Sweet Disarray

Hallway Makeover at Craftpad

go through phases with IKEA - I love it. I hate it. It inspires me. It bores me. It's cheap (good). It looks cheap (bad).

But I'm totally loving the simple, functional look of this hallway. It's hard to make shoe storage look good, but these IKEA Hemnes shoe cabinets look good.

I also really love the coat rack at child-level. I'm trying to teach C to be responsible for his things and to foster in him the sense that he is capable of doing things independently (like take off his own jacket and hang it up, for instance). He's not yet ready to hang things up in a closet, but he could totally hang his stuff on a little hook at his level.

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I hate to do this before things are final, but I can't help it; I'm moving into our (possible, probable, pretty please make it happen) house in my head. Nearly all the houses we looked at we're smallish and had no "entry way" to speak of, you just walk right into the living room. I have a feeling that creating an organized landing space for us will be one of the first design challenges I'll have once we move in to our new place.

You see, we are shoes off folks. Apart from it just feeling way weird to wear shoes in the house, it helps keep the cream-colored carpets in our current house a little bit cleaner. It does not help, however, with the piles of crap that tends to pile around the front door. Especially during the winter when we are shedding coats and scarves, not to mention the usual shoes, purse, wallet, cell phone, keys, mail, etc., the entry way becomes very cluttered. It's only mildly irritating, but somewhere in the back of my mind are always ideas for making it better. But after nearly three years in this place, I finally have an entry area that I'm at least somewhat satisfied with.

Currently we have a wicker basket filled only with the children's shoes right next to the door (this idea, as dorky as it sounds, was from an interview with Julia Roberts in Redbook or something...so, um, thanks Julia!). This works really well because the kids can easily find their own shoes (even little K) and C can even put his away without worrying about keep pairs together. It's also cute, but only because their shoes are tiny and adorable.

The boys' shoes

And after a long and tortuous search, Yubo and I settled on the uber-simple Tjusig rack from IKEA (ours is natural wood, which I guess is no longer available) as a coat/key rack. On my very first visit to the Rose Bowl Flea Market months ago, I happened upon what I think is an old piano chair, which I snatched up for a song and now use as a little bench to sit on while putting on shoes (though it often just serves as another surface to hold our various crap). Yubo and my shoes get put away in a hanging shoe rack in the coat closet except for one or two pairs each, which I fight constantly to keep tucked away under the piano bench.

Our entry area...don't you just love the 80s-era glass blocks?

It's not perfect. I want to reupholster the piano bench, maybe even paint it. And we need a better system for the grown-up shoes, but all in all it's pretty cute, functional and moderately organized. I think I can transfer most of it over to the new place without too much fuss, but I think one of those Hemnes shoe cabinets will work well alongside. It'll make a nice landing place for the mail, our cellphones and Yubo's keys and wallet too.

You know this is just the beginning of what I'm sure will be an extended period of nesting as we re-settle. I'm almost giddy with anticipation!