipe clamps squeezing the boards together to make a tight bond. The extra boards on either side were added to protect the project boards from the hard metal clamps.

The dowels were installed and the boards were clamped together with pipe-clamps while the glue set. Once all the glue was dried, I scraped the majority of the squeeze-out glue with a steel ruler, and then began sanding with my random orbital sander. This stage was actually uncomfortable. Using that Makita sander for so long (over and hour or two at a time) left my hand vibrating for hours after. This sanding was needed to remove all glue residue from the joints, and to smooth the edge where the boards weren't perfectly aligned. I could have done this with a fine-tuned hand plane, which I don't have - nor do I have experience using one. 

The next step after sanding was to cut the curves into the boards. A different curve angle was planned for the sides and the shelves. I did some research to find out how to cut curves in boards without a band saw, and what I found was a video of someone mounting their router to a pivot arm. This was the  perfect solution for me. My Craftsman router was not the best, but it would suffice for this work.

The router was mounted to the end of a long board (the pivot arm), with that board pinned to the table at a single pivot point. The pivot arm was then rotated to bring the router along a fixed path. The arc of the curve was adjusted by altering where the pivot point was mounted, and how long the pivot arm was. After some testing, I made my cuts into the long boards, with a wide, gentle curve. The first pass was very shallow to keep the router from straining too much. Repeated passes were made until the cut was was complete. After the long boards were cut, the process was repeated for the shoe shelf boards.

Router mounted to a scrap board and swiveled across the project piece

Repeated shallow passes to make a gradual cut, without straining the router

The router is almost done making the cut through the board. One more pass will complete the cut.

Curved cut is complete. There are a few rough spots, but the curve is precise and will match the other board perfectly. 

The same swivel action for the shoe shelf boards, except the angle of the swivel arm is centered over the shelf so the cut is perfectly even on both sides.

This curved shelf board is complete, with a gradual, smooth curve.

The next step was determining the way to attach the shelves to the casing. I had considered using screws from the outside of the case, and then plugging the holes with a dowel plug. I even tried it on a piece of maple scrap, but as you can see in the image below, there would be no way to hide the dowel, and there would be a lot of them showing (7 shelves, so a minimum of 14 dowel plugs on each side = ugly). Another alternative was to use pocket holes from below the shelf, but that wouldn't look good for any of the shelves where the underside would be seen. I asked fellow woodworkers online how I should approach this and the consensus was for sliding dovetails. This was something I had never done, but after looking into it, I agreed that it would be the best option.

Recessed screw with a dowel plugging the hole. It's functional, but from the outside of a shelf, it's unattractive, especially if there are 14 of them on each side.

A dovetail is another form of tongue-and-groove joint. Not only did I not have a dovetail router bit that would work for this size of wood, I also wasn't confident that my router was up to the task. I couldn't afford a mistake with the router at this stage, so I bought a new Makita compact router with variable speed. A new dovetail bit was purchased also. I watched some videos that gave guidance on how to create sliding dovetails, which is a channel shaped like an open triangle, that has a matching piece on another piece of wood.  The other board slides in the channel and is held secure by the shape of the slot. This video was a great resource.

The measurements for the shelf spacing were transferred from the computer to the long boards. Then, to gauge if the shelves were actually in good placement in real life, shoes and boots were placed on the boards. This is when it was determined that the original even spacing wasn't going to work for tall winter boots at the bottom. The spacing was adjusted to have a tall space at the bottom for tall boots, a medium spaced shelf next, that would accommodate ankle boots, like Blundstones, and the remaining shelves would be narrower and would just fit shoes.

Drawing matching guidelines on both sides of the frame boards.

The two sides of the unit laid together, with boots and shoes placed where the shelves would be placed.

After this design was determined, testing of sliding dovetails was needed. The measurements needed to be precise in order for the joint to fit tight, but not so tight that I couldn't slide the shelf in with a bit of coercion from a mallet.

Testing the fit of  a dovetail joint. This fit was perfect.

Once testing was complete, the new Makita router was used to create the dovetail slots. I added a complication to my life by deciding that I wanted the dovetail joints to be hidden. I didn't want the slot to be seen from the outside. To accomplish this, it was decided to slide in the shelf from the back, and stop the slot before it reached the end of the frame. I also stopped the slot about 1/2" from the end of the shelf board. This would mean the shelf board would extend slightly beyond the dovetail, but all of that would be hidden in the joint. With the shelf boards pushed to the front of the unit, creating the space at the back of the unit, there would be some empty dovetail channel. I would fill this with short pieces of dovetail that would be cut flush with the shelf wall. It's hard to describe - hopefully the photos will help explain.

Using a straight board as a guide for the router to cut the dovetail channel

Cutting all the dovetail joints into the board. Note the rabbet cut into the right side. This is where the backer board will sit, nestled nicely into the shelf. I also cut the notch at the bottom for the clearance around the baseboard on the client's wall. This was done with a jigsaw.

With the dovetail channels cut, the shelf boards needed to have the tongue portion added. This involved the use of my router table, and the same dovetail bit. The result, after a dozen tests, was a perfectly matched tongue for the dovetail groove. It was cut into the sides of the shelf boards and test fit into the shelf. A rubber mallet was used to force the boards through the slots. If the fit wasn't perfect, then the board would slide easily without the need for a mallet, but it would also result in a loose joint. The photos below show how the channel stops short of the front edge of the board, and how I removed some of the tongue from the shelf, so the board could slide all the way to the front edge. This was the look I wanted. It kept the joint hidden but didn't sacrifice strength or stability.

dovetail channel, and the matching tongue on the shelf. Some of the tongue was removed so the shelf board will extend beyond the channel. 

