These mudroom shoe drawers are seriously a life saver! They contain all of the shoes, maximize storage for the given space, and eliminate the eye sore of clutter. Basically a win, win win for a ,mudroom. Yes, you heard me. A triple win!

 

Just looking at drawers around my house I kept thinking, “this can’t be THAT hard. It’s a box, and I already am an expert at the Kreg Jig for pocket holes,” but I didn’t take into account how NOT square and level the existing cubbies were which led to a lot of frustration.

Other tutorials for Mudroom Shoe Drawers

The two main sources I used to build these drawers were Ana White’s Mudroom Bench and Ana White’s Closet Drawers
If I were to build this from scratch without an existing mudroom I would follow the mudroom bench tutorial to a T. But since I was just adding to my existing mudroom I’ll share what I did for those in my same boat.

 

Materials needed to build Mudroom Shoe Drawers:

1 sheet 4’x8′ 1/2″ plywood furniture grade (like birch or pure bond, or pine).  $22
I just had mine cut in half to fit into the car. However, it would have been better if I had mapped out my cuts. This would have helped so I didn’t have a ton of waste.
1/4″ 4×4′ sheet of MDF
Kreg Jig for pocket holes
Kreg Jig Clamp
1 1/4″ kreg jig screws
Brad Nail Gun
1″ Brad Finishing nails
220 Sanding Block/ Sand Paper
Tack Cloth

I took my jig saw and cut off the top rounded lip of my existing cubbies so my face frame 1×2 would sit flush. This was the point where my husband looked at my mess like a deer in headlights and wanted me to hire this project out. I then became committed to getting these RIGHT.

 

Building the Box for the Mudroom Shoe Drawers.

Measure the width of an opening. Subtract 1″ and that is the width of the drawer. Mine was 15.25″ so my drawer width was 15.25.” (or a little less. It’s easier to shim the drawer sliders to fit than to have to disassemble the entire drawer because it’s too tight).

As far as the height. My cubby is 10.5 inches and I chose to have my drawer be 8″ tall. So there would be plenty of clearance on the top and bottom while still holding in all of the shoes.

I then put all my pieces (side front and backs) into the cubby. Then I held another piece of scrap wood to the front to see where the front of my drawer would sit flush to the face frame. This spot I then marked on my side piece (as shown in the below photo). I then cut both my sides to that length.

 

Next it’s time to Kreg jig this box together. My pocket holes are on my side panels and screw into the front and back. This will create a square box.

 

 

 

Assembling the Box

To make sure the assembly of my box was square and flush I picked up one of these corner clamps. It holds both the inside and the outside of the corner at a 90 degree angle to make sure it all lines up. Add wood glue to the edge and drill in x4 1 1/4″ pocket screws. screw from the OUTSIDE of your box (otherwise it will be very difficult to attach the other two sides, your drill won’t fit)

Attach the Bottom

After you’ve formed your box cut a piece of 1/4″ underlayment or mdf as the bottom.

attach the bottom with wood glue and finishing nails. Be sure to aim your nails straight so they don’t go through the outside/inside of your box.

 

INSTALLING THE DRAWER SLIDES

lay a scrap piece of 1×2 wood or in my case I used a piece of 3/4″ plywood into my cubby. I set my drawer slide on top with the back end pushed as far back as it would go. I then attached my 14″ soft close drawer slide to the side wall of my cubby with the screws provided. Once the slider was in place I removed my scrap plywood. Repeat on the other side.

Attach your drawer slides to the sides of your drawers and like magic (if all your measurements are correct) it should slide easy peasy.

** if your opening is more than 1 inch larger than your drawer stick a shim behind your drawer slide to make the difference exactly 1 inch.

DRAWER FACE

To make the drawer faces so they were all level. I even took a piece of 1×2 the exact distance of my mudroom space. I marked on the wood where each of my cubbies started and ended.

This left me with three drawer fronts the same height, but each is a different length (thanks to whoever build my cubbies each a different size ;))

I ran all three boards through the table saw to make sure they were the EXACT same height.

Next I ran some 1/4″ MDF through the table saw to make 2 inch strips. I cut the strips to the height of each drawer front like shown.

I then took my square and marked the length of the other two pieces and cut those down to 2″ strips.

Once they were all cut and flush to the edges I sanded each board down with 220 grit. Then glued these strips down with wood glue and covered the seams with drydex (you could also use plastic wood filler). I did not nail these on. Although you could to make it extra secure. I just didn’t have short enough finishing nails on hand that wouldn’t go completely through both boards.

PRIMED AND PAINTED:

I painted with my favorite Home Right Paint Sprayer. (for more tips on how to use a paint sprayer click here) It did 2 thin coats of primer (I wanted to make sure I really sealed the wood so no bubbling happened). Then 3 coats of Benjamin Moore White Dove

So what do you think? Would you build your own mudroom shoe drawers?

For more projects and tips, follow along on Instagram @honeybuilthome