Hallway shelves can so easily become a catch-all where all design rules are thrown out and more is more. The problem with that is that your eye has nowhere to rest visually- when you look that way your eye wants to look away instead of rest on the view of the shelves.
So, I will admit I saw this idea on Pinterest and randomly pinned it for a someday project. Does anybody else have a folder of pins for "someday" inspiration that brings them such joy and inspiration when you just sit and review it all the way down to the original pin? I am old school and used to collect all kinds of magazines and torn idea pages. The love of my life is delighted that Pinterest came along and the piles of magazines I just had to keep are gone. Anyhow...
Back to my client's hallway wall. There was a lot going on in this client's upstairs hallway and she needed more covered storage. Landing on this solution didn't require much convincing- we had a foundation with built-in shelves and just needed to upgrade them. It was going to visually brighten up the space as well as tuck everything away from view.
We did the math that would make all the small 'drawers' so we would have beautiful symmetry in our design. I asked my builder/handy guy to create solid cabinet doors, to fit the space, with some slightly rounded edges and hidden hinges, I believe he used MDF.
Next was all the small 'drawer' fronts; the payoff on this is worth it, I promise. A thinner MDF can work here, no splinters just lots of sanding. This set of cabinets was larger than most, I was very thankful someone else was doing my sanding, painting and details. If you're doing this as a DIY, stay consistent in your finishes and lay everything out first before starting to attach.
Attach the 'drawer' fronts so nothing shows to carry off the illusion; from the back, you can drill, staple or glue (or all of the above) but plan to fill your holes before you paint (it's much easier to paint once the small 'drawers' are attached). Since the cardholder hardware is also your pull handle to open the cabinet door, you will want to make sure they are attached very well. We knew we were going to paint these as the existing shelves were already white and would only need to be trimmed out to look perfect.
I ordered all these adorable little pulls that came with adorable little screws that my handy guy was super excited about. However, to his credit, he made himself a template for the hardware holes and completed the task impressively fast!
The homeowner is a mid-west transplant so it was a clever and thoughtful touch to use an old atlas to make the inserts. These pages were mounted on thin cardboard so they stayed put and then placed where they gave the homeowner the most visual joy when they walked by or opened them up.
The bottom space became the last place to finish off and luckily the homeowner was able to find the perfect size storage bin/basket for the existing height. She is now able to store sheets and towels in those and no one is the wiser!
Our finished project now keeps all the madness contained and out of sight, leaving you to enjoy the space rather than being that tried and true catch-all. Hope you enjoyed these photos and the process dialog. Please leave a comment if you have a question!
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