DIY Boot Tray (One Room Challenge) - Week 6

We are in week 6 of a 7 week Mudroom renovation. If you are just joining me, I am a guest participant in the One Room Challenge hosted by Linda at Calling It Home. Since next week is the reveal and we are pretty much done with the mudroom, except for accessorizing, I have a DIY project for you this week. We used a large plastic tray and scrap wood to make a drying tray for our shoes and boots.

Catch up on the other posts here:

DIY Basement Mudroom

Mudroom Built-ins
DIY Mudroom Bench
Mudroom - Installing Trim

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Supplies needed for the Boot Tray:

1 large plastic tray

4 pieces of trim for the frame (cut to length)

1" x 2" pieces of wood (cut to length)

Paint and Polyurethane

Wood Glue

Nails

The overall plan was to make a frame to hold the tray for stability and have a wooden insert to allow shoes to dry and drain into the tray.

The first thing we did is measure and cut all of our pieces of wood to length so all we had to do was assemble them. I started by assembling the frame using DAP's Rapid Fuse wood glue and a brad nailer.

Once the frame was complete, I started on the wooden slat insert for the tray. I used a brad nailer to attach the slats to pieces on either end, so it can easily be lifted out of the tray. I used a scrap piece of vinyl plank floor for a spacer. Initially, I planned on using a nail, but I needed a little more space in between to make the slats fit evenly.

After the frame and insert was assembled, it was time for paint! I grabbed a gray sample from my paint stash for the frame. It was a .50 clearance find at Home Depot. (Always check the messed up paint section!) I was going to use the same color as the bench, but I used my entire sample. Luckily, I had a similar color.

I decided to use polyurethane for the wooden insert because it matched well with the color of the flooring and I thought it would hold up well to dirty shoes.

Once all the pieces were dry, I attached the tray to the frame with screws on each side.

Now we have a place to put wet or muddy shoes to dry, instead of on the floor. The insert lifts right out, so the plastic tray can easily be cleaned. The tray is large enough for 2-3 pair of shoes/boots.

This boot tray is the perfect addition to our new mudroom. Come back next week for the final reveal!

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