Sweet Parrish Place

I'm the girl with champagne taste and a tight budget

Shoe Storage in My Entryway

By 6 Comments

For those of you who are new around here and are not aware, we live in a split level home.  Now, I always said I would never live in a split level home.  They just aren’t my style.  I don’t really like the whole concept of coming in the front door and being faced with the decision of whether to go up or down right off the bat.

Not to mention the tiny little landing called my entry way.

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I guess that is what I get for saying “never”.  Here I am, living in the style of house that I vowed to never own!  Why, you ask?  Because after searching high and low for a home within our budget, in our chosen neighborhood, for quite some time, this was the best thing to come along.  We wanted to move to this neighborhood so badly that we decided this house was our chance to do so.  And we knew this was not our forever house, so here we are.

And I have not regretted it for one single moment.

Because it has made my life  So.  Much.  Easier.  That is the bottom line.  We decided that our lifestyle was more important than the house we lived in.  That our time was more valuable.

And 1 1/2 years later, here we are, Walking in to that never ending decision to go up or down.  (there is a reason for the blue painters tape on my railing)

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With such a small entryway, you can imagine the 300 pairs of shoes that accumulate right in front of my door at any given time.
I might be exaggerating, just a little.
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Well, this mamma had all she could take of tripping over shoes, not being able to open the door because of shoes.
Stinky 13 year old runner’s shoes are not pleasant.
You only have to smell them once, and the smell will stay with you for a lifetime.  Trust me.
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I have been working to try to make this tiny space more inviting.  The hallway just at the bottom of the stairs has come a very long way, and is still in progress.  I have installed Brown Paper Floors, painted the walls, and changed the ceiling light.
I decided it was time for some shoe storage in this space.  However, the possibilities were limited because of the very small area I have to work with.
So I went on the hunt.  I looked online at every option I could find.
( you might notice I changed the rug in front of my front door.  I couldn’t handle the colors of the old one anymore, and this one was rolled up in a closet, so I decided to use it for the time being.  I think I am going to paint it, fun!  For now, at least it is neutral.)
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After searching high and low, I decided that Ikea had the best options for my space.  My birthday was approaching, so I told LC this is what I wanted for my birthday.  I am the kind of girl that is perfectly happy with something I want for my house as a birthday gift.
It had to wait until after my birthday, until we had a chance to drive to our nearest Ikea, which is almost two hours away.
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I chose the Hemnes Shoe Cabinet in white.  And it was the perfect choice!  It has a small drawer in the top to hide away keys and things of that nature.  And then it has two shoe compartments that tip out like this picture below.
HEMNES Shoe cabinet with 2 compartments IKEA Helps you organize your shoes and saves floor space at the same time.
I chose white because I recently painted my front door black, and because I had plans to paint my banister black (I have painted them black since taking these pictures, I will be sharing the progress soon!)  I thought a black shoe cabinet would have been too much, but white is perfect in this space!
Have you noticed that the wall all around my new shoe cabinet is painted?  Strange, you say?  Well here is why- This shoe cabinet has to be anchored to the wall.  We have plans to paint this entire stairwell, and I decided that I did not want LC to have to install it, then uninstall it, so I quickly painted the space just around and behind the cabinet, and the baseboard.
One day, the entire stairwell will be this color.  It is called Sharkey Gray by Martha Stewart Living.  I actually bought Olympic paint from Lowes and had it color matched to this color.  I am hoping that painting this stairwell will be my Thanksgiving break project.
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Isn’t she a beauty?  The most beautiful part about her is the fact that my entryway no longer has shoes strewn all over the place.
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And it is just narrow enough that it doesn’t really get in the way.  Every time I look at this cabinet, which hides away so much ugliness and chaos, I can’t help but smile.
You might catch me staring at it lovingly from time to time, or giving it a little caress as I pass it by.  Or whispering sweet nothings to it when nobody is listening. 
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And bonus!  Another surface to decorate!  Can’t help but love that!  So here is how I styled it, using what I already had.  Only one thing new here.
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I won this little white frame during our visit to Ikea that day.  so I decided to use it to make a sweet little fall decoration.
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I framed this fall leaf (artificial), and I put a page from a book as a background to the leaf.  I used a book that I still had pages to from a book page Christmas Tree project I made for Christmas last year.
I decided to use the first page of chapter 13, since 13 is an unlucky number, and it is Halloween time.  I love the way it turned out!
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Look how small Mr. 5 Year Old is in these pictures!  He was about 2 here.  Cutest little guy ever!
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I decided to move my painted mason jar down here.  I have no idea what you call the little things I have in the jar, but they have a fall flare, don’t you think?
The blue bowl was a gift from Josefine.  It is from Sweden, and it is so pretty.  In this picture the bowl is filled with matchboxes that she also brought me from Sweden.  but I have since filled them with some nuts for fall.
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The small round basket is a perfect place to drop keys when you walk in the door.
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I am completely smitten with this new addition to my entryway.  Not only do I like the looks of it, but it makes my life easier, and I am all for that!
What solutions  have you found to corral the shoes that are taken off when people walk in the door at your house?  I could not be happier with my Ikea shoe cabinet.  I would highly recommend it.

Comments

  1. Rachel K says

    My split foyer looks exactly the same as yours! are you willing or able to send me a picture of what it looks like when the door is opened? I am worried that you cannot get downstarits easily with the door open due to it hitting the shoe cabinet.

    Thank you in advance!!

    Reply

    • Nicki says

      I no longer live in that house,But I promise you we still had plenty of room to get down the stairs when the door was open. It did not get in the way at all. It was a very shallow cabinet and perfect for a split entry! The new owner liked it so much that she purchased it from me.

      Reply

      • Kris says

        I just made an offer to a split foyer home like this one you posted because it’s in a nice neighborhood. I noticed in your statement that you don’t leave in this split foyer house anymore. I just wondered why you move out of this home you decorated nicely. I’m curious if living in split foyer home is the right choice for us.

        Reply

        • Nicki says

          The reason we moved was because we relocated to another state. Honestly, a split level home was never my home of choice, but it was in the neighborhood we wanted for the right price. So we did our best to make it our own. It worked just fine for our family!

          Reply

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