A boot room can be compared to a utility room or a boiling water tap – if you haven’t got one you may not miss it, but once you’ve got one you will wonder how you ever managed without!
The practicalities of a boot room depend of course, on the layout of your home. You can have a boot room near the front door, or near the back or side door. A boot room is particularly useful in a terraced home as it can halt the boot-shoes-coats-dog walking gear etc before everything gets trailed through to the back door or utility room.
Traditionally, a boot room would be at the back of larger country homes, providing a room where the family and visitors can remove their wet shoes and boots, hang up their overcoats and leave their walking sticks/dog leads/etc in a practical room before going through to the main part of the house.
Today, a modern boot room has to fulfil the same requirements but may have to accommodate bicycles, sports bags, school bags and goodness knows what else. The best approach is to plan a boot room project as carefully as you would a kitchen. Bespoke cabinetry can be designed to accommodate shelves or cubby holes for shoes and boots, for shopping baskets, umbrellas and gym or sports equipment. We would include coat hooks or pegs, plus a section for hangers too – smart jackets and coats may be far more suited to a hanger than a peg! Other welcome additions are bench seating – which can provide shelves below for shoes, or perhaps have a lift-up surface for stowing ‘stuff’ like shoe-cleaning equipment and the dog towels. If you have the luxury of space consider a large sink too – we’ve seen them used for standing bunches of flowers in for a good soak before they get transferred to vases, and also for rinsing off wellies and trainers. Other ideas could include a broom/ironing board cupboard and perhaps laundry or recycling boxes or baskets.
Tiled flooring is a must – either natural stone, well-sealed of course according to installation instructions. Porcelain floor tiles are a good alternative and can be paired with underfloor heating (which will help dry out wet footwear). A couple of strategically placed mats and an umbrella stand will also help keep a boot room ship-shape.
