We moved into our place 5 years ago and are already discussing to move to the next place. So the time is right, to get the messy pile of shoes in the hallway sorted out.
I planned on building a shoe-rack for almost 5 years and I had a pretty good idea of how it should look like since I did our brazed wood and steel coffee table. Not sure when I did the sketches, but finally I took the time and did a model in Fusion 360 and ordered some steel.

After welding the structural parts, which took quite a long time, as I only had a few minutes each night, I figured out, that my Design had two major flaws: There was no real connection between the wood portion and the steel portion and no elegant way to mount it to the wall. I decided, that I don´t want components, that are part of the design, but technically make no sense, so I decided to cut the upright tubes, that connected the wood and the steel portion so that the parts would end up as individual pieces.
Also, I decided, to change the wood portion to a simple “U” shape. This would mimic the resulting steel frame.
Sidenote: I envy American makers, who can just go to Rockler or even Home Depot and buy good quality wood at reasonable prices. During this project, I was in the US and had a look at what is available at what price and when I came back I had to buy the oak for my shelf. I think I paid triple the amount, I would have spent in the US did not get, what I intended to use, and the quality they gave me was rather a junk. So if anyone in Hamburg can recommend a good hardwood store – other than A&J, I would be more than happy.
Back to the project after final assembly, I chiseled out an indent for the fittings to hang the wood portion to the wall. Then sanded everything down to 400 grit and gave it an OSMO oil coating.
I primed the steel portion – still experimenting with different primers – and then gave it a finish coating with RAL7013 matte spray paint. I really like the combination of wood and this matte dark gray steel.
Finally, I attached everything to the wall and voila only 5 years after moving in, we have our hallway organized.
