hallway
LOCKHART SUVER Lockhart Suver Built-Ins Whether modern or traditional, extra spaces along the sides of a hall are great places for built-ins. Psychologically, the narrow hall feels larger because its extremities provide storage. In this traditional Seattle home, the hall features a custom built-in cabinet. The drawers and cabinets provide always-needed storage for linens and supplies. Also, the countertop is perfect for displaying a few favorite objects. It also provides a place for conveniently setting things down as the owners traverse the rooms.
Channel Gallery Style A little isolation can work wonders for art. This wire sculpture by Debi O’Hehir holds court in a hallway stripped back of all other interest. A niche provides a plinth and spotlighting, while a whitewashed backdrop creates contrast. Take a cue from exhibitions and how they use staging and lighting to present artifacts to best effect. Foregrounding a single piece like this can carry the decorative interest of a whole room.
Chattanooga Closet Co Email Save Pillowcase trick. One good way to keep sets of sheets tidy (especially when you don’t have subdivided shelving) is to simply tuck each folded sheet set inside its own pillowcase. This makes an easy-to-grab bundle that looks neat and won’t topple. Plus, there’s no need to buy anything!
Mirrored walls. I know, that sounds like something from the 1980s, but stick with me — these are not Crockett and Tubbs’ mirrored walls. It’s actually a great trick. Check out how mirroring the entire wall doubles the visual space in this entry. A few things are going on that keep the wall from looking dated. One: The wall is composed of several beveled mirrors, which breaks things up. Two: The mirror-mounted sconces also serve that purpose. Three: The wall is framed in elaborate millwork that provides a recess.
A good interim solution might be to get a piece of furniture that can function as a substitute for a built-in desk or nook. If you need a work surface but struggle with clutter, the best alternative to a traditional desk might be a secretary desk with a fold-down work surface, or an armoire with doors. When closed, it functions as an elegant storage cabinet. When open, it becomes a convenient workspace. This may also be the right solution if you are neat and your family members are not. This type of furniture works well in a kitchen, but if your space is already cramped, you could consider your family, dining or living rooms. If you invest in a quality piece that reflects your style, it can be at home in even the most elegant room. Plus, unlike a built-in, that investment goes with you when you move.
What location makes sense for our family? Before you create a family organizing station, think about which location would get the most use in your home. Since the kitchen is the heart of most homes, I recommend you strongly consider it. Alternatively, you might consider a hallway, the inside of a cabinet or a non-public room close to the kitchen, such as a mudroom or laundry room. This photo shows an organizing station in a family room that connects this home’s kitchen and garage. It has room for backpacks, school paperwork, keys and a homework station. The advantage of open and visible centers is that they can act as reminders to do this or that, which can be very helpful if you often feel overwhelmed or that you are losing track. However, the downside of visible stations is that clutter (again, if you’re prone to it) can cause anxiety. Weigh these pros and cons as you consider where to place your organizing station.
Include space for storage. Now this is a room design that shows how to squeeze every last drop of potential out of a compact floor plan. The double pocket doors tuck into the wall to allow full access to the living room from the hallway beyond without impinging on the floor space. The tuck-away doors also clear the way for built-in shelving up and over the door frame.
Keep a hallway clutter-free. A busy hallway with lots of connecting doors and opening cabinets is a prime location for a pocket door. By gliding neatly into the recess of a wall to allow access to a room beyond, as shown in this hallway, a pocket door is something you aren’t likely to trip over or bump into, allowing for better circulation around a house and more floor space in a hectic entryway.
Hallway. Hallways are typically long and narrow and, depending on the lighting, can also be dark. When choosing a paint color for the hallway, consider the paint colors in connecting rooms and then go one to two shades lighter. The colors will complement each other and coordinate the home’s overall design. Plus, a lighter shade will brighten up the passageway.
Entryway. When a guest arrives, their first impression is based on your home’s exterior and the front door. Realtors call this curb appeal. But the very next thing guests will notice is the area right inside your front door, so you should use it to make a statement. If your home has a formal entry, choose a paint color that is one to two shades darker than the next room. A darker paint color in the entryway can make the space feel more inviting, like a warm hug. If your home has an open floor plan without a defined entryway, use paint to create one. Try a bold color on the wall surrounding the front door and an adjacent wall as visual borders for the entry.
