Ikea Hemnes Hack – a custom shoe closet!
Written By Jenny Wu on
For the longest time I’ve been storing my shoes on a dingy shoe shelf in the coat closet. The small space amplified the clutter and made it hard to find the shoes I was looking for.
When the closet was full I had to move some of my shoes to the garage, and after seeing how dirty those soon became, I decided it was time for to store my shoes properly, once and for all.
We visited Ikea this past Saturday, originally set on the Billy Bookcase for my shoes. However, after looking at the models, we ended up with the Hemnes Bookcase instead. If you follow me on Instagram you would’ve seen a sneak peak yesterday ;)
We moved some furniture around our foyer and cleared out a wall for the shelves. I cannot begin to express how great it feels to see all my shoes beautifully displayed!
After all shoes, like bags or any other fashion accessory, are works of art and should be proudly displayed as such.
While the Hemnes isn’t as modular as the Billy, it is made of solid wood and its width also fit our space better.
I was able to divide the shelves evenly and they’re just the perfect height for heels and boots. To add variety I’ve also displayed the shoeboxes for some of my nicer shoes :)
Currently I’ve put my nicer shoes on the left most shelf, my everyday shoes and all my boots in the middle shelf, and my lesser worn shoes on the right shelf.
I like displaying my shoes one facing in and the other facing out because both the front and the back of the shoe are equally important. Besides, some shoes have gorgeous backs/heels it would be a shame to hide them.
As for my flats and flat sandals, I keep those in a hanging shoe organizer in the coat closet. Storing anything without heels on these shelves is an inefficient use of space, and stacking them on top of each other just wouldn’t be very pretty.
I’m still going through my shoes in the garage and cleaning them up before displaying them on the shelf, so hopefully the space fills up soon. If not, one more reason to go shoe shopping! :P
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Comments & Questions
Cat
Love how the shelves look! I like the idea of putting one shoe facing in and the other out :) The Hemnes bookcases look nice and sturdy. I actually have a Billy one for books, but it got damaged in our move. I had to move some tall books around to cover the hole in the back, haha. This looks like a great solution to storing your shoes!
Jenny Wu
Thank you Cat! I purposely did that so I could show off the back/heels of my shoes. Sometimes the beauty of the shoe isn't always on the front ;)
Lucy
A great way to display shoes and I like the way you can adjust the shelves to have boots in the same unit. Mine are all hidden away in a wardrobe Lucy x
Jenny Wu
Thank you Lucy! I was very lucky that the shelf height worked out perfectly for all my shoes :)
Katie L Clark
Wow! It's such a beautiful display! Clearly you can now justify some more shoe purchases... because I'm at university right now I only have the bottom of my wardrobe to store shoes in. The storage space in here isn't the best but yours is making me excited to leave and be in control of my space!
Jenny Wu
Thank you Katie! I remember those days when all I had was the itty bitty space at the bottom of a closet too - that's definitely not enough for shoes! One of the best things about getting your own place is being able to utilize the space however you want :D
Alice B
omg your shoes! i'd love a closet filled with sneakers and platform shoes *o* geez, how envious!
i love how you display them. it's looking very neat and fancy! :3 my room is small so it's impossible to have a huge shelf like this, especially because it's too occupied with two shelves drenched in comic books and novels, etc. my room is just too geeky LOL
Jenny Wu
Thank you Alice :) These shelves actually aren't in my room - I don't have enough space in there either for them :( But we do have a huge foyer/entry hall so it made sense the shoes would go right there for easy access. Plus they can double as decor!
Anna
Hello!
Amazing idea. Have been thinking about doing the same thing, looks better than I imagened. Hope you can help me with a question though, how deep are the actual shelves, have to share with hubby...
Jenny Wu
Thanks Anna! According to the Ikea site, the shelves are 11.5 inches deep.