Could am armoire work? I have seen beautiful ones used as closets. It possibly could be placed where the black bench is?

I use a large basket with a lid to hold shoes and a wall mounted coat rack by the door.

Since this isn't your furniture, you're unlikely to get sensible solutions that work with your stuff. Please take pix and post the way it looks now and what you have to work with.

Lindsey, haha, you should tell my DH that rule. The basket looks like Imelda Marcos lives here.

A quick search on Houzz has ideas that might work for you: https://www.houzz.com/photos/query/hall-tree-with-storage/nqrwns

We enter through the garage so all the shoes stay outside, coats go to the closet. I couldn't stand a shoe or coat pile in the space shown. Needing something small for guests, an antique coat/bench comes to mind.

I agree make this a guest entry and use the other for the rest of the family.There is so little space for anything but shallow storage at best , maybe the wall mounted one from Ikea ,I do not think an armoire would work unless very shallow and really kind of useless for coats. It certainly would be helpful to see your space.

I have the same issue. I would love my home to look like a model home, however I Iove my family so much more and pray that I am forever lucky enough to have the shoe/coat near the front door storage issue.

Right now I am considering a bench with baskets underneath. Big deep baskets that I can put felt on the bottom of so that they slide in/out easily.

Can you post a pic of the space now and with your furniture? It may help others come up with a solution.

I have a shoe bench next to the bay windows right now but there is no space for coats. The TV bench is where the couch was in the photos and a small sofa is placed facing the TV and its back is around where the edge of the rug was in the photos. It creates a “hallway” behind the sofa and makes the room feel cramped. I will take some photos tomorrow when there is better lighting.

Some information about the house:

1. This is one of those old houses that don’t have a garage.

2. There is no second entrance. The back of the house is a garden and there is no unlocking mechanism from the outside. The garden is also filled with at least two feets of snow right now.

3. This may be a Canadian thing but everybody I know takes off their shoes at the entryway and nobody stores shoes in bedrooms. Shoes are messy business in winter and need to be left out to dry indoor.

What about leaving shoes outside the front door? I have several friends in Vancouver and a few in Winnipeg who do that. Not sure where to hang your coats though.

I would consider a hall tree, which would wrangle both coats and shoes. it will have a big presence, but I think it will keep the mess contained in one zone, with reasonable enforcement... They come in a variety of styles.

Here are some other variants to cover the same functionality.

I bought a shallow art deco wardrobe for my clothes that would work extremely well in your space. It was 18" deep by 3' wide and 6' tall. Cubbies on one side labeled for hats, shirts and such you could use for shoes, a pull out pole on the other but it would be easy to put hooks on boards then attach to the framing. There was also a pole on the floor for shoes. Two doors closed it up. Neat little piece and far smaller than what is normally called an armoire. It's footprint would be approximately the same as the bench in the photo.

The house is built in the 30s so there are quite a few interesting choices made back then. Outside of the front door is uncovered so rain/snow would get to the shoes :( I actually thought about enclosing the landing outside but that probably will need city permit.

Oh Kathy, would you share some photos of your wardrobe? A million thanks!!

L. Hassuchaf I'll enforce that rule at your house, and you can tell my beloved that he can't leave his work gloves on my kitchen island!!

ETA: sorry for my lack of attention to detail, this comment was a reaction to saypoint's comment up thread. But either of you are welcome to keep those gloves off the island by any means necessary lol

I, too have a entry door with little room for coats/hats. So, I got this thing. Perfect - upper branches for tall people, middle branches for average height people and lower branches for small people. The door next to it goes to a bedroom. The entry door is where you see daylight on the right. The Hall tree will take 9 coats (3 per tier) plus a few hats and purses or towels. Some hall trees have more or less, but it's an idea as it takes up nominal floor space. I did get a small mat to tuck between the legs for boots/shoes. And I moved it on the other side of the bedroom door next to the outside door. Works great for my purposes.

We have a second home in Seattle that our son and his family are living in. There is no coat closet and the front door ooens into the living space, much like yours. Our solution was to buy an IKEA shoe cabinet that is very shallow and takes up little space. I think there are 2 or 3 pull out shoe drawers and 1 shallow top drawer to store gloves and other items. We hung 3 hooks from Anthropologie on the wall adjacent to it, so they can each hang a coat or jacket. I will try to find a photo and post later. It was a fairly good solution to the shoe/coat issue.

Alas never took a photo of it as far as I can remember. This one is similar and looks to be about the same size. MIne had more detail outside but no drawers. I was looking for a larger piece but the labels on the shelves won my heart and being small it fit nicely into the small bedroom.

Celestina, I had a half rack of that sort of design made of cast metal that might have been brass that fit nicely in the front hall. Fastened to studs it took up far less room and couldn't fall over. Sold that on eBay long ago and had never seen anything like it since until just now. Pictures are upside down but it is exactly the same design. If you could find a shoe cubby that looked okay with the old fashioned vibe it would terrific looking so long as you manage to keep it cleared off. You wouldn't think something that simple could hold so much!

I really like the pieces acm found particularly the wood and metal 3 shelf one. Just work really hard to keep the number of things hung to a dull roar.

If the OP puts a stop for the door, she could hang hooks off a board. That would be the simplest, easiest and cheapest. Then move that half table a place to put shoes on a rubber tray next to that chair against the wall. there is a low cabinet there for a landing spot for keys, mail, etc.

Here is a photo of the shoe cabinet from when we first set it up. There are hooks on the wall in the corner of the wall that is perpendicular to the shoe cab wall. The cabinet is only 11” deep and fits against the wall and also comes in black or gray.

Here are some additional views from the IKEA website:

If you get the right kind of armoire it would have a bar for hanging coats and bottom space for shoes/boots. Everything would be out of sight.

Excuse the bad lighting, it’s a cloudy day :)

We had the ikea hemnes in black at a previous home. Low profile and held up really well. That looks like it would be a good solution as it is narrow as well.

Is there enough space to add a shallow underbed type bin/basket under the couch for the extras that are not worn daily ?

It looks like a bench/cabinet under the window such as this would also work in your space.

shoe bench cabinet

I got an idea when I saw the new room divider on the ikea site yesterday.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/70343325/

What if I put the room divider perpendicular to the bay windows, one window away from the door? Kind of create an entry way/foyer. A shoe cabinet can go under the light switch (the light switch is 44" above ground)

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/50334751/

A desk (maybe a secretary desk?) can go behind the other side of the room divider so I will have a foyer on one side and a mini office on the other side.

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/30245713/

Thoughts?

Perhaps if you posted more photos and measurements you would get more ideas. Sounds like it would be nice for this room to wear many hats?