Thread: mud room shoe storage ideas

I've always liked mud rooms and regret that they're so uncommon in modern Oz homes... although to me a 'real' mud-room is sorta like an air-lock, helping to keep the heat in - or out of - the rest of the house.

They're also a great place for hat & coat racks. Here in Oz we may not have the snows of Canada but many's the time I've come home with muddy boots, a dripping wet coat and hat and had to do the unhappy dance on the welcome mat, trying to shed them before stepping indoors onto the carpet.

(That's a bloody silly idea, carpeting right up to the front door. Especially in rural homesteads. One o' the joys of living in rentals, I guess. )

Anyways, I digress...

I dislike bottom mounted hinges for these situations, as no matter how clean you are someone will eventually drop in a pair of shoes with a bit of crud stuck to the bottom. This will inevitably dry, fall off and work itself into the hinge where it's a pita to clean out.

Personally I've always preferred pairs of swinging doors with shoe shelves mounted on the inner faces. (Side frames with slats between, to allow for air-flow, etc.) I also prefer not to have any shelves in the cupboard itself, so taller shoes (work-boots, gum boots, etc.) can be stood in the back w/out the need for custom sized shelves just for them.


At the moment we have a free-standing flatpak shoe cupboard which works reasonably well but is... well... obviously a flatpak.

The doors open similarly to how you have it envisaged except that they pivot in the middle, rather than the bottom. Which neatly avoids the whole muck in hinges scenario.

Thanks for the feed back, side hinges might work, though i dont know if i want to swing open a 600mm door to get shoes out, especially if they're going to be stored vertically, you will need to fully open them tonget your shoes.

But yeah i suppose its not a proper traditional mud room to keep heat in, its just what we call our entrance way and i think any full length cupboards may have enclosed the area too much

In the big place I’m building now they want a slatted rack to put shoes and boots on with a slide out tray under to catch the muck and empty it easily