What would this furnishing be called

August 22, 2024 7:11 AM

My stupid apartment doesn't have a coat closet or an entry hall, so I am searching for a piece of furniture that will kind of take the place of these -- minus the coats. What would this item be called? "Wardrobe" does not seem to be it. Details below the fold.

So, we are looking for a piece of furniture that will hold within it: shoes, hats/gloves (in baskets or boxes, or it could have drawers), maybe some dog stuff (leashes, harnesses). I would like something with doors because I am getting irritated by staring at our everyday shoes all the time. So an open shoe rack type thing is no good.

(Our coats will live on hooks on a different wall.)

It needs to be no more than like ~4 feet tall, because there's a built-in light fixture on the wall where it will go, and we're renters, so we can't remove it. Also I like the idea of the top of it being a landing strip for keys and mail.

What is this thing called? Wardrobe and Armoire turn up pieces that are just too big, and mostly for hanging clothes. Shoe cabinet turns up stuff more specialized than we need. Is there another better term? And bonus points if you can recommend a specific item!

posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese to Home & Garden (19 answers total)

Looks like "entryway cabinet" or accent cabinet turn up this sort of thing.
posted by restless_nomad at 7:13 AM on August 22

For shoes, unsurprisingly IKEA has you covered: Hemnes Shoe Cabinet. Other pieces in the line will take care of the rest.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:28 AM on August 22

Could you use an Ikea Kallax in the 2x2 formation, with your preferred combination of inserts/accessories? It's available in a variety of finishes, with a variety of inserts, and it's not too expensive. It's 30.5" square so it fits the height requirement, and deep enough that you could easily add baskets/whatever to use as a landing strip.
posted by notquitejane at 7:47 AM on August 22

A search term that may be fruitful for you is "mudroom locker"

Me personally I have a coat tree and a little side table...and an open shoe rack. Obviously part of that won't work for you but I love having a coat tree right by the door.
posted by phunniemee at 7:53 AM on August 22

I found my small storage furniture by searching for things like "shoe cupboard", "hallway cupboard", "shoe cabinet" and "storage bench" on places like Amazon and Etsy. Granted, I did have to scroll past a lot of overly specialised shoe cabinets to find ones that just had flat shelves.

I have a feeling "cupboard" in this context may be a UK thing, but searching amazon.com for "shoe cupboard" still got me this ("Galano Lucca 12 Pair Shoe Storage Cabinet"), for instance. That one's probably a bit lower than you'd prefer, but at least it proves that little pieces of hallway furniture with doors and shelves do exist.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:27 AM on August 22

(the problem is that we literally only have room for ONE piece of furniture, so it must be all things to all purposes. There's no room for a shoe cabinet And a coat rack And a table.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:50 AM on August 22

Coat rack. I got a shelf from Ikea that has a coat rail attached and several hooks. Hats go on top, scarves on the hooks.
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:52 AM on August 22

Also, note that the IKEA Hemnes cabinet linked above requires mounting to a wall, which may not be an option for renters.
posted by xedrik at 8:52 AM on August 22

Hammachler-Schlemmer has something they call a tower cloakroom.
posted by pollytropos at 9:12 AM on August 22

We had this problem in a previous apartment. We got this thing that was a coat rack with hooks above, a bench/table, and open shoe storage under the bench, but I don't recall where we bought it. Searching for entryway coat rack with shoe bench produces a lot of promising results, from basic to fairly nice.
posted by indexy at 9:27 AM on August 22

My elderly southern grandmother would tell you, this piece of furniture is known as a chifferobe. It's different from an armoire, because an armoire is solely for hanging items, whereas a chifferobe has drawers and shelves. (I know this, because I got a lecture on proper furniture in southern households when I was a kid reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and I asked about what Mayella was asking Tom to do.)
posted by decathecting at 9:35 AM on August 22

The term I have seen and used to find something similar is a "hall tree".
posted by SirNovember at 10:00 AM on August 22

(Peeps, Blast Hardcheese has said coats will be stored elsewhere and whatever the furniture item is to hold the things they listed needs to be 4' tall or shorter.)

Honestly, when we had a similar entryway situation (very limited height and width), we put a nightstand/nighttable there. It had one drawer which we used as the place for our wallets and keys; there was empty space below the drawer where we put a basket for our shoes; the mail sorter went on top. We kept our hats and gloves in respective coat pockets (and the coats lived elsewhere), so the puffy mittens and chullos went in the puffer coats, the lobster claws and skullcap went in my winter biking jacket, the leather gloves and nicest-looking snow hat went in the wool coat, the knit gloves in the fleece, etc. But depending on the drawer size, you might use the drawer to store such clothing accessories and just put wallet keys phone in a landing strip up top. I'd look for a "tall nightstand" because some nightstands are really low; ours has a top surface height about 30"/waist level on me.

More stylish friends repurposed a bar cabinet like this. Shoes in a basket underneath, accessories in the various storage compartments.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 10:21 AM on August 22

Wayfair has several examples of console tables w/built-in (closed) shoe racks.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:09 AM on August 22

Yes, mudroom bench or entryway bench with storage is what I would term it. My friends have something like this one with pullout baskets and trays added for storage. Here's an example of one on etsy where they will personalize it with doors if requested.
posted by gudrun at 11:35 AM on August 22

One thing I would suggest googling is "open back hall tree" because it might give you some flexibility with your light fixture while still having a structure tall enough to hold coats but have decent storage below it.

Something like this would allow you to create a landing spot or two on those side shelves. You could probably get away with simply building it without whichever of those wooden sections would interfere with your light fixture. You probably need one of them for structural integrity, but I doubt both of them are needed for that. Add baskets as desired for mitten storage.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:58 AM on August 22

This Wayfair shoe cabinet is 38" high, only 9" deep, and could be used to store all kinds of items, not just shoes. A long tray on top could hold keys and mail.
posted by Elsie at 12:00 PM on August 22

Holy cow, for the price I would think that one of those Wayfair items in the link Iris Gambol provided would work just tickity-boo. A couple baskets would set you up nicely for hats and dog items. As a though, if you find one you like that's listed as too tall, perhaps it would be possible to take off the legs.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:42 PM on August 22

I also vote for "entryway cabinet" as a search term.
posted by praemunire at 6:15 PM on August 22