Funny Les, but we were just talking about that recently. We also talked about building cabinetry into the pony walls, where the columns are. I think I'd be hard-pressed to get DH to agree to construction of any kind around here though. But it is a great idea. At this point I think I'll get something inexpensive but functional and then find out about having something built for the "official" entry hall area. If I make it longer than I had originally envisioned, and have storage built in, it could work. Thanks again everyone!

I have a shoe storage cabinet in my bedroom. It is basically a book shelf. Mine is 14 inches wide and it holds my husbands size 11 shoes as well as my own. Before I had it built I measured the biggest pair of shoes then measured from the heel up and added 1 inch to see how far apart to make the shelves. Some of my shelves are 6 inches from the top of the shelf to the top of the next shelf, giving my about 5 1/2 space between the shelves. These hold my husbands shoes and my heels. I have 2 shelves like this and the other 3 are an inch smaller in space. It holds 15 pairs of shoes--actually I have about 20 because sandals I stack one on top of the other I have it covered with a cloth cover I made, but it would be an easy matter to add doors with european hinges. If you want to make it narrower you could slant the shelves and add a cleat to catch the heels of the shoes.

Thanks for the ideas! I can't mount cabinets there though due to the air return vent, it will have to be something freestanding that will allow the air to circulate and also could be moved out of the way when servicing the furnace or water heater. Unless I get really creative with the hack and redirect the air vent around and through a toekick, but I am feeling a bit of project burn-out right now at the tail end of this renovation and just want an easy quick solution :) Here's an old, not great photo of the area. The frame shown is the furnace/water heater closet. We are replacing the bifold door with 2 french doors solid core, so I can mount a shelf and hooks on those, and the new doors will muddle the sounds of the gas appliances better. Below the funny closet door is the return air vent for the furnace - in this photo is is hidden by this shoe rack we used temporarily when we first moved in. We later had a hall tree storage bench, and we did like keeping our shoes in it but they were all a jumble and not organized. We do have a hall closet as well, but it's mostly converted to a cat litter room - has a cat door in the door and the litter boxes are in there, but there is room to install something to organize shoes, like an ikea closet thing... just not sure if DH would bother opening the closet and putting away his shoes inside rather than dumping into a storage bench. We can certainly use the closet for out of season stuff, and only need a small amount of storage for 2 pairs of shoes each in the entry.

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.