10 DIY Boot Rack Plans and Ideas

Are you looking for a way to keep the mud in your mudroom so it doesn’t get tracked all through your house? Or do you want a way to organize boots and shoes neatly so they don’t become accidents waiting to happen? Even if you’re just looking for a way to let boots dry and keep them out of the way, these 10 DIY boot rack plans will help you do it.

Several of these rack ideas are designed to sit in your garage or outside your home to keep muddy boots from messing up your floors. Some of these designs are great for kids’ boots while others are designed for anyone who spends a lot of time gardening, farming, or homesteading.

Let’s take a look at how to build an inexpensive boot rack with one of these DIY designs.

10 DIY Plans

1. Build Vertical Boot Storage Rack

This unique plan from At Charlotte’s House looks adorable and helps keep the inside of boots dry. Although it looks like it’s made from an old ladder, instead it’s built from scratch with wood. This is not a good project for a beginner carpenter to attempt. It requires the proper tools, cutting a lot of pieces of wood, including angled cuts to place each rung.

This is a great project to learn by working with an experienced carpenter, so they can guide you through the various cuts and drilling. And it makes a rack that young children can put their boots on to get them off the floor and dry for their next outdoor adventure.

2. Upcycle Nesting Box into Boot Storage

This interesting idea started with an old nesting box for raising chickens from Redeem Your Ground. In this case, this upcycle idea was used to solve the problem of where to keep muddy boots and shoes outside, so they didn’t track dirt inside. The idea was that instead of having a pile of wet and muddy shoes outside to get rained on or get covered by fall leaves, the nesting box could be turned into a shoe rack.

The metal nesting box was open to the air in both front and back, as well as low to the ground. To make it more suitable for shoes and boots, pallet wood was used to make a platform base so it isn’t too low to the ground, and a back wall so boots don’t fall out of the back. It makes a one-of-a-kind upcycled rack that is inexpensive and practical, too.

3. Make DIY Boot Storage Bench

This DIY plan from Jaime Costiglio is a neat storage bench, so you can sit down to take off boots, then place them inside the appropriate crate. This bench design is easier to make than it looks because you only need to build the frame. You can buy the crates already built which saves a lot of time and work to make them.

Since the frame is fairly easy to build and assemble, you can personalize the length for a smaller or larger space. This is great for small children, or for teenagers who are active in sports. With this in your mudroom, there won’t be any more messy shoes for people to trip over.

4. Create a Simple Bench with Hidden Boot Rack

This DIY plan from Ana White takes neatness to a new level. On this bench, the drawer is installed to completely hide the purpose of the bench. This results in a nice minimalist bench design that is especially great for an entryway. It gives you a place to sit when putting shoes on, and a secret drawer to store them.

The drawer is easy to move in and out on two slides, and it has slats in the bottom to hang boots upside down to dry. It’s a very interesting idea that requires woodworking tools and precise cuts to ensure that everything fits properly.

5. Build a DIY Boot Rack for the Porch

Here’s a DIY boot rack designed for farmers, homesteaders, or anyone who works in the yard and gets boots too dirty to bring indoors. This design, from A Farmer in the Making, is an easier project to start with if you’re new to working with wood. There are fewer pieces of wood, and you use pre-cut dowels for the hangers. You could use reclaimed wood or scrap wood for the base.

6. Use a Wooden Spool to Make the Rack

This interesting plan from DIY Tips Household Tips Guide uses a wooden spool for the base and helps use up scrap wood. This is a very cheap project for those with small budgets. You may be able to get a spool for free.

With this idea, the top of the spool becomes a seat, and you add spokes around the sides for boots to hang on. You can add a pillow on top to make it more comfortable. One possible drawback of this design is that the seat is too high for a small child, but it is a good height for tweens and teens.

7. Make an Outdoor Wall Mounted Boot Rack

If you prefer to keep boots outside then you’ll appreciate this outdoor plan from The Mombot. This DIY project makes one or more simple boot racks made from two 1 x 6 pieces of wood cut to 4 feet in length. This plan is also a good one if you aren’t very experienced with wood. It uses 1x1s for each peg so you only need to cut the length. And if you don’t place each peg in the exact right place on the larger board, the boot rack will still work just fine.

If you don’t have a saw at home, you can get all of this wood pre-cut from your local lumber yard or hardware store. This rack is designed to be wall mounted outside the house adjacent to the door to your mudroom or entryway. If you don’t have space there, you can put it inside your garage or even inside a garden shed.

8. Build Simple & Strong DIY Wellington Boot Rack

Here is another fairly easy DIY plan from Secrets of Shed Building. You can use leftover scrap wood to build it. As long as the scraps are long enough, you can cut them into the proper width and length. This is another great idea for someone who’s new to carpentry. The design is simple and straightforward, and if you make a mistake, like the pieces are too short or not wide enough, the result will still be useful to hang your boots.

No one really sees the wood pegs or boards when they’re covered with drying boots. So they won’t know your rack isn’t perfect. This particular plan is designed for Wellingtons or rubber boots (in the U.S.). It’s a freestanding unit that you can place right outside your door to keep all the mud and dirt out.

9. Make a Stylish Boot Cabinet

This stylish DIY boot storage cabinet from Shanty 2 Chic can go in your mudroom. But, it’s really nice enough looking to go inside your bedroom or closet. This DIY plan does take more woodworking experience to complete. It requires precise measurements for cutting and drilling, especially for the adjustable shelving.

If you do choose to make this project, you will love the finished look. Sure, you could put it outside your house, but if you have room, it will be a nice addition to your bedroom decor.

This project isn’t really designed as a boot rack per se but can hold a lot of shoes with the adjustable shelving. Paint or stain it any color you want to blend in with your decor or use a contrasting color to make it an accent piece.

10. Repurpose a Pallet into a Shoe Rack

This shoe rack from The Handy Mano looks great and would make a nice addition in a mud room, playroom, or inside a closet. Although it uses pallet wood to make the rack, it isn’t a simple design. To complete this plan, you need to not only cut the wood into the required size pieces but also finish the wood by sanding and planning it to make it smooth. Then you need to add stain or paint to enhance the look of the finished product.

You need an orbital sander, electric planer, and two different saws to get this finished look. This does make a good project for working with a mentor to learn carpentry. Since the pallet wood is inexpensive, and possibly free, you don’t have to feel bad if you make mistakes and need to use more wood.

You start this project by taking the pallet apart completely and then sanding and planning the planks before any cutting. Therefore, you need to allow time to get those steps done, and then time to cut and assemble it.

Conclusion

Are you someone who loves making DIY projects, or are just starting out and learning how to work with wood? If you have access to the right tools and the knowledge to work with them, any of these DIY ideas are fun to build and will look great when you’re done.