Don't Judge This House By Its Front Entrance

I know I have mentioned a few times that eventually Ryan and I want to build a super awesome front hall storage bench/closet.  But I have never actually shown our front hall in its current state.... SO let me do that first before I explain what my future plan is for our front entrance!  This is here what our front hall looks like 50% of the time.... the other 50% of the time there are shoes everywhere and coats hanging on the stair banister!

I LOVE the slate tiles in the front hall. And I LOVE the black front door, I think it looks amazing!!  I also LOVE the light fixture.  As you can see from the photo above the table my dad made us for the hall in the old house fits PERFECTLY next to the stairs and radiator in the hall and I love it there!  The problem we have is storage since there is no closet! So we have temporarily used what we had on hand.

That is an Ikea Aneboda Wardrobe that I have had since 2nd year university!!  I'm actually shocked it has lasted that long... we all know how well Ikea products last when moved a million times. That wardrobe has lived in 2 apartments, 2 storage units and 2 houses being moved a total of 7 times!!  In the last house we had it in the living room temporarily and it was moved to the basement for the majority of the time we lived there.  It works for now but it doesn't tie in with anything!!  Next to it we used the storage cabinet that we bought for the bathroom in the old house.  It moved from there to the bedroom in the old house for a little while and now it is in the front hall housing Norah shoes, my purses and random other things.  The baskets above the wardrobe have all our hats, mitts, scarves, umbrellas and other accessories.  Here is the other side of the front hall which I have actually hung art on.

Now lets get to 'THE PLAN'.  To start off we have decided to go for a non-closet/closet.... We don't have the room for a proper closet so we will be using hooks.  This will also limit the number of jackets we can have at the front door which is JUST FINE WITH ME!! Means I can't buy 100 jackets and saves money :-) I do however want to have a side cubby with a small door to hide all those things you just don't know what to do with.  I LOVE this front hall idea!!

(source: http://www.houzz.com/photos/users/countrywillow)

However I would like cabinet doors hiding the cubbies above like this idea. And I also like the layout of the shoe storage here a little better.

(source: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/159902?d=0&w=48055)

Just to add more complexity to my project I really like the look of using an old door as the back piece for the front hall like these!!

(source: http://buildingblocksintupelo.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/love-these-doors/)

After looking at what we have lying around the house a few weeks ago Ryan and I discovered we may just have almost everything we need on hand to do this project!!!  This is what I'm thinking right now...mind you I haven't measured a thing yet so it may not work out as I have planned in my head!!  Ultimately we are going for the look in the first photo but with doors instead of beadboard for the backing and doors on the cabinets above. 

We have about 5 old doors of various sizes in the basement already we just have to pick 2 of them to use.  We also have some old kitchen cabinets in the basement that are being used as extra storage in the laundry room which we don't need down there. Those would work perfectly as the cubbies above for hats/mitts/bags etc.  One of the cabinets already has doors we would have to figure somethign out for the other cabinet.  For the bench we actually have an old piano bench that we have been holding onto. I think it would work perfectly as a bench and we could build some built in storage next to it to make it longer.  Once everything is built we can add trim to make it look like a complete built in!  I figure this is the perfect fall/winter project so don't expect any progress on this until then. But I'm excited!!  OH for colour I plan on painting it white and adding some fun splashes of colour maybe in material for a cushion for the bench or with fun handles/hooks!