Welcome to our home. If you follow the trail of sand-filled shoes they will lead you to our kitchen pantry — our kids’ first stop when they arrive home from school. Be careful though because you may trip over the swim lessons bag, the music class bag, jackets, sweatshirts and multiple backpacks along the way.
Day after day Matt and I would sweep up this trail and pile all of the items into a chair in the dining room. It wasn’t an ideal “drop zone” but there isn’t really a better place inside our home for all of these things. And then one day it hit me — what if I could store all of these items neatly OUTSIDE our home…in the garage!? After lots of Pinterest scrolling I finally had a vision of where and how I could make my drop zone dreams come true…
Our first call was to our handyman, Hector. Although he is no longer doing handyman work full time (sorry, Charlotte friends!), he agreed to take on our project over the course of a few weekends.
The final product was exactly how I had pictured it. Actually, no, it was better than I had pictured (you can find my Pinterest inspiration here)!
Although many readers cautioned me against painting our door a light color, I was determined to use one of our leftover cans of Sea Salt or White Dogwood paint to give the door a little pop of color. After lots of back and forth, we went with Sea Salt! And then stained the steps a darker color.
After the construction was complete, we partnered with CW Home to get us organized! Caroline and Whitney actually organized our entire garage (post coming soon) and did an incredible job completing our drop zone too. They took all of the measurements and provided us with options at various price points for storage baskets, rugs, hooks and bench cushions.
And then they did the install one day while we were at work and it was the BEST surprise to come home too! They were truly excellent to work with and we are so happy with our gorgeous new drop zone!
Drop Zone Sources
Paint Colors
Door: Sherwin Williams Sea Salt / Steps: Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron / Walls: Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace
Drop Zone Sources
octopus hooks / bench cushion / seagrass storage baskets / wire storage baskets / washable rug
Credits
Organization: CW Home **Use promo code CHRISTINA15 for a discount when you email [email protected] or fill out the form on their website.
Photography: Laura Sumrak
Aaaaaand just like that, I’m painting my Living Room Sea Salt. Thanks for making the decision for me!
HAHA — DO IT! We painted Thomas’s Room sea salt and our laundry room is sea salt — LOVE it so much!!!!
I have to ask (because I’ve always wanted to be one) are you a shoe-free inside home?
I would LOVE to be a shoe-free home but we are terrible at it. We’ve started training the kids to take their shoes off outside because they would track in SO much sand from the school sandbox and it was miserable to clean up every night. But Matt and I are the worst offenders of wearing our shoes around the house. I try to change into slippers when I get home but then find myself walking out to them mailbox and back, taking out the trash, etc. in my slippers. hahaha
Wow!! This turned out FANTASTIC! I absolutely love it! Great choice on the door color, too!
Thank you!!! It took some convincing for Matt to approve but he likes how it turned out too!
Love it! Our home has a similar situation, where our pantry and kitchen are right off the garage. I did a small drawer for our shoes at the bottom of the pantry, but inevitably it’s overflowing (plus having shoes in the vicinity of food is kind of gross too). I may have to copy this set up!
Do it!!! It’s so nice to have the shoes OUTSIDE! 🙂
What a makeover! I absolutely love it!
Thank you!!!
This is so clever and might be the perfect solution at my daughter’s house with two littles. The only thing I might be concerned about in Texas is snakes nestling in the baskets. Hugs from Waco !
OMGGG — that is terrifying!!! Maybe the wire baskets would work? I would die if I found a snake in our garage, let alone our shoe basket. haha
Same location as Diane and I was wondering exactly the same thing, except we do not have snakes to bother us it seems (hopefully it’ll keep that way!). Our concern would mostly be the spiders; however, I do notice that they tend to stay near the garage door for their food source so that is a positive but we did have one black widow last year which makes me cautious. Still love a good organization in the garage though so still gives me hope for other projects to “beautify” in there. Thank you for the post!
Absolutely beautiful!! I want to do this in our garage now! Have you noticed any bugs/spiders in shoes/jackets/ backpacks??
Not yet…but most of the items (like the jackets and backpacks) are taken to school every day so they only spend the night outside. But I’ll have to report back on the seasonal shoes in the back of the baskets! We’ve kept our rain boots in the garage for years and haven’t had a bug problem — crossing my fingers it stays that way!
That is good to know about the rain boots! I sent this to my husband and told him this is all I want for Christmas 🤣
Place a rosemary plant in between the baskets or on one of the shelves. It will deter all pests from getting near the area.
It looks fabulous and it is such a doable use of space! We live right outside of DC so attached garages are a rariety. (If people even have a garage at all.) wish I could copy your design! 😉
Thank you for the review on Ruggables! I have been looking at this option for quite some time.
Umm this is genius! We have an enormous garage and then you walk in the door and the space for shoes and bags and coats is so small! We have a shoe rack outside in the garage but no one will use it because they’re afraid of spiders or bugs getting in. But that comment about the rosemary plant as a pest detergent has just convinced me to give this a try as our next project!
So random but are you worried about bugs in shoes/backpacks in the garage? We now have our first garage and I want to do the same but chicken about bugs!!
Where did you get the shelves and storage bench? Did you build them?