Before and After: A $100 Project Transforms a Cluttered Entryway

入口通道有一个艰巨的任务:他们需要平衡being both beautiful and welcoming while also being super functional and organized. It’s a tall order! Nida Mirza (Nimistyle) found that her entryway wasn’t exactly living up to the needs of her family. The biggest problem was the pile of shoes at the door. “I believe that if I need to move things out of the way to take a picture, then those things don’t belong there to begin with, and that is exactly what was happening with our entry,” Nida says. “It was completely nonfunctional with shoe piles I was constantly moving around.”

Without the shoes there, it was nice enough—but, Nida says, lacking style. “The space was decorated minimally, which is what I strive for, but had no design,” she says. “We spent so much time working on the rest of our home that the entry kept moving down the renovation list.” But with the youngest of their three children now walking, Nida was ready to problem solve. “we knew it was time to tackle this space before we drowned in our shoes.”

With less than $100 in materials, Nida created a custom shoe storage solution that neatly organized everyone’s sneakers while also providing a focal point in the entry. “We needed a shoe storage system that could be managed by all of us—including my 2 year old—and it needed to be visually appealing. It’s the first thing you see when you enter our home and first impressions matter,” she says. While it took her family a couple months to finish, as they were balancing other projects, she says with focus you could knock it out in a weekend.

Nida created enough room to stow all the family’s shoes, plus a little extra. “The best thing we did is take inventory of all the shoes we own as a family and then we built these shelves with room to spare for guest shoes or any new shoe purchases,” she says. “No point in doing all this work if shoes were going to still pile up on the floor.”

The clever diamond shapes for the middle shoes make this feel a little more elevated than a simple cubby. Nida also built in clever side pockets that are tall enough to house boots.

“I love the functionality it brings into our entry but it still makes me heart jump at how good it looks,” Nida says. “Who would have thought a shoe storage system could give me butterflies and I have to do nothing to maintain it!”

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