Sharing how we built a DIY closet shoe cubby for shoe storage in our entryway closet & help keep our family of 6 & their shoes organized with instructions & step by step pictures for less than $75!
We are a family that takes off their shoes when coming in the door.
I am not sure when it became “official” but most of my family would love to never wear shoes…ever!
So pretty much every house we have lived in has an entry way closet like this, shoes everywhere.
I actually straightened it up a little for the picture below!
It became very important to have better shoe organization so we created a shoe closet cubby.
Table of Contents
DIY Closet Shoe Cubby
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Entryway Closet Before
Every time anyone walks in the door they toss their shoes off & leave them there along with backpacks, jackets & sports equipment.
It’s like an obstacle course just to get to the living room.
Jason & I have slowly been trying to figure out ways to encourage the kids to get more organized & make it easier to find their things.
As you can imagine this has become worse as our family has grown & now with a puppy that would love nothing more than to chew on our shoes I usually just toss everything in the closet & hope for the best, ha!
I also forgot to mention that there has been a “Jason” size hole cut out of the back of the closet that he made in order to thaw out some frozen pipes we had this past winter.
From time to time shoes would go missing in the hole too…
Instructions for How to Build a DIY Closet Shoe Cubby
Size of DIY Closet Shoe Cubby is 26.5″ Tall by 46.5″ Wide by 19″ Deep
Jason and I decided we need a shoe organizer that would allow us to still access the back of closet if the pipes froze again.
Building a Closet Shoe Cubby Hole for Each Family Member
Jason custom made a shoe cubby-hole for each family member to store their shoes out of mostly scrap pine wood a tiny bit smaller than the width of the closet.
The cost of each 3 cubby hole section would be about $35 including paint.
Adding a Lip to Every Shoe Cubby to Keep Shoes Falling Out
He added a little lip on the end to keep the shoes from falling out & they are a generous size allowing each family member to have multiple pairs of shoes in each closet shoe cubby hole.
Don’t they look a little like chicken boxes?
I told Jason this and he just shook his head, I have been trying to talk him into letting me have chickens for years now… see our chicken coop HERE.
Spray Painting our DIY Closet Shoe Cubby
I wanted to spray paint them white but he convinced me that a color made more sense because it would hide the dirt better.
He was right so we spray painted them red!
We used Rust-Oleum’s satin red because we thought an indoor/outdoor paint would hold up better than traditional paint.
Jason added an access panel to the back of the closet so he would have to cut into the drywall to get to the pipes again.
We can take out the closet shoe cubbies if we ever need to access the back of the entryway closet.
It’s my hope that the kids will put their backpacks on the top shelf when they come home from school.
We also added an old door coat rack & have hooks for them to hang their coats when they come in.
There is something soothing about walking in to a organized entryway it just sets the tone for calm in the whole house.
We have plans on making a custom entryway table next in between working on Bennett’s room.
What do you think of our new closet shoe cubby?
Five days in & I am happy to report that so far everyone is putting their shoes where they belong.
I hope this inspires you to get your shoes organized & built a DIY Closet Shoe Cubby for your Home.
by Tara Lehman
Some More Entryway DIY Projects You Might Enjoy
It’s very practical, for the shoes, as well as the bags to be placed on top. Love that color!!
Hi Mary! I am definitely loving how the shoe cubby is working out so far:) thanks so much for checking it out! Hope your week is going well. Take care, Tara
I love your shoe cubby. Good job. You have a beautiful home. Thank you for sharing this on Idea Box!
Hi Cyndee! Thanks so much for your sweet comments about my home and my shoe cubby! Thank you for having me at Idea Box too:). I hope you have a great week, take care, Tara
Your cubbies turned out awesome! i tried adding shelves to our coat closet and it didn’t quite have the tidying-up-effect I was hoping for since no one has their own “space.”
Hi Audra! Thank you so much for visiting and for your sweet comments. For some reason “throwing” ( and I do mean throwing:)their shoes in their own shoe cubby has worked much better here than placing their shoes neatly on shelves (which we have tried in the past:). Take care, Tara