Turn a pile of postcards into a gallery wall. If you have postcards or snapshots filling a shoebox and collecting dust, use them to create a gallery wall to remind you of places you’ve been or dream of visiting. To make a collection look cohesive, put them in the same style frame or stick to a theme (such as national parks, beaches or certain colors).
Utilize the wall. Wiley and Melissa Haithcock incorporated a few of the techniques we have seen already when creating the entry area for their 985-square-foot rental home in Nashville, Tennessee. As in the previous home, the front door here leads straight into the living room. Instead of adding a big piece of storage furniture and a sofa, they flanked their entry with wall storage on one side and an armchair on the other. Wiley built the multifunctional shelf, which includes hooks for coats and scarves, and a shelf for displaying artwork and personal mementos. Other smaller decorative items sit below the shelf, contributing to the entry room feel.
. Define the entry with a bookcase. While loft living in New York City sounds like a dream to a lot of us, there are still practical challenges that come with having few or no internal walls. Built-in storage is more limited, and living in one open room can feel overwhelming. Andrew Holden and Perry Lowe solved these problems in their loft in downtown Brooklyn with a low bookcase. Not only does it store part of their extensive library, but it also defines the entry area and separates it, slightly, from the living area and the rest of the loft.
Mimic a wall with storage. It may go against instinct to build more walls inside a home, especially one less than 1,000 square feet, like this apartment in Tel Aviv, Israel. But homeowners Rotem Solarchik and Dana Gutman, both interior designers, decided to do just that when they did a full remodel of their home, which also included opening up a hallway that led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. A new home office sits next to the front door, but they wanted a way to separate the two spaces while giving clients who visit the home a taste of their aesthetic and expertise upon arrival. They had a carpenter build a glass-and-pine storage unit, which also contains a locker closet, just next to the door, to divide the space and show off their work. “We want our clients to see the mix of materials as soon as they enter our home,” Solarchik says.
1. Claim the closet. Julianne Francis and Patrick Foley decided to sacrifice the entry closet of their rented home in Menlo Park, California, to gain an entry landing. They removed the door and converted the closet into an entry nook. “I think it’s important to have somewhere to throw your keys when you walk in the door, so they are always in the same place,” Francis says. Now the repurposed closet is an inviting alcove — the first thing you see when you open the front door — with an entry table, hat storage, artwork and a bowl for storing the keys. Decorative, nonfunctioning light fixtures hang above the door frame. New hooks along the wall behind the front door can be used for coat storage.
Border it with a sofa. Wall hooks, a folding chair and a credenza line the wall just inside Lonnie and Jeran McConnel’s bungalow in Bakersfield, California, giving the family of five a place to land. The wall print, table lamp and decorative accessories create an inviting entry for guests. From inside the living room, the sofa keeps most of this just out of view, with the artwork and decorative accessories peeking above it as they would from a sofa table. From the front door, the sofa acts as a barrier, loosely re-creating the feeling of an entry hall, so you don’t feel as if you’re walking right into the middle of the house.
The original green fireplace tile in the entry is one of the couple’s favorite details. “It’s the prettiest color and reads like watercolor, which I find very soothing.” Wexstten says. The dark molding around it stretches almost to the 14-foot ceiling. It provides a striking contrast to the fireplace and helps draw attention to the original woodwork throughout the 1925 home
Studded success. Designer Lisa Stone created this bar closet for a family room in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The door frame and doors are covered in Old Navy paint from Benjamin Moore. Stone outlined the doors with silver nailheads to add a little panache.
A rich wood built-in helps organize this Los Angeles entry. A frosted, ribbed glass window obscures the view into the living room.
This entryway in Moscow packs a lot of storage. Several hooks take care of coats and bags while a bench with shelves can organize shoes. Above, a rack and cabinet offer spots for infrequently used items.
Hallway Bar: Curiosity Closet Designer: Krista Hoffman Design Designer Krista Hoffman says that a recent visit to Rembrandt’s House Museum in Amsterdam inspired the design of the hallway bar. “There’s one room in his house that’s filled to the brim with all these curiosities he had collected during his lifetime,” Hoffman says. “I wanted that same eclectic collected look for the bar.” Hoffman spent months gathering accessories online and from antiques shops all over the country to display in the space. The bar has blue lacquer built-ins and custom brass hardware. A metallic wallpaper from Paper Mills lines the back wall.
. Bordered: When You Want an Area Rug the Family Can’t Ruin Sure, a classic patterned area rug can make a foyer look beautiful, but can you keep it from getting stained, worn and shredded? If you know the busy traffic isn’t going to be carpet-friendly, consider creating a similar look in tile, with a dramatic pattern set in a border of plain tiles. Using a plain border that approximately matches the wall and trim color is smart if you have a few walls or nooks in odd shapes. You can border out the edges, leaving a rectangle in the center, which is all the eye will see from then on.
The landing in the hallway contains an open cabinet of wine. Weir purchased the bust in an antiques store in San Francisco.
The front entry is warm and elegant, which fits with the existing drywall and lack of exposed brick in this area. A three-drawer chest serves as a landing zone, with a good amount of storage and a tray on top for keys. There’s also a coat closet just out of view. The bench is a handy spot for putting on and taking off shoes. The mirror was the couple’s. “It was important to bring in their own things while adding new ones,” Wemlinger says. “They were very open to change, but it needed to be ‘them.’ ” She suggested an antiqued brass étagère to play off the mirror’s finish. They both love books so she moved a few to the shelves. One of the homeowners is of Dutch descent so she displayed his wooden clogs out here.
5. Hat rack stack. The entryway between two sets of double doors may not be a great place for a cabinet or set of deep shelves, but it can be the perfect place to hang your hat — literally. A few simple hooks here create a stylish display down the wall, which can be perfectly capped by a pair or two of boots. Not a hat person? Try the same idea with scarves, bags or leashes.
Slim cabinets. Speaking of shoe racks, many companies sell slim wall-mounted shoe cabinets with tip-out compartments that usually have a much slimmer profile than a typical storage unit. These compartments can work well for many other storage needs, such as holding documents, mittens, plastic bags and other small and flat items. The shelf on top is usually just deep enough to hold some decorative items and act as a catchall for keys or coins. Switch out the knobs for a stylish upgrade and you’ve got an easy solution that can look high-end.
Shoe shelves. Shoe racks that sit on the floor don’t always make the best use of space. Thinking back to our floating cabinet, it’s helpful in a small space to keep the floor free and clear. Instead of a floor unit, try using wall-mounted racks or slim shelves to keep shoes up and out of the way, and hidden from normal view (which may be just as well for your well-worn sneakers).
Still, one doesn’t need a full wet bar to use this space as a drinks hub. This simple staircase bar, with its modest wood shelving and metal wine racks, would be more affordable to create. It shows that it’s possible to store your bar items beneath the stairs in style and on a budget.
Martini Time If you enjoy a cocktail at the day’s end, the area beneath the stairs could be a good place to put your bar, particularly if your kitchen or dining room have no more real estate. This one has been outfitted with a sink and wine fridge, making it fully functional for a household that enjoys entertaining. With cabinets, a counter and shelving, it’s like a mini kitchen. The silvery basketweave tile backsplash and sparkle of the sink and glassware communicate that any time can be party time.
Add stylish storage in the entry. The foyer is your welcome home — and your opportunity to create a pleasing entry for visitors. Make this area work for you by outfitting it with pieces that function as storage while adding to the overall aesthetic.
The warm wood tones are punctuated by blackened-steel pendants on the entry hallway ceiling.
Sunny skies. Don’t let gray skies — or a messy entry — get you down. The sun will shine again, which means you can also use that entryway storage for beach towels, sunglasses and flipflops.
NF interiors Save Email Stash the Shoes Off the floor. A simple tray with slats gives boots a home in this Washington, D.C.-area home. The custom shoe holder keeps the floor clear and fits perfectly underneath the coat hooks. Artichoke Save Email Sliding storage. This cubby has a drawer that slides out to hold boots big and small. It was designed so that even the adult boots can slide out of sight without getting smashed.
Stash the Shoes Off the floor. A simple tray with slats gives boots a home in this Washington, D.C.-area home. The custom shoe holder keeps the floor clear and fits perfectly underneath the coat hooks.
