DIY entryway wall organizer

Wish your front entryway was more organized for you and your guests? I’m a professional organizer and here’s how we made a functional and stylish DIY entryway wall organizer for our own home.

Are you constantly misplacing your keys because you don’t have a dedicated space for them?

Do you use a chair near the front door as a drop zone to pile guests’ coats and purses on when you have company?

Believe me, as a professional organizer I know this is a frustration for many people! And it was one for me, too!

Here is how we made a functional yet stylish DIY entryway wall organizer

You see, our problem was when guests came in the front door.

We have double front doors and no real “entryway.” The “entryway” is basically a 5′ x 7′ layout of tiles that opens straight into our formal living room and dining room.

I didn’t want to take up any seating by using the chairs or sofa in the living room, where guests would sit.

So, we always had to either pile coats and purses on the (not so big) piano bench or in the breakfast nook, both of which were awkward!

(Here is my entryway, kinda blah and uninviting…)

I’ve seen plenty of ideas for building a cute bench next to the door, but there isn’t room in our living room because the door opens in and would hit it every time we opened the door.

We needed it to have hooks and hangers but be flat against the wall.

Also, since it covered an electrical outlet and we knew we’d be moving in a few years, we wanted it to be removable.

Our solution? A custom-made wall organizer/coat rack for the entryway!

Here is the inspiration picture I saw from Better Homes and Gardens on Pinterest (of course!) that I knew my very talented handyman/hubby could modify.

It showed a large section of beadboard that stretched from the door to the nearby window and had plenty of hooks and a narrow but still functional shelf.

Here’s the picture:

Adding paneling and hooks behind the door makes for great function for an entryway!

Constructing the wall organizer

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So, my husband got to work and sketched out his own design. He followed the size of the floor tiles (12″ square) so it would fit nicely in our space.

Here’s his drawing:

*I have included a full materials list and cut list at the bottom of this post, if you’d like to make one the same size as ours.

Here are most of his supplies, laid out in the garage:

First, he built a frame.

He used L brackets.

Next, he installed the large pieces of beadboard. Beadboard is tongue and groove so it fits together tightly, making a nice clean line with no gaps.

Bottom beadboard finished!

Then he nailed in the smaller pieces of beadboard in the top section.

Once the beadboard was all in place, he added trim all around the perimeter to give it a finished look.

Trim all nailed in place.

To build the shelf, we added two wooden shelf brackets first. (We got ours at Lowe’s much cheaper). They actually hang from a screw (which you can see on the right-hand side) so they were easy to install on the board.

He hung them so that they were an inch below the top of the unit. That way, the shelf would be level with the top of unit when hung up.

Then he attached the actual pine board shelf to the brackets by screwing it down from the top.

To dress it up more, he added trim around the top edge of the shelf and nailed in a piece of leftover crown molding at an angle to finish it off. I think that gives it a very stylish look!

He did a great job!

We painted it white, and I picked out 3 black coat hooks and 2 decorative drawer pulls to add lots of room for holding guests’ coats, umbrellas, and purses.

We mounted it to the wall just above the baseboard with 4 x 1/4” anchor bolts (because it was concrete block behind the drywall), so it’s very sturdy.

That way, when we did move, we could take it with us. Because taking down the piece simply meant patching the anchor bolt holes and touching up the paint.

Here’s what the entryway looks like, all done:

Do you like it?

UPDATE: I did mention that the entryway wall organizer was portable, and here’s proof!

We built and installed the entryway wall organizer in 2017. It worked great.

We moved to another home in 2019 and brought the wall organizer with us because we had the same issue in that house, but this time at the garage entrance, which was very narrow and directly across from our kitchen pantry.

We just installed it on a big, useless blank wall and then had the perfect place to hang our jackets, purses and dog leashes. It handled the move just fine and we installed it the same way, with anchor bolts.

Here it is in home #2:

We moved again in 2022, this time to a 100-year-old house in Michigan. And, we had the same problem.

Seriously, why don’t more houses have a coat closet at the entry????

So after lugging this now 5-year-old entry wall across the country from Florida to Michigan, it has held up perfectly.

We haven’t had to repaint it or do any repairs to it. It is just as sturdy as ever.

The ironic thing is that the wall we attached it to in house #3 also had beadboard. So we gave the beadboard a new coat of white paint, and they look like they always belonged together! 🙂

Here is the entrywall organizer in house #3 (and hopefully, we won’t be moving again for a while, so it can stay there!).

Materials and cut list for entryway organizer wall

Materials list:

• 1  1”x6”x8’ pine board
• 1  1”x6”x4’ pine board
• 1  8’ piece of 1” shelf trim
• 5  1”x2”x6’ pine boards
• 1  piece crown molding to fit between shelf brackets (37”)
• 2  8’ pieces of cap trim  
• 2  packs 8’ beadboard planks (6 pieces/pack)
• 3  packