Under-bed Shoe Storage Drawers

I have a lot of running shoes. Maybe too many. I should probably throw some of them out, but it's so hard, you know?

I was tired of looking at them piled up on a shelf in our closet, so I had Tom whip up some under-bed sliding drawers for me, to get them out of sight.

I wanted to use as much of the space as possible, but I didn't want the drawer to be too big to move, so we went with two drawers, one 3 feet wide and the other 3-1/2 feet wide. They're both 15 inches deep and made of 1/2" veneered plywood.

The edges are 3-1/2 inches high - high enough to hide the shoes from sight, but still low enough to give your fingers clearance to pull the drawers out.

The inside corners are reinforced with 2x2s cut on a diagonal. Since the front edge is what gets pulled on all the time, you don't want the board pulling right off.

I stained the visible sides (front of drawers and side edge at the foot of the bed) a dark Jacobean brown to blend with the bed frame and then added 2" furniture sliders to the bottom corners so that the drawers don't get caught on the carpet.

Tom liked them so much that he built some for his side of the bed too. I think he's hoping I forget about them and he won't ever have to wear dress shoes. I'm just glad I don't have to look at his big ol' sweaty sandals anymore. :-)