Hall cupboard ideas please

[NamedyChangedy]

We're carving out a small room from our dining room to make a small cupboard in our narrow Victorian terrace. It's about 1.2 x 1.2m, with nice high ceilings.

The idea is that it should stop the mess of coats, wellies, book bags etc in the hallway and on the bannister.

At the moment the door opens into the cupboard so our builder has suggested we get a bi-folding door instead, opening outwards. We'll therefore have the whole space to work with.

But how do we arrange storage inside the cupboard? We'll need lots of hooks, racks, rails, shoe drawers etc. I'd normally look at Pinterest but am struggling to find the exact type of thing I'm after. Does anyone have a lovely organised cupboard they can show me?

We have a hall cupboard that’s about the width of a double wardrobe. One hanging rail for all our coats, and three wooden slatted shelves underneath for all the shoes. Box sits on the top shelf to store hats and gloves etc. and everyday bags sit on the top shelf too.

Thanks Doctor - roughly how high is your hanging rail? I'm thinking I need to have the rail / knobs low enough so that the DCs can hang up their own things, otherwise I'll have to do it for them.

Look at the new shelving system from ikea called Elvarli. Im going next week to buy some to put in our hall cupboard! It will have shelves and a coat rack and hooks on the outside. Its self-supporting so no drilling holes in walls.
Pic attached of what Ive designed

Thanks @MrsBossyPants - would be great to see some pictures once you've installed yours! I had thought I'd get a joiner to knock up something but very open to ikea if they have something versatile enough to fit the space we have...

The rail is pretty high tbh. Not really child friendly height. You could have some hooks on one side that children could reach? And hang out of season coats on the high rail?

A bit off topic and impractical but I would be so tempted to line it with pretty wallpaper.

I think in a cupboard I'd go with open shoe racks rather than drawers or cubbies. Easy access is crucial so your storage solution is used. Old fashioned hat and coat pegs with 2 hooks are useful for storing multiple items, and put 2 or 3 shelves across the top where you can add light baskets or boxes for gubbins. Child height hooks are vital. Child gubbins could live in a set of small hanging cubbies designed for shoe storage, hanging off a rail, or a built in version like those little filler wineracks you get for built in kitchens. Have fun!

Is this an alcove of some sort or would you be closing of a corner of a room? If the latter, then a freestanding one might look a lot smarter and not break the proportions of the room.

If it’s an alcove of some sort, then I’d make a list of what you want to store, measure how long your coats are etc and design it from there.

@JoJoSM2 - good plan, I haven't actually gone through that process of listing everything that will need to be stored. Will do that.

@SingingMySong ooh yes, I'm extremely open to pretty wallpaper! Especially as it's such a small space I could probably get something quite lavish. Would love to see some examples for inspiration, as I'm suffering from decision fatigue now..

Finally got to ikea today and got this ELVARLI unit.
Easy to assemble, doesn’t need screwing to the wall, feels really solid and likely to last for years.

@MrsBossyPants it looks great, you must be so pleased!