We live at the beach and are a no-shoes-worn-in-the-house household. I have a rubber boot tray that works fine, but it really isn’t large enough, and I feel like our place is too “nice” to walk into it and immediately see a pile of shoes on a boot tray. We are in a condo, so there is no back door alternative. One ingress and egress.
Our entry already contains a nice, Ethan Allen hall tree. It has hooks for hats, towels, etc., a bench to sit on, and two drawers in the bottom. It is directly across from the door, so not next to the door. It is kind of a light cream color, slightly distressed wood. The current tray is immediately to the left of the door and where I want the shoe spot to be.
I’ll never be able to exactly match the hall tree, and I feel like a different material is necessary. Wicker? Rattan? Cane? Not sure.
I really like those round rope baskets, but, again, I don’t like the idea of the shoes being visible. If there is a lid, I would want it to be hinged for easy opening and closing, but maybe that creates a clearance issue and a hinged lid won’t work in the space. I want easy access but the shoes to be hidden. Does that make sense? I don’t want to have to take a lid off and on each time. Maybe a storage ottoman or something? But, beach = sand. We do rinse off before coming off the beach, but it can still be an issue. And, I’m trying to avoid anything that just creates a “pile” of shoes even if it is an attractive container. There are some cool pull front shoe cabinets, but again, matching the other piece in there is not going to be possible.
I don’t want something cheap looking. Ideally, I’d like something that holds 8-12 pairs of shoes. Dh has work shoes, running on the beach shoes, running on the road shoes, flip flops, etc. When folks can come over again, I won’t FORCE them to remove their shoes, but if they are willing, I’d like there to be space for them.
Who has a fab idea for me?? 
