So there Ikea.

Don't get me wrong now.   I could spend HOURS in Ikea and I would be loving every minute of it.  But when my sister-in-law requested a new shoe cabinet, I just knew that I could build one better than Ikea's laminate version.

The problem area is this space at the front door of their house where everyone comes in and deposits their shoes... and bags... and coloring books:

And since my sister-in-law has a 3 year old and a one month old new baby, it hasn't been getting any better recently.  So she asked me to fix it.  Actually, she pleaded with me to fix it.  And gave me almost 100% of the creative control.  Basically she said, "do what you need to do and give us a big reveal when it's done".  Now, you know that those words are like liquid gold to a DIYer like myself, right?

So I went home and got to work.  I used plans from Ana White (like I usually do) and modified them to fit the actual space.  And soon enough I had this:

We quickly realized that there was no way it was going to make the trip to Princeton in one piece, so it actually ended up looking a bit like this:

I also noticed that my sister-in-law and my brother both sit at the tiny little chairs of their three year old's table in order to put their shoes on.  Obviously that situation had to be rectified.  So I was off to Sal's in search of a chair.  I managed to wrangle home this lovely item after sweet talking it down to $6.  (Yes, I did talk the price of a chair down at the Salvation Army.)

But I knew that my sister-in-law wanted a lighter colored wood and that the pattern on that fabric is just about as butt-ugly as you can get.  So after lots of sanding, staining, stapling and sewing, the chair was looking like this instead:

The next step was just getting it all into their house.  I made my second trip down to Princeton this past weekend, and put the shoe cabinet back together in the entryway.  I had also made a shelf for hanging all sorts of bags and such which proved to be the most aggravating part of the whole sha-bang.  Let's just say that there may be just a few holes in the wall under that shelf.  Hey - I wanted it to be sturdy. And it's not my fault that the builders of this house refused to put the studs where they belong.  But all worth it, I say.  Let me remind you of the before:

And now....

Mission completed.