It’s been a relief to finally manage to tackle our useless hallway. Impractical, frequently piled high with coats, shoes, bags and other assorted items, this area definitely needed some serious attention, and so was perfect fodder for the storage challenge set by the Tots100 Home Club in association with Homebase.
Here’s how we got on…
The antique church pew we bought from eBay was the starting point, and suits our home much better now it has had a coat of Dulux Misty Mountain matt emulsion from Homebase. It’s a great spot to perch, and there’s even space behind to hide away household items like the ironing board. Teamed with an old shelving unit which held cookbooks in our old kitchen, that was all the furniture we needed in the hallway.
Here’s where we stored our problem items:
SHOES: The adult shoes (most frequently worn, with the remainder being stored upstairs) are kept on the shelving unit, where they’re easy to grab in a hurry. The kids’ shoes are in the red storage basket under the pew so that they can easily access them.
COATS: These live on the coat hooks (from John Lewis), where they dry off quickly thanks to the radiator below. The twins have a low-level hook each to keep their own coats and lunch bags within their reach.
KEYS, SPARE CHANGE ETC: We pop these in a basket higher up on the shelving unit (so small people can’t reach them). The loose change is separated into tea, coffee and sugar canisters from Habitat (I keep a different pot for each of our main cash expenses).
POST: Lost bills etc are a thing of the past now that we each have our own in-trays. All we have to do now is find time to sort through our pile of mail regularly enough.
HATS, WATERPROOFS ETC: In the purple basket (from Homebase) under the pew so there’s no scrabbling around looking for them when we’re off to the park. I’ve stored winter hats away for the warmer months (although the recent weather has made me question the wisdom in this).
PHONE BOOK, MAPS OF LOCAL AREA, SAT NAV: These things used to be piled up in a corner somewhere, but now they live in the bread bins on the floating shelf (all from Homebase). I’ve also popped any annual season passes we own in a little purse in one of the bins to try to avoid the mad panic to find them when we should have left five minutes ago.
GRAB & GO BAG: The drawstring bag on one of the coat hooks is stocked with spare clothes for the twins, the snack box, baby wipes and sun cream. I aim to make sure this bag is always stocked and ready to go so that I can just grab it when we’re on our way out.
The only thing I wanted to do, but ran out time to, was to make a seat pad for the pew. But this project won’t get forgotten – it’s gone on the to do list and I’ll be getting on with it sooner rather than later, as I think it’ll finish off the whole area.
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- low hooks for kids
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- Money pots
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- shoe baskets
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- coat storage
Wow that is such an amazing trasformation! I love it xx
Author
Thanks Liz. I keep going out into the hallway to gaze at it in wonder – never has our hall looked so tidy (and it will probably never look this tidy ever again!).
that looks AMAZING!!!!! I’ve been after a church pew or 2 for a while now…one for the hall and 2 for using in the dining room…….
You did a FAB job!
Author
Thanks so much! We watched loads on eBay before we ended up with this one (which I love). We were really strict with our budget as we really couldn’t overspend on it, so we lost out on quite a few when the bids went too high. Bit of patience paid off though and I think this one is perfect.
Wow, I love your hallway, it’s like something straight out of a magazine!
Top marks, this has given me and I’m sure many more, plenty of inspiration.
Author
Thanks so much – what a lovely comment
Gorgeous. Really spacious, airy and light. Love the colour and am very impressed with your organisational skills!
Author
My organisational skills still lurk in the depths of my mind somewhere post-twins…
Oh I love the way you’ve used the church pew! We got one and now I know what to do with it!! Thanks!
Author
Perfect hallway seating. Good luck!
That’s gorgeous Heather! Very jealous of it, it’s so lovely and light too.
Author
Thanks. I’m desperately trying to keep the clutter from taking over once more.
Wow, that is beautiful, I love the colours and all the storage ideas. I wish my hallway was wide enough for a seat (I’m in a Victorian terrace, so we’ve got a very narrow hallway). Lots of ideas for the next house (when we find one with a bigger hall)
Author
Our last house was a Victorian terrace with a narrow hallway (so narrow in fact that I couldn’t get the double buggy into it when the twins were born!). No space for seating, but you can still have some nice shelves for storage.
Wow – it looks so good – you’re inspiring me with this to get our hall sorted. Really like the bread bin idea as you can’t avoid having some things around so better to accommodate them than fight it!
Author
The hall just becomes such a dumping ground doesn’t it? I’m not sure how long we’ll keep on top of the clutter here. Five minutes?!
I really love what you’ve done in your hallway. The use of bread bins and tea canisters in the hall are inspired!!!!!!! Really, really well done you. Lots of tips for me to use to sort the mountain of junk covering my beautiful old pew!
Author
Thanks so much Eve. Rescue that pew from the junk!
I love this, especially the bright colours you used. It really is great to get stuff like this organised, it makes life that bit easier.
Author
I’ve found it’s given the whole house a lift since we got it organised. It’s lovely that it’s the first thing you see when you get home.
Wow, that’s amazing, it looks like one of those magazine makeovers!
I’ve got an old church pew that’s looking a bit sad, and you’re inpsired me to paint it – I might even use the same colour paint as you, thanks!
Author
I’m really happy with the paint colour. Go for it! I want to see…
LOVE IT ! I thought you were going to say you bought the bench from homebase for a minute : )
Love the colours and all the little places to hide the clutter especially the bread bins.
Fab job xxx
Author
Haha, sadly not! I guess you could do similar with a garden bench though.
I want to come over!!!!!!!
Author
Just name a time madam…
Hello Northernmum – how did you manage to change your ‘snowflake-type-thing’ into Kermit?
I absolutely love your transformation. It looks so stylish and practical! Now time for me to start trying to tidy up my own hallway.
Author
Thanks so much. It’s really motivating me to keep tidy.
Really great transformation Heather. Lovely colours!
Author
Thanks Jen. I’m embracing colour at the moment!
Wow, this is AMAZING. I love the bread bin storage idea and that church pew is such a find. Lovely to see you still have the Plan the Perfect magic Mrs Young 🙂
*sobs nostalgically*
Author
Oh it was so like doing a Plan the Perfect. *joins in sobbing*
Wow, looks great. Wish we had room for a seat, but too many doors in the wrong place and radiator to have room for that. Like the breadbin ideas.
Author
There is actually a radiator behind that bench!
Storage Baskets are very common in our homes, when it comes to storage baskets, i always use those storage baskets that uses steel or copper wires because they last longer. ;*;`” Yours trully illnesses page
Love your hallway transformation – might do mine now!
That is fabulous. I wish we had a hallway – our front door just opens into the living room. But we could still make some improvements in our shoe, hat and coat storage. Love the idea of having a bench to sit on for putting shoes on, too.
What a great idea. I LOVE this!!!! So cool!