The Shoe Shelf of Happiness

As I've alluded to several times; I have a thing for shoes. I'll chalk it up to being another one of those unavoidable female traits. I love playing outside, getting dirty, firefighting, jumping in rivers, etc.....but damn it I also have a serious soft spot for a sassy, leather stacked-wood platform sandal (among other shoe types).

On sale at Zappos.
These might get ordered later today....we'll see how much willpower I have.

To facilitate my habit, my walk in closet needed some heel-specific storage. It's not a big closet, and in addition to heels, I have a good number of flats. The flats are stored in 2 cubby organizers set long-side-down. They are short enough this way to live under the closet rods and still let the clothes above hang freely, making the most of all available floor space.

Thank you Martha Stewart.
$35 each from Home Depot. $5 each from Craigslist.

All the cubby space is occupied by flats, boots, hiking shoes, blah blah blah; and no other horizontal space is available in the closet for ze heels. So as I've done before....to the wall!

I'd seen Pins about using crown moulding to create heel-specific shelves and decided to give it a try.

Pin

Pin

The ReStore had a whole stack of crown for all of about $0.15/ft. I found a huge piece with a simple profile that was pretty an not at all foofy. After buying ~20 feet I set about building the shelves (without reading any instructions, looked easy enough).

1. Cut up ~20 ft of crown into 6 equal pieces.
2. Drilled 2 pilot holes in each piece.
3. Painted each piece bright turquoise/blue.
4. Measured and marked the wall so they would be evenly spaced from floor to ceiling.
5. Held up each piece and squirted chalk dust through the holes to mark anchor locations.
6. Inserted anchors.
7. Screwed shelves in place.

And finally, to the sound of angels singing: hung up the first set of heels......which immediately fell off.
Oh Blergh!!

I had some rolls of clear plastic drawer liner (random Ikea purchase for the win!) which I cut into strips and attached to the top of each shelf with clear adhesive. The big-boy kind of adhesive from a caulk gun mind you, cuz we don't play around with shoe safety in these parts.

plenty of room for more
awwww yeeeaahhh

The heels now all stay up safe 'n' sound, except when people are coming over in 5 mins and I wildly 'put away' clothes and other random items by launching them into the closet. I am a consummate hostess, clearly.



-Lindsay



*Update: I did get the shoes. Luckily I showed the bf right when they arrived, as he was about to order them for me as a surprise. What a guy!
They are every bit of adorable I hoped they would be, AND comfortable. Those babies will be logging a lot of non-shelf time.

Indecisive Antique Door Lover - Seeking Creative Direction

Loves wood grain, disintegrating paint, and long walks through yard sales. Tired of the barn scene and looking for a sturdy companion. Turn offs: dry rot, reproductions, high prices.

It's no wonder I found my Bf in the real world and not through personals. But anyway.....

I got 99 problems; and an over abundance of affection for old weathered doors is one. Say that ten times fast. Or not. Whatevs.

I am prone to stalk Craigslist for old doors and run out during lunch when someone 'curb alerts' a beautifully distressed old door. Picture a wacky wavy inflatable arm flailing tube man. That is me.

Recently I'd grabbed an old door from the ReStore, with a sliding door project in mind.

Picture taken at ReStore and sent to my Momma for consultation.

Soon there after I picked up one of the aforementioned curb alert doors during a lunch break (there was a lot of arm waving).

There were several available,
but I had just enough self control and trunk space to grab only the prettiest one.

Both of the doors had lots of dirt, cobwebbs, and peeling paint.
I loved them.

This pic made the photog Bf proud:
oooh diagonals
oooh texture
oooh moooody

They each got a good scrubbing and thorough sanding.

The front porch is sanding central.
In an attempt to mitigate their certain dislike of me all my noise,
I always make sure to go downstairs and sweep up the layer of
sawdust from my long-suffering neighbor's porch floor.

As the sanding progressed, the texture and age of the doors only got more drool worthy. All the flakes and rough spots were gone, but the chipping pattern remained and the beauty of the wood grain came through.

One of the doors has more pronounced chipping.

The other one has beautiful dark wood grain worn at the high points and on each corner.
The pictures don't convey how pretty and charming it is.

I used 80 then 120 sanding pads on the sander, along with a sanding block around the edges.
When the doors stopped molting paint chips and everything was smooth, I applied several thin layers of poly-acrylic.

We work all night here at The Cabindo.

But now, other than taking pictures, I'm at a loss of what to do with them.

Artsy McFartsy

Sliding barn door at the end of the hallway to contain cats? (Original plan when I had just one)

pin

Wall hanging? (clearly not this many!)

pin

Headboard? (Though I like my existing bed frame. But I do have a spare chandelier like that.....)

pin

Bench? (I can't bring myself to cut them up. We'll see how I feel the longer they sit around.)

pin

Who knows. They are just too pretty to not share, even with an unknown destiny.
:)



-Lindsay