Double Hemnes Shoe Cabinet

Double Hemnes Shoe Cabinet Hack

Materials: Hemnes Shoe Cabinet x2

The Hemnes collection from Ikea was the perfect option for our front entrance which lacks a ‘proper’ entrance equipped with a sunken level, tile floor or even a shoe/coat closet. Since we had enough room for two, that’s what I went with. More storage = more shoes! But having two of them required a bit of ‘hacking’ to set them up side by side. Because the top shelf has a bit of an overhang, you have to cut one sided of both units to prevent there from being a gap between them.

After completely assembling one unit, and leaving the other without the top piece, I measured the overhang to determine how much had to be cut off. To save you from having to do the same thing, 1-1/4″ has to be cut off the left side of one top and the right side of the other.

Using a tape measure and a square I measured and drew a straight line across the finished side of the boards. Double and triple check that you’ve marked the left side of one board and the right side of one, with the finished edge facing forward. Otherwise you’ll have an irreversible problem on your hands!

lisa blog-8667

Once I had my lines drawn out with pencil, I applied frog tape perfectly straight along the pencil line on the GOOD side. That’ll help ensure that none of the melamine finish tears away while cutting. It also makes it easier to see where to line the blade up.

lisa blog-8676

Using a mitre saw, I cut one board with the good side facing down and the other facing up. Cutting with the good side UP left a cleaner cut than the one with it facing down.

lisa blog-8679

Then I was able to attach the top pieces to the rest of the units, push them tight together and mount them to the wall.

Of course you will see the seam between the two pieces on the top, but it’s minimal, and I found a narrow decorative plate that fits perfectly, serves as our key holder and hides it really well.

{You can see that the left board is a little rougher since I cut it first with the good side facing down and the right which was cut with the good side facing UP is a lot smoother.}

Overall this hack was super easy and looks awesome! I love that it looks like one large custom piece for this space, and it obviously looks much better than if we simply placed them side by side leaving a 3″ gap between them.

lisa blog-3230

This has been one of the best-functioning storage solutions in our house. We each have one pullout for our winter gear and I leave one pullout for miscellaneous stuff like Tupperware we need to return to it’s rightful owner, things we have to return to a store, things that have to go into one of our vehicles, etc. etc. It keeps the entrance clutter-free and organized which I loooooove!