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hot wheels storage shelves made from recycled materials

8/6/2020

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display shelves storing hot wheels and other small toys
Upcycle an old shoe rack to make storage shelves. Organize and display hot wheels cars or other miniature toys. No more dumping the entire collection on the floor to find a particular car.

store hot wheels toy cars on easy to make display shelves made from recycled materials

     I was startled and almost jumped out of my chair when my concentration was interrupted by the clatter of hot wheels toy cars being dumped out of their storage bins and all over the  floor.    
   My son loves playing with his toy cars.  Its hard to even get them put away because as soon as I do, he will decide he needs  one particular car out of the multitude he owns.   The car that he wants is never on the top of the storage bin, where it is easily found.
    Dumping everything o to the floor was the only way to quickly find what he was looking for.
    We needed a storage solution that allowed him to select his desired cars without sorting through his whole collection of hot wheels each time.   
    I happened upon the idea for the display shelves a few weeks ago, when browsing customers reviews for shoe racks on amazon.com.  A woman had taken a shoe rack and turned the shelves on their side and attached it to the wall to display small toys.  She had uploaded pictures to her product review.  I immediately was drawn to the idea.   
  The shelves would be too narrow to attract other clutter which would mean that all the toy cars would be visible all of the time.  It seemed the perfect solution.  The toys would stay off of the floor because finding and selecting a car would  now be easy.

about materials

I made my shelves out of a bamboo shoe rack.  The slats become the new shelves when the shoe rack shelves are turned on their side.
There are a lot of alternatives that could work as well.  Some ideas I thought of included using the bars of a crib.  When turned on its side, many crib faces would create narrow shelves.
Some bed slats would be suitable.  Old spice racks are a possibility as well.
I challenge you to use your imagination  so that you can make your shelves for free with materials that would otherwise go to waste.

I painted my shelves because they seemed a little bit splintery to me .  I also thought they would look nicer if they blended into the wall, allowing the cars to stand out/

I used some old latex wall paint that we had around the house.  It worked, but I would not recommend painting the shelves by hand, with a brush like this.
bamboo shoe rack with slatted shelves
this is very similar to the shoe rack I used for this project. the shelves, when turned on their side are the perfect width to display hot wheels or other small toys.
​Although I was happy to have used some waste material, instead of buying something new, painting this way took a lot of time.   Spray paint would have saved me hours of work.  There were so many tiny surfaces to hit with my brush.  If I was going to do this project again, I would purchase the spray paint.

HOW TO:

This is truly a simple project.  There are very few actual directions.  I will share the steps I took.​
  • disassemble shoe rack, if necessary
  • paint shelves, if desired
  • allow to dry
  • attach to wall (I used double sided mounting strips)
  • place toys on shelves
recycled toy car storage shelf made from an old shoe rack
I made this unit for free from an old shoe rack shelf
hot wheels storage shelves made from recycled materials
bamboo shoe rack shelves painted white and a can of paint
I had a four layer shoe rack. I attached two rectangle shaped shelves to each other to make the two square shaped units that I have on my walls
toy cars arranged in rainbow order are displayed on a white shelf
  Putting up this display rack for my sons hot wheels has really had an impact on our day to day routine.  Not having to dump out the cars in order to find the one that he wants means there is much less clutter on the floor .  I have not stepped on a single toy car since installing the shelves.  
  This storage solution will work for other types of toys as well.  Any small sized toy collection would fit.  Lego guys and  playmobile guys  both fit.
    Let me know how you adapt this project to work in your home.
hot wheels toy cars displayed on a wall shelf
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    Author

    My name is kc.  I share ideas for craft projects that are environmentally healthy and accessible to people no matter what their budget. I get excited about upcycling {remaking old items into new). I also love to crochet and cook and am teaching myself how to use my new sewing machine. I write about all those topics, sharing things I make for my home and my family, and myself. If you have questions or suggestions about any of my posts, please leave a comment and I will happily respond.  Thank you for visiting.

    reragg.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com ​. 
     I only recommend products that I personally use and like.
     

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