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.
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