A hand-carved Moorish screen is built into one section of the wall. It is the first thing you see when you enter the house, and it has a visually dramatic effect. On the table, an antique giant clam shell holds old pods from the double coconut palm (aka the coco de mer palm), found in the Seychelles.
This ornate wrought iron railing drew Houzzers to this photo. The graceful curve of the staircase provides an alcove for a round-topped table. The way the entryway is decorated gives it Art Deco style, but this railing could also work with a Mediterranean design.
In a nook. Many homes have a nook, be it a place to store correspondence or sit for a cup of coffee. Because laundry areas can be designed to be compact, the idea of one in a nook is clever. Here, mesh doors open and slide back into the surrounding cabinetry so that they are out of the way when the laundry is in use. The mesh doors can be closed while the washer and dryer are in use because air can flow easily through the area without creating condensation inside the cabinet. Since the doors are almost opaque, shutting them hides the functionality of the space.
In a hallway. Good planning has created space in this corridor for a side-by-side washer and dryer with hanging racks above. A traditional door that opens out to access the laundry area would not have worked in the narrow hallway, but a sliding barn-style door does the trick. When closed, the door is almost invisible within the architecture of the home, which is just what the owners wanted.
This antique oak chest on the opposite wall came from Witte’s childhood home. Next to it is a tall pedestal with a brightly colored vintage Murano vase on top. The red drawing above is from artist Willie White, and the etching next to it is from Jim Richard.
Around the corner, the couple took out a closet and gave it a cedar lining to create a little library vestibule. “We tend to remove closets as often as we can get away with it,” McLeod says. They can keep what they need to store down to a minimum, and they’d rather use this valuable real estate for drawers and display than coats. They also keep their book collection culled to save space. “We did a book purge once and realized we were gaining about 20 linear square feet of space,” McLeod says. “If we’ve already read it and aren’t going to again, we donate it to the Mayne Island
This mudroom keeps clutter at bay before it has a chance to reach the rest of this Chicago home. A stacked washer-dryer takes care of dirty school and sports uniforms, and tall cabinets hold coats, brooms and cleaning supplies. Large-format porcelain tile covers the floor. See more of this home
An antique rug and a large 19th-century console table accentuate the narrowness of this Dallas entry. Shutters behind a piece of abstract art help fill the expanse of wall.
She also created a floating desk by stacking two layers of knotty pine plywood between a wall and closet.
Storage Stairs 9. Here, the staircase is partially hidden behind a row of cubbies that can be used to display art or corral belongings. White shiplap behind the stairs and the neatly spaced gallery display add to the organized, linear feel.
The entryway sets the tone for the rest of the house with a colorful rug and an inviting fiddleleaf fig. love colour of rung and pillows
3. Botanical charm. With its botanical wallpaper and simple furnishings, this entry radiates nature-inspired calm. And don’t think of a look like this only in the country — why not infuse your city apartment with relaxing rural pleasures? Tidy tip: Hidden storage inside the bench seat and a row of pegs provide ample space to stash your belongings. Get the look: ◦Colors: mossy green, white, natural woods ◦Botanical wallpaper or art ◦Vase of cut ferns or a potted plant ◦Shaker-style peg rail ◦Natural-fiber rug ◦Ladder-back chair
Coming home to roost. Unless you’re an urban homesteader or a poultry farmer, you may not realize that what we’re looking at here is an old chicken nesting box where hens once laid their eggs. Instead of clucking birds, it now houses country jars and pitchers.
Step it up. A steep set of stairs often involves a narrow wall — often decorated with one small piece of art. But why not rethink that wall and turn it into a bookshelf? The creative solution adds an unexpected design element and makes it easy to grab some bedtime reading on your way upstairs at night.
This metal locker once held all manner of tools and carpentry items, such as nails, nuts and bolts. The doors were removed at some point (you can still see remnants of the hinges), and today the locker houses a colorful collection of sneakers.
Kids love secret play spots, and adults love to tuck the mess out of sight. The play nook may just be the best invention ever. Even a small space next to the stairs can provide a world of possibilities to kids.
a way to show collection of hats
on landing
When you enter the house, try to resist the urge to throw your jacket over the back of a chair or on a bannister. Place it in the coat closet or, if your home doesn’t have one near the entry, consider installing a hook rack or coat tree to keep jackets from cluttering your home.
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