Shoe Rack/Bench

My wife requested a shoe rack where she could also sit down to put on her shoes, so I designed this one in Sketchup. Since the design is fairly clean and simple, I wanted some visual interest from the wood itself. I came across some nice looking Hickory at the lumberyard and it looked perfect.

I have never worked with Hickory before, and it’s not the easiest wood to mill. It’s very heavy and has a tendency to chip out and splinter. I eventually tamed it and got some pleasing patterns when edge gluing 2 boards to provide the necessary width of the seat and shelves.

The frame is Walnut, and is assembled with dowels using my Dowelmax. I have used several methods in the past for attaching slabs to a base to allow for wood movement, but wanted a cleaner look than Z clips or figure 8’s. I routed slots for screws in the cross pieces before assembly and I now prefer this method.

The seat and shelves were finished with Osmo Polyx before attaching to the legs. This is my go-to finish for lighter woods like Maple where I don’t want too much warmth. I used Tried and True hard wax finish for the Walnut frame, where the slight additional warmth looks good.

My wife is happy so all is well. Thanks for looking.

Very nice. We needed one and my wife ordered a cheap one on line which does what it needs to do. Someday I will build a replacement and borrow some of your design elements.

BTW I used hickory for the first time on my cottage cabinets. I had no idea wat a pleasure it is to work with.

Thanks fr sharing.