In short: what an entrance needs
A working entrance needs three zones: closed shoe storage 35 to 40 cm deep, a coat cupboard around 60 cm deep, and somewhere to sit and change shoes. Add a niche or tray for keys and post. Everything else depends on what your household actually brings home.
How to design an entrance around habits and routes is covered in our article on entrance hall design. This one is about the storage itself: dimensions, internal fittings and what must be planned before finishes so the furniture fits without compromise.
Inventory: what actually comes through the door
For a week, note what gets left by the door. Usually seasonal shoes, jackets, bags, backpacks, umbrellas, keys, post and shopping bags. Then add whatever is specific to your household: a pushchair, a scooter, a bike helmet, the dog's lead and towels. In Castelldefels you can add beach bags, a parasol and the sand that arrives with them.
Count the pairs of shoes worn daily and, separately, the seasonal ones. The first group has to live by the door; the second can go high in the cupboard or in a storeroom. That inventory, not a magazine photo, decides how many linear metres of shelving you need.
The dimensions that define the furniture
A shoe cupboard 35 to 40 cm deep takes an adult pair sideways. Tilted shelves bring the depth down to 20 or 25 cm in a narrow hall, but boots will not fit. Coats on hangers need about 60 cm, or the doors will not close. If there is no room for that, coats go on hooks in an open niche and the cupboard is kept for shoes and bags.
The passage in front of the unit must still be comfortable with a door open. In the long corridors of Eixample flats with tall ceilings, it pays to take the cupboard to the ceiling and add a top section for seasonal items. A house with a garden entrance has more room, and there a separate mudroom zone by the garden door, apart from the main entrance, makes sense.
The bench: seat and storage in one
A bench about 45 cm high does two jobs: sitting to change shoes and storing everyday footwear under the seat. Drawers under the bench work better than an open shelf, because the shoes are hidden and do not gather dust. The seat depth of 35 to 40 cm matches the shoe cupboard, so the bench is often an extension of the same carcass.
Above the bench, leave room for two or three hooks for things taken off for a minute: a handbag, a scarf, a school backpack. If there is a mirror above it, place it for the height of someone sitting and someone standing, and aim the light so it does not dazzle.
Closed fronts and concealed doors
The entrance is the first thing you see and, in open layouts, it is also visible from the living room. Closed fronts keep a sense of order even when the inside is not perfect. Only daily items stay open: hooks, a key tray and one shelf.
A good device is fronts flush with the wall, handleless and in the wall colour. That is how we handled the doors in the child psychology centre in the Eixample: 24 concealed doors that read as wall. In an entrance the same principle turns the cupboard into a calm surface, and a narrow corridor does not look any narrower.
What to plan before finishes
Interior lighting with a door sensor, a light over the bench, a socket inside the cupboard to charge a phone or a cordless vacuum: all of this needs cable in the wall before plastering. If a cordless vacuum will live in the cupboard, the socket goes in that specific section, not wherever suits the electrician.
A shoe cupboard needs ventilation: vents in the plinth or perforations in the back panel. Another common mistake is an entrance door that hits the cupboard or bench when it opens. Check the door swing on the plan before ordering. We take the furniture measurement after plastering, when the walls are already true.