The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Shannon at AKA Design.
Hi Organizing Junkies! Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July this week, depending on where you’re reading from! If it’s not a holiday week where you are, happy summer! (Although I suppose if you’re ‘down under’, it’s winter?)
So…I have a few Front Entryway Must-Haves for you today. I was really hoping that I’d be able to share our own new front entry.
But alas, renovations don’t always go as planned.
And it’s not finished.
Sigh.
Such is life, I suppose.
Anyway, I still have the list of must-haves. I just don’t have photos of my own entry to show you.
Yet!
6 Front Entryway Must-Haves
1. A bench, a chair or a stool are super handy for putting on and taking off footwear. Somewhere to sit down is especially helpful for tying laces or putting on difficult footwear.
2. Hooks. Kids and adults alike with be more inclined to keep the entryway neat and tidy if there are hooks out in the open. Quickly popping a jacket onto a hook sure beats having to open a closet door, take down a hanger, wrangle a coat, hang it up and close the doors again.
3. A mirror. No one wants to go out the front door with spinach in their teeth or hair all mussed by putting on a scarf. A full-length mirror is the best as it enables checking if flies are up and skirts are not tucked in!
4. A place for shoes. Shelves, a tray, or even just a dedicated piece of floor real estate will work to keep shoes from taking over the entryway.
5. Somewhere to put keys, mail and other pocket stuff. A mail rack, a bowl, just about any vessel will do.
6. Something pretty. Just because a space is set up for function doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty too. Hang a piece of artwork, put out a unique vase of fresh flowers or a favorite ceramic animal. Form comes before function, but not in its place!
Our old house’s entryway
So how does your front entryway measure up? Do you have all six “must-haves”? Or is your entry still a work in progress?
xo,
Shannon
Shannon Acheson is a passionate interior decorator, frugal DIYer, sometime graphic designer, wannabe writer, homeschooling momma and adoring wife. She is the co-owner (with hubster) of AKA Design and the main writer/designer for the blog of the same name. Shannon recently moved from a war-era bungalow to a cozy backsplit in Oshawa, Ontario with her husband and their three children, and during spare moments can be found scouring local shops for decor bargains, rearranging the furniture again, or scrubbing paint off her hands.
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Shelby says
I have none…as my entry has no walls. Both formals open on each side…what to do in this case?
Joyce says
I have the same problem. My front door just opens to my living room. We’re doing our best to have an area, but oftentimes everything just gets scattered.
Crista says
Same here. I repurposed a small dresser and put it next to the front door. The top holds our “pretty” (vase of flowers), a small dish that will fit *only* DH’s wallet, keys and change–no room for the other miscellany that comes out of his pocket ;), a pen cup, and stuff that needs to go to the car. The top drawer has plastic bins for mail and whatever else might come out of DH’s pocket, and for receipts. The other two drawers hold our extra throws and pillows. It works for us.
We have a small coat closet behind the front door where we throw our shoes, and I put an over the door rack on there for coats and my purse. If we didn’t have the closet, I probably would have put a big basket for shoes somewhere around the door and hung hooks on the wall that the door opens to.
I saw an idea somewhere to use paint that is a different color than your wall to make a small rectangle on the wall. You could then put hooks or a small shelf in the rectangle and it makes the space defined. I don’t see why you couldn’t expand this idea and paint the wall from top to bottom and then maybe3-4 feet wide, either next to the door or behind the door. Hang some hooks there and put a basket for shoes and/or a small end table or dresser and your eyes will be tricked into thinking it’s a “real” entryway!
Sorry this is so long :). We just bought our house 8 months ago and I tried a lot of different things and looked at a lot of ideas for an entryway!
Joyce says
Thanks Crista for the idea of having that defined space with the paint….got my mind thinking… 🙂 We don’t have a coat closet, which I’m okay with, but there doesn’t seem to be any place for guests to hang up their coats.
Shannon@MishmashMama says
I totally agree about the hooks! Our hooks are full and our closet is empty, lol.
Anna@stuffedveggies says
A few years ago I bought a second-hand “Dry Bar” (possibly dating back to prohibition?) for my front entryway. It has been repurposed as our “shoe cabinet” and all-purpose landing spot for the front hallway. I love being able to take off all our shoes as soon as we walk in the door, and pull slippers out of the same cabinet and immediately put them on. And no one trips over the shoes : )
For hooks, we just got one of those over-the-door ones for the front door – informal – but works for us.
Shannon (aka design) says
Hi! For those with no walls, you could try an “old fashioned” coat tree. Ikea has one or two stylish ones. Do you have no wall at all?
Virginia says
Thank you so much for these ideas. I do not have a front entryway (the door opens into the living room). However, I DO have a nice, large front porch. I’m thinking about incorporating these ideas onto the porch.
Shannon (aka design) says
Oh! That’s a great idea!!!
shiv says
Our entrance is a mess. No one likes putting their shoes back no matter how many organizers I get.
Shannon (aka design) says
I’m really sorry to hear that, Shiv. To be honest, in that case you have a few choices: bribe the family, ignore the mess or clean it up yourself! I suppose it depends on how much it bothers you.
Crista says
I’m like a week late so I don’t know if this will even get read :).
Our front door opens right into the living room, so our “stool or bench” is the couch :).
We have a coat closet that we throw our shoes into. I also put an over-the-door hook rack thingy 😉 (has 6 hooks) on the closet door that we use for coats and my purse.
Keys, mail and stuff go on or in the small dresser I put by the front door for that purpose. It also holds our “pretty,” a vase with flowers.
I’ve gone back and forth on a mirror. It’s just DH and me, and we have mirrored closet doors in our bedroom. But now you’ve got me thinking again of putting a mirror by the door.
Wow, I’ve got 5 of 6 :). Not bad. Thank you for a great post!
Tera says
Our front door opens into our living room, but we never enter through the front door. We always enter from the garage. I do have a mirror near that exit, so we can glance in it before leaving. I have been considering setting up an area inside the garage next to the door…
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Zeana says
I liked your idea especially about painting part of the wall because I have the same problem of Shelby & Joyce..so thank you too much.