Thrift Store Rescue, Vintage Shoe Form Coat Rack

Thrift Store Rescue, Vintage Shoe Form Coat Rack

Today I have a antique shoe form rescue project for you. I recently found these 3 old shoe forms in a local thrift shop.  They were begging me to take them home and restore some of their previous  dignity.

Normally, I have no problem painting over old wood if I think it will enhance a piece.  I don’t think this green paint does these shoe forms any favors.

This is probably the one time you would like your life to not be all sunshine and rainbows.

It was time to remove all the green paint and doodles. There were not enough flat surfaces to attack the shoes with a sander so out came the paint remover.

Cover the shoe surfaces completely, and since this is newer paint, the remover is going to have to sit for a while.  I slathered the shoes in paint remover, covered them in plastic wrap  then went and mowed the lawn.  A couple of hours later I was ready for (paint) stripping.

With a heavy duty pots and pans scrubbing pad I took the shoes directly to the sink and began to scrub.  Most of the paint came off with just one application of the paint remover but there was still a lot of picking to do in all those nooks and crannies.

No amount of scrubbing or picking would take that green paint off  of the  middle sections of these shoes.  The wood was really rough there and just soaked up all that color.

Where it seemed impossible to remove all of the green paint, I just covered it up with a coat of black paint.  Any place where the green had soaked into a crevice or hole that was unpickable also got a dab of black paint.  Any place where there was a bunch of itty bitty holes got a watered down black paint treatment.

If you get too much black paint on the rest of the shoe just wipe it away .

When you’re happy with the level of paint removed, it’s time to seal your shoe back up.  Once again I’ve broken out my Watco Danish oil.  Just rub it on and let dry.  If you would like a darker color, apply a second or even a third coat.

Since I only used one coat of the danish oil, I gave all three shoes a final coat of spray polyurethane for added protection.

This was a satin finish so they are not going to dry nearly as shiny as they are here.

Each of these shoes comes with a hole in the heel, perfect for a peg for hanging. I only had one of the pre-made pegs on the right but I did have a bunch of chair spindle cutoffs.  Where I cut them off, I do not know. 

The peg on the left is what I started with.  I then chopped it down to where a rounded edge would naturally start, then finally, rounded off the end with sandpaper.

Currently the other end of the spindle would only fit into the shoe form hole about a half inch.  More sanding allows the peg to sit comfortably in the hole about 1 1/2″.

Glue the pegs in the shoe forms with E6000 glue or some other clear , high strength adhesive, and let dry.

Stain the sanded edges of the pegs with more of the Watco Danish oil.

Almost finished.  All I needed was a backer board and to attach the shoes.

This is a very old piece of pine flooring with the tongue and groove cut off.  With the edges cut off it is about 2 1/2″ wide by 18″ long.

I gave all of the edges a coat of black paint to hide all the freshly cut edges. You could also use stain.

Two of the shoes had metal souls, one was made entirely out of wood.  Why this matters is how are you going to attach the shoes to a backer board?

The wood souled shoe is no problem, just screw directly into the shoe.

The metal soul shoes each had 3 of these non metal sections.  Something I could drill thru.

Mark where you would like your shoes and predrill.  Each shoe will probably be different.

With the wood soul shoe I could attach the shoe form to the backer with 2 screws.

With the metal souled shoes, I could only use 1 screw.  To keep these shoes from turning I used another big blob of the clear E6000 glue.

You can either have the hooks on the bottom of the coat rack or the top as shown here.

Screw directly to the wall and it’s ready for hanging.

If you have some old vintage shoe forms and you’re looking for more ideas, check out my Pinterest board Upcycled Vintage Shoe Forms here.  It currently has over 30 pins.  Or you can find my diy Railroad Spike coat rack here.

Until next time, stay inspired.