{Real Room} A Shoe Wall
Obsessive much? Our dear friend Stephen Haas (a New Balance sponsored athlete and coach) is quite obsessed with his shoe collection– over the years, he’s amassed 56 pairs of shoes,a diverse mix of New Balance Classics (501s, 574s, 996s, 580s, etc– yes, New Balance labels their shoes by number, don’t ask me why) in a rainbow of colors and textures. Hauling in a recent splurge, his collection was starting to take over his living space– lined up along the floor, having overflowed his closet shelving, he needed a practical, but attractive, way to store them.
Creating a simple wall shelving unit was a win-win for Stephen: he got his beloved shoes off the floor; creating shelves that hung on the wall, rather than buy a separate shelving unit, took up less space; and, of course, having a way to display his favorites was a bonus.
It took the work of a Sunday afternoon (with a bit of readjustment today– Monday) to get his shelves in order. He picked up shelving brackets and adhesive hooks at the local hardware store, then stopped into Lowes to have 5 foot pine shelves cut. He stuck the hooks into the wall, hung the brackets on them, then placed his shelves on top– each shelf holds six pairs.
Unfortunately, the adhesives didn’t work for two of the shelves, so he picked up Scotch Extreme Mounting Tape from Target this morning (the tape claims to hold up to 20 pounds). He replaced the adhesive with the tape and his shelves stuck.
What I love about this project: it is super simple (even the most unhandy of collectors can throw this together) and it’s a fun way to display your personality without sacrificing vital real estate in a small apartment or home (even a big apartment or home– sometimes having that extra floor space a free-standing unit takes up is crucial!). Stephen is completely obsessed and proud of his shoe collection (one of the weird reasons we love him) and this is THE proto-runner home decor. Bonus! Even if you’re not a running/casual shoe collector, this project will make any uber feminine shoe collector swoon. Wouldn’t you love to put your favorite heels out on display?
February 04, 2013 at 10:36 pm, S.R. said:
A great combo of form and function! I had a friend who had a fantastic collection of jewelry and displayed it on a wall like art. Love it.