tree branch shoe rack

I am in a de-clutter, organize my house mode. This is where my family needs to watch out, because chances are, I will 1. throw something away, 2. move something resulting in someone asking me where said thing is, and 3. make to-do lists, lots and lots of to-do lists. I currently have a list for each room in my house and what needs to be done in it. I get like this every once in a while, and my family exercises their patience while I get it out of my system.

This past weekend Joshua and I embarked on a little project. He desperately needed a shoe rack for all his shoes. We got some ideas from Pinterest, but I told him it had to be made entirely out of stuff we had at home, no rands could be spent. I like the challenge of that, and honestly, find such satisfaction in it.

I LOVE the results of our shoe rack! We found two planks of wood that were the perfect size and cut ten tree branches to hang the shoes on. We let those dry out for a few days. We mixed a 1/4 cup water and 1 cup of white paint in a yogurt container and shook each tree branch in it to cover it in white paint.

I didn’t take photos of the process. Ain’t nobody got time for that when you’re on a creative mission, guys. Sorry. I just get so involved that I don’t think about documenting it!

After the paint dried, we drilled each tree branch to the wood plank. We drilled holes in the branches before the paint wash, but they weren’t big enough, so I had to drill a bigger hole resulting in paint coming off a bit. I’m ok with that. I call imperfections like that character spots. It works and Joshua was totally fine with that.

We had a bit of a challenge screwing these into the wall. I hate concrete walls for this very reason. They are hard to drill into! Jeremy has been out of town (he gets back today!) so I was determined that we could do this. At one point, Joshua said, “Shouldn’t we just wait until Dad gets back?” The lion came out and I said, “No, we can do this!” And we did. And it looks great. Sometimes I stand at the bottom of the stairs and just look up at it. Not really. Well, maybe.

Inspiration for this project (including step-by-steps that I didn’t provide) found here.