If your house is anything like mine, the biggest source of mess and clutter comes from coats, shoes and bags. In my house, they sit at the front door, the back door, by the kitchen table, in the bathroom…where they are taken off becomes their home.This problem is further exacerbated if, like me, you have a lot of shoes. In a quest to stop this source of mess, I wanted to build a home for all the footwear that was strewn around.
If you do a bit of research on Pinterest under the term “Show Cubby”- very American- you get some amazing, closet solutions and handcrafted hallway option. I like industrial, mid-century design. I had an idea of what I wanted, and trawled eBay to find it. Luckily, the solution was located just 12 miles from my house. A company called Rust and Rot, in Malmesbury, had a 1950s racking system from an old cobblers store. It suited my industrial, mid-century look and feel, with the added benefit of it being designed for shoes. I had looked at old pigeon holes and shelving solutions, but I couldn’t gauge whether shoes would fit in the gaps!
The issue was, whilst it was industrial, it was a little bit too industrial! It still had the stickers on it from the cobbler’s shop, was painted British Racing Green (with one panel still a scratched, cream colour) and had a coat of rust all over it.
It is metal, and weighs a LOT. So, after a lot of huffing and puffing (not from me!), the unit was in the house. I then went to work on removing all the stickers and wire brushing off all the rust. It made a bit of a mess and I actually found paint from Rustoleum where you can just paint over the rust! The colour range is limited, but I wanted a darkish grey, so selected their Slate Grey and purchased it in Homebase. As a warning- this stuff stinks. So air the room when you use it. Also, I needed two pots, so was a bit annoyed when the second pot was slightly lighter than the first! It was ok though- I just recoated everything you could see from the front.
It does stink. And it is messy (the paint is gloss, so it’s runny and can splatter everywhere!). You have to wait for a couple of days for it to dry otherwise it the shoes can kind of stick to the paint if it’s still a bit “tacky”, but it was a great solution for all the shoes in the house- they finally have a home!
