If you’ve been following along this week on Facebook, you know I’ve been up to something with some copper pipe. Alright, I know you can barely stand it (right?), so… here goes… it’s a copper shoe rack! Was that your guess?

Please excuse my lack of baseboards for the time being… it’s still a work in progress in the saga that is our front foyer.

HERE’S HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN!

This was actually pretty easy. The most important part of the design, to me, was that it remain a “floating” rack. It makes life so much easier when you can sweep and clean without having to move anything out of the way first. The “organizational/cleaner/nerd” part of me really likes that part. (This post may contain affiliate links. This means, should you end up making a purchase, advertisers give me a small percentage of that sale, at absolutely NO EXTRA COST to you. Click here for full disclosures).

I built 2 shelves. The supplies for each shelf include…

SUPPLIES:

• 3 floor flanges (used as my wall mounts)
• 3 copper fittings (not pictured)
• 1 – 90 degree angle adaptor
• 1 “T” adaptor
• 2 – 3′ lengths of copper pipe + 2 copper pipe pieces sized to the depth of the shelf
• Wall anchors, as needed

I was working in a corner,  but this could easily be adjusted to fit between to walls (like inside a closet–just skip the 90 degree part?). Working on a single wall? The addition of a bottom floor support built in with a T adaptor might work just fine (no more floating).

I started with the shoes. How much room did I really need? I took a pair of everyone’s shoes to get the distance from the wall and the distance between the 2 lengths of copper.

Once I was comfortable where this was heading, I moved on to a dry fit. Nothing is nailed down yet, just laid out on the floor, before making any cuts. There is something about measure twice, cut once, that applies here…

Next, my friend, the pipe cutter. Get one! It’s so awesome and makes life easy-peasy. Loved it. Accurate, and no nasty surprises.

I actually purchased 3′ lengths of copper, which ended up being the perfect length for my shoe rack, so the only pipe I needed to trim down, was for the depth.

You can see here on the left, the 2nd piece of pipe is loaded and ready for cutting, the first cut piece is resting in the “T” adaptor, which is attached to a 3′ length. And, the 2nd 3′ length has the 90 degree adaptor on the end, waiting for the last cut to complete the puzzle.

Next up, the wall mount, aka the floor flange. I measured the distance up the wall needed, and then marked out all the drill holes with a pencil. Pre-drill your holes and add anchors as needed. My wall studs were playing hard to get, so I needed anchors at each wall mount.

Once the first wall mount is in place, everything can go together like a puzzle from left to right. Floor flange, copper fitting (holds the pipe to the flange), short pipe, “T” adaptor, short pipe on the depth, and 3′ length on the width, angle adaptor, 3′ length, two more copper fittings, and two more wall mounts (floor flanges). SEE THE FULL LIST OF SUPPLIES, ABOVE!

 **HERE’S A TIP!** Don’t hang all of the wall mounts first. Move left to right. Have your anchors measured, levelled and in place. But have the rack fully assembled, slide the wall mounts into place over your anchors and THEN drill into place. No glue, tape or extra fastening.

Repeat with rack #2. And there you have it. Room for 8-10 pairs of shoes. Up high, tidy, easy to clean underneath. What’s not to love. It’s really fitting in with our modern farmhouse industrial thing we’ve got going on in the foyer.

Best of all. It’s not your neighbours shoe rack. It’s fun to have something a little different, ya? I don’t think this will be the last time I troll the plumbing aisles for inspiration!

Update: got my baseboards on, and had to share an updated photo with my new barn board shelf in place!

The shoe rack is still hanging in there and it’s working out FANTASTIC with our new foyer makeover!

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