Testing the dovetail with a test board. Fits perfectly and stops close to the edge of the frame.

Testing the fit with an actual shelf board. 

All the shelves had their dovetail 'tongues' cut and dry-fit. If any were too tight to slide into the channel, the channel was lightly sanded. Assembly with wet glue is the wrong time to find out that the board wouldn't fit. The next step was to add a slight rounded edge to all the corners that would be seen and touched. The router was used for this, as maple is very hard and doing this with a sander would result in an uneven rounded edge.

Even the back edge of the shelf board needs a rounded edge, as that is where the water will drip down the back.

Top edge has the rounded corner, the bottom corner will be done next.

Once the rounded edges were done, it was time for assembly. This part was terrifying. I needed the shelf boards to slide into 2 dovetails slots simultaneously, with glue in the channel and on the shelf boards. I was able to do it, but it took a lot of convincing with a mallet, as I couldn't rock or wiggle the board to help it slide - as the other side of the board was in another slot. 

the top and bottom shelves were installed. It was a great relief to get them installed.

All shelves installed and the glue is drying.

Once the glue dried, a chisel was used to scrap small amounts of glue that squeezed out of the joints. Sandpaper couldn't get into those corners well, so a small chisel with a bit of pressure chipped the dried glue off easily. All of the shelf needed to be sanded next. The edges were sanded smooth, and all the faces needed to be sanded to not only ensure a nice feel, but also to remove glue residue that may have transferred from my hands while installing the shelf boards. This residue will seal the wood and prevent the wood from absorbing wood conditioner and top coat. The colour of the wood changes when those are applied, so glue residue will show up and prevent that colour change.

The next step was to fill the empty dovetail channels in the back, behind the horizontal shelf boards. This was done by using some of my test pieces of maple that had dovetails cut, and gluing them into the channels, then cutting them with a hand saw and sanding them flush.

scrap dovetails were glued into the empty portion of the channels

After the glue dried, they were cut to length

A flush cut saw was used to cut the portion of the wood that stuck out from the channel. This was then sanded with a sander after.

With all the dovetail work done, the small crevices in the edge of the shelves needed to be filled. I didn't want any water or debris to get into the corners, and I wasn't convinced that the top coat would fill those spaces. Wood filler was used, pressed into the corners with my finger, then scraped clean with the corner of a steel ruler. This left only the filler in the cracks of the joint.

small gaps in the edge of the shelf joint, to be filled.

gap has been filled!

Had to buy a particular wood filler that would dry a colour that matched the maple. This one worked well.

The next stage of assembly was to install the backer board panels. This was the only portion that used plywood. To ensure the wood would match, maple plywood was used. Super strong and matched the rest of the shelf perfectly. During the initial cutting of the long boards, a thin strip was removed on the table saw, approximately 1/8". This strip was kept, just in case. Good thing also, since it was used at this stage. To hide the plywood edges, the strip was used as edge-banding on all the plywood edges that would be exposed. Not only did this allow for an attractive edge to plywood, but it also allowed me to added a slight rounded edge with the router, which would match the rest of the shelf.

Thin strip from the long boards that was saved from the trash. Going to be used as a veneer, 10x as thick as a regular veneer.

Thin strip of maple applied to the edge of the maple plywood. Strong way to cap the ugly edge. These plywood boards were then mounted onto the shelf.

All parts are installed, and the glue is drying.

Laid the shelf on it's back so I could easily see and reach the inside corners to clean up glue squeeze-out. This also gives a nice perspective of the curves of the shelves.

Once the backer boards were installed, the glue that was in the joint was scraped off with a chisel and sanded with a mouse sander. The mouse sander (that I borrowed from a neighbour) was so handy at reaching the inner corners of this shelf unit, that I bought one of my own after the project was complete. 

The last step was to apply the wood conditioner and top coat. The only change to the appearance I wanted was for the natural amber colour of the wood to be enhanced, and for the grain to stand out more. An oil-based wood conditioner was used, and an oil-based top coat was also applied. A very strong, high gloss finish was desired, so 3 coats were applied.

After sanding, and before applying a conditioner or clear top coat, it is useful to wipe all surfaces with a tack cloth. It is a wax coated rag that sticks to loose debris and leaves a clean surface. Important for those pieces where the final appearance is important.

The last step was to add feet that could keep the bottom of the board off the floor, and also allow the unit to be leveled to the floor it was installed on. This will help keep this shelf lasting a long time. The dowel guide was used to drill the holes for the threaded inserts. They held the adjustable feet, that were bought from Amazon. The feet needed to be the right size for a 3/4" board, and also not raise the shelf too high, as the security panel needed to fit into the gap in the shelf. If the feet raised the shelf too high, the unit wouldn't fit under the security panel. The threaded inserts didn't come with the feet, so the correct ones were bought from Ottawa Fastener Supply. Those folks have everything.

drilling the holes for the threaded inserts.

Feet added. A final coat of top-coat was applied to the bottom, around the feet.

The project was completed after much delay, but the client was happy and is making good use of it in their mudroom. The strong dovetail joints are going to hold the shelves for a lifetime, and the thick top coat over strong, hardwood maple will keep this looking good for a very long time. I am confident this piece will live as long as the house it was made for.

As a final touch to the installation, I printed the kitty cat picture that was in the Sketchup design, and installed it on the shelf when I delivered it.

Hooks were added for their keys and anything else they wanted. Note the allowance for the baseboards at the bottom, which keeps the shelf flush to the wall.

This photo was taken by the client 4 days after delivery. Shelf is full, and they kept the kitty cat photo!