Custom Bookcase... I mean Shoe Rack

I've been meaning to post this since the peplum post but with Boston and then what happened in West, other things took priority.

I could not get words right this past week- this shoe rack was called everything BUT a shoe rack.
Anyway, DH seems to be on a mission to replace as much possible of our furniture with DIY pieces. And for this piece at least, this made sense.

A couple weeks after we got back from our honeymoon we went on a shopping spree at BBB (they call it 'registry fulfillment' or something like that) with gifted gift cards. And around that time we realized, we needed a shoe rack (or three) so we bough a hanging one for the shoes that don't often see the light of day and a rotating tree for those that are in regular rotation. The problem with this is that DH has huge feet, huge as in twice the size of mine (which are normal- sized at least, how they are actually put together is another matter.)

So more often than not, the tree would tip over from the weight imbalance, and it never fit his shoes well. Never-mind it didn't fit our Geeks-living-in-Hunt-Country aesthetic (that's the best I can come up with, there's a lot of traditional hunt country colors with WWII homefront propoganda and dance posters with special touches like matching Rohan and Gondor inspired pillow shams and a giant vintage - 60s are vintage now, right?- roll-up map of the North America).

We haven't found the perfect wall for it at our new place, I don't think DH likes it that much.

Finally sick of the perpetually tipping tree and the weather getting warm enough that he wouldn't always be taking up our front foyer space with wood working tools (it still happened some days) DH set up to build us a custom bookcase shoe rack. We passed the old tree onto my brother so he and his roommates would stop piling their shoes by the door and DH went off to Home Depot (which is super convenient here, much better than driving across the city like in Waco).

He used all 1 x 12 pine boards so after getting the cuts done there, it was mostly assembly. He calculate that allowing for a lip at the top to keep boots from tumbling off the sides (yes, three out of the four pairs are mine and I use them all on a somewhat regular basis), he can have even spaces between the top and bottom and still allow for three pairs of his giant shoes across as well as enough depth that she's not shoving them against the wall when he puts them back (my stipulation).

It was his first experience with stain... and he failed to ask for my parents' - especially my mom's - advice (she loves refinishing furniture, saved my grandma's hope chest that was previously painted a very fashionable 60s/70s aqua). So it ended up a bit streaky at places so it's been edged in the same paint as Olive's House. However, we're pretty happy with it. It certainly keeps the area much neater.

Olive wanted to say 'Hi'