Designing an entryway that works for you

The entryway is the room you cross most often and design least. You come in with the shopping, shoes soaked from November rain, the post, the gym bag and the coat you have no time to hang up. In a few square metres everything has to fit: the family's shoes, seasonal jackets, keys, umbrella, sometimes a buggy. Without storage planned for that reality, the entry zone becomes a pile — and it sets the tone for the whole home, usually the wrong one. The good news is that no entryway is too small to work. This guide treats it as a proper domestic workstation: the functions it has to cover, the ergonomics that make it effortless, the materials that survive daily wear, and what separates a bespoke cloakroom from a simple shoe rack.

The most used room in the house, and the least designed

An entryway is a place of transit: you pass through it twenty times a day and never stay. That is precisely why it is rarely treated as a room in its own right. Yet everything that enters the home passes through it: it is the airlock between outside and intimate, between dirty and clean, between shared and private. Every small friction there repeats thousands of times a year — a coat that slides off, a pair of shoes left across the walkway, a bag dumped on the floor for want of a surface. A well-planned entryway does the opposite: every object has an obvious place, reachable without effort and closable out of sight. You save time, you save calm, and you stop pushing the clutter into the living room.

The six functions every entryway has to cover

Before talking about style, list what the entryway must absorb each day. A good one covers six functions, and neglecting a single one is enough to throw the whole zone off:

• Drop: a surface to put down a bag, a parcel or the post — the function most often forgotten.
• Hang: hooks or a rail at a useful height, never higher than the hand reaches without raising the arm.
• Sit: a stable seat to take shoes off, plus storage at eye level for the shoes in use today.
• Store: niches or closed drawers for seasonal pairs, bags and accessories — closed, because clutter shows.
• Check: an exit mirror, ideally in one piece, and light that illuminates the face rather than the floor.
• Protect: a floor that absorbs water and grit, and a mat that marks the zone without blocking the passage.

Bespoke joinery, or an off-the-shelf unit?

A shop-bought hall unit is designed for an average room and average needs: one depth, one height, a fixed number of hooks. But in Swiss homes entryways are rarely average: a 90 cm corridor, a recess under the staircase, a door that opens against the wall, a heating column to work around. An off-the-shelf unit forces you to compromise with those constraints, usually leaving gaps and giving up depth exactly where it would help. Bespoke joinery does the opposite: it follows the exact dimension of the room, rises to the ceiling to create high storage (suitcases, winter coats, reserves), and groups into a single volume functions that the catalogue splits across several pieces. A cloakroom drawn to your dimensions regularly turns an unusable corridor into a complete entryway without giving up a centimetre of circulation.

A good entryway is a place where you never hesitate: the hand finds the hook, the foot finds the bench, the shoe finds its niche. Everything else — colour, handle, timber — comes after.

Ergonomics and dimensions: the numbers that change everything

The entryway is a space of quick gestures, often with your hands full. A few simple references are enough to make it comfortable every day:

• Hook height: within reach without raising the arm, with a higher rail reserved for long coats.
• Seat: a bench around 45 cm high, stable, with enough clearance to slide your hands under it.
• Depth: about 30 cm for shoes and bags, a little more to hang coats facing you.
• Clear passage: never go below the width that lets two people pass comfortably, even in a narrow corridor.
• Free surface: always keep one empty plane at hip height for what you carry in while holding something else.

Materials and floors: what survives daily use

The entryway takes what few rooms have to: water, grit, wet shoes, bags dropped down, doors knocked open, sometimes direct sun. So it is the room where you must be pragmatic before decorative. On the floor, choose a surface that forgives: porcelain stoneware, matt natural stone, polished concrete, or an oak floor with good protection paired with an entry mat with a raised edge. On the furniture, melamine or laminate panels with solid edges absorb scuffs and wipe clean in one stroke; oiled timber ages beautifully and can be refreshed with a light sanding; solid metal hooks and handles hold far better than light copies. One detail that changes everything: shoe niches need ventilation, or the entryway keeps a stale smell that spoils the first impression.

Narrow corridor, family, rental: three real cases

Three situations come up again and again. A narrow entryway: forget the unit and go for height — high storage, low drawers and a slim all-in-one column fixed to the wall. A family entryway: the sheer volume of shoes and jackets dictates the design; plan wide and ventilated, with a height children can reach and boxes that are easy to pull out. A rented flat: favour reversible elements, set down or lightly fixed, that will leave without a trace. In all three cases the rule is the same: plan the circulation first, then the storage — never the other way round.

What a cloakroom built to your dimensions changes

A bespoke cloakroom does more than store: it removes a daily friction. You come in, hang, sit, drop, and go out again without a detour or a second thought. The room feels calmer, belongings last longer because they are stored properly, and the first impression your home makes becomes the one you intended. It is often the smallest fitting-out spend that changes everyday life the most. Budget ranges vary widely with the width of the wall, the available height and the finishes; as with any bespoke piece, ask for a detailed quote based on real dimensions rather than a price per metre, and have it state what is included — manufacture, hooks, lighting, installation and making good.