Saturday 12 November 2011

A cry for (shoe-storage) help

I know you readers, you're full of imagination and come up with the most wonderful things. Now, read closely, because I'm counting on this skill of yours to help me out. Big problem in the Petit Filoux household. We don't know what to do with our shoes once we come in through the front door.

Now, I appreciate this may sound a little odd, but work with me here. When we used to live in our old flat, we had a fairly wide entrance and were able to put one of those little wooden shoe shelves in a corner. Not the most beautiful pieces of furniture, but practical. However in the house, the entrance is really small (it's a cottage after all), and in the four months we've been here, we haven't been able to come up with a viable solution. Let me explain it to you. A little sketch might help? I thought so. Here's an aerial view of the entrance:


What we've done so far is pile up the shoes behind the door (see my wonderful additions to the drawing in green), creating little towers until you actually can't get out the front door. Not good. I'm prepared to be disciplined and only have a couple of pairs each out at once (day shoes/ trainers for example), but even that, well that's 8 shoes that need to fit in somehow. I've looked all over the place (shops/ internet) for clever solutions but haven't seen anything that would suit us just yet. As you can see, there's not much space on either side of the front door either, which means once you step out of the porch, you're effectively in the living room. And once I close the curtain which separates the porch from the room, I don't want to be looking at shoes near my sofa.

That's where you come in! Would you please have a look at my sketch and try and help me? If you have any sort of suggestion, particular shops to check out, something to make even, I'm all ears! We need help!!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to give you a link to Lakeland Ltd - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/4/around-the-home-storage-%26-organisers-clothes-%26-shoe-storage-shoe-storage/c03c03c04c02.r16.1 where you can see their shoe storage solutions but I'm not certain that it will help. Can you not take your shoes off at the door and carry them inside or, perhaps fit narrow shelves to the wall where you indicate 'foot mat'? They wouldn't need to be eye height, maybe knee height?

Rachel said...

Hmm, that's a tricky one. The only thing that springs to mind is that Ikea sell some very shallow/slim shoe cabinets that I think you can fix to a wall or, if not, at least would tuck the shoes out of sight and wouldn't look too unsightly? But we've never used them ourselves so I can't vouch for how useful they are in practice.

Ali said...

We have exactly the same issue at our back door. Please tell me if you find a solution. We've just become used to a door which doesn't open fully.

Don't suppose your bay window could have a window seat with a hinged lid which you could store the shoes in, could it?

Georgie said...

I stumbled across your blog and your shoe dilemma! I recently began a property blog and one of my posts is about using DVD units for storage - one is in a hallway - you may find it useful. Would it be possible to put one or two deep shelves at a high level and store the shoes in some decorative boxes or baskets? Good luck!

Heather said...

http://pinterest.com/pin/300730398/

something like that?

Liz said...

How about shoe pockets (see example here: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9328350.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=tsid:11527|cc:|prd:9328350|cat:home+and+furniture+%2F+storage+and+shelving+%2F+shoe+storage+%2F#pdpProductReviews). This one hangs on the back of the door.

Or you could make one!

Unknown said...

how about a basket with a lid? you could always put magazines or books on top and nobody would know...