Take a Seat: 8 Perches for Pausing in Your Hallway

1. Tuck it under the stairs. If you’ve run out of room in your hallway, how about using the space beneath your stairs? Knock out the doors to that awkward cabinet you can never access properly and turn it into a seating nook instead.

In this home, the designers built a cozy bench seat with cushions and installed handy shelves above it. They even incorporated a wall light to enable the owners to use the space more effectively.

2. Make it a feature. Instead of tucking your seat out of the way, you could put it on display instead. Hunt around secondhand stores to find an interesting piece that could make a feature, like this vintage upholstered telephone chair.

The owners put the seat right at the end of the hallway, so it’s on view as soon as you enter the home.

3. Go for something simple. Your hallway seat doesn’t always have to be fancy, however. In this streamlined space, a simple bench sits neatly against the wall to provide a perch for pulling on boots and doing up shoelaces.

If you go for something like this, make it comfier by popping on some padding, as these homeowners have done with a made-to-measure cushion.

4. Build a narrow bench. The space just inside the door in this hallway is quite shallow, but that didn’t stop the designers from building a practical piece of furniture. There’s just about enough room for a cushioned perch with useful drawers underneath.

Remember that your hallway seat is going to be used only briefly each time, so the criteria you would apply to a living room chair, such as a deep seat, aren’t so important.

5. Try traditional. The classic hallway seating option is a storage bench like this one. Choose a sturdy, attractive design with practical baskets below to store outerwear, and slot it neatly underneath a row of coat hooks.

To make the most of your investment, make sure you hunt around for something that’s robust and easy to keep clean.

8. Utilize a stool. Perhaps the simplest version of a hallway seat is a stool. It might be basic, but it can still be stylish, as this cool entrance demonstrates. The white stool works in the monochromatic color scheme and looks striking against the black wall.

If you’re opting for a stool, choose one that goes with the style of your space so that it doesn’t feel like an afterthought.