Small Space Solution

Sometimes I have ideas that range from smart to genius. Let's file this one under "clever."

Just as you enter the front door of the Hundred Acre House, you encounter a small coat closet. It is
not only narrow (more slender than normal door) and shallow (as one would expect from a closet), but it is also short. The door, while thinner than most, is still a normal height. But when you open it, you find a shelf just above knee level. This is because the closet is using up some of the space above the stairs that lead to the lower level, so in order to leave a bit of head room, a chunk of the interior had to be taken away. This is fine as mostly coats are stored here and they only hang so low.

The shelf is entirely inside the closet, meaning there is a gap between it and the door. What to do with this odd space? My first thought was to put an extinguisher here. The fireplace is just around the corner, so it would be out of the way but close at hand... But unfortunately the space is too small for even our little red helper.

One thing I had been doing while moving in and getting organized was simply throwing umbrellas onto the shelf. Then the lightbulb went off. The umbrellas would fit in there perfectly! And yet, while they would stand there when I open and close the door, they may become a nuisance as coats accidentally hit them as we hang them up or pull them out. What could I do to hold them upright which wouldn't look out of place, would continue to allow the door to close, and would last a long time?

Well, I'd just torn out a false doorway downstairs that was complete with moulding. This, I decided, would be perfect. I squared off a corner, measured it to length, wedged it in place, and added a couple nails to make sure it stayed. I made sure to keep the rounded edge up and facing inward so that the umbrellas could be inserted easily. I'm not sure how much abuse this thing will get, but it can take a bit without worry.



After all of this was completed, I installed a motion detecting light into the ceiling so that when you open the door and reach for a coat, a light comes on and turns off shortly after closing the door.