Foam Rack Tutorial

How to make a Foam Board Rack.

8 Shelves holds approximately 120 polishes

I really love this idea. There's so many options for making this rack. You can design it however you need, more shelves, less shelves, half the size. You can decorate it whatever way you want too!

1. 3 pieces of Foam Board.

 I buy mine from the dollar store, they are thinner than the regular foam board you buy at a regular store but for a 1/3 of the price, and you really don't need the foam that thick.

15" x 30"

2. Measure where you're going to cut.

First foam piece.
This is the back.  Measure from the bottom in 4" increments.

The second foam piece. The shelves.
Measure 8 x 1.5" from the bottom for the shelves.
Measure 8 x 1" for the shelf edge.

The third foam piece. The side strips.
Measure 2 x 2" from the sides.
Mark in several spots down so you can cut all the way down, my "straight edge" isn't long enough.

3. Cut the shelf strips.

Place the foam on a piece of cardboard to protect your carpet.

Place your "straight edge" over the rest of the foam board.

I use the back of the frame I broke, it's the longest straight edge I have.

I like it because I can hold it down and cut at the same time.

Line up the "straight edge" over the markers.

This is the knife I use. I use it because the blade is long enough to cut and be guided.

I've tried a regular box cutter but if the blade is not right up against the straight edge your cut won't be accurate.

Hold the straight edge in place so it doesn't move around on you and your cut is straight.

As you can see the blade is right against my straight edge.

First strip has been cut!

Cut the remaining shelf strips.

4. Decorate Shelf Edges!

After you cut the shelf strips you have the rest of the foam board for the shelf edges.

Turn it over and do what you would like!

I chose to glue on some neat scrapbooking paper I got from Michaels Craft Stores.

After your done gluing cut the strips for the shelf edges.

Cut the side strips as well.

So here we have, 8 shelf edges, 8 shelf strips, 2 side strips and 1 foam board not cut.

Now that we have all our trips cut it's time to glue!

5. Glue Shelf Strips!

This is why I marked on either side of the foam board.

Lay the shelf strip above the two markers and this is a guide for you glue gun.

Place a thin strip under the shelf strip.

After gluing just flip it up. Just to be clear this is actually the 2nd shelf.

The bottom shelf it glued right above the bottom.

Glue all the shelves on. 

To reinforce the shelves, put a strip of hot glue on either side of the shelf strip.

6. Glue on side strips.

This is the tricky part. Glue on the side strips.

You gotta glue kind of fast so it doesn't harden by the time you get to the other side.

So here it is with the shelves and side strips.

Now I put some hot glue on both sides of the shelf strips where they meet the sides to reinforce.

7.  Glue on shelf edges.

Now it's finished!

I've loaded it up with several different kinds of polishes to showcase different bottle types.

Pure Ice bottles.

Models Own polishes.

Orly bottles.


China Glaze.

Julep bottles, you could double up the bottles if you wanted to.

Butter london polishes fit perfectly to the side.

Sinful Color bottles.

Fingerpaints bottles.

Zoyas on the tope shelf.

I placed some different bottles on the top to show how the bottles look on the tope shelf.

Zoya, Sinful Color, Fingerpaints, China Glaze, Orly, and Pure Ice

If you get this after cutting, your blade is not sharp enough.

Sometimes my side edges of the foam look like this. And this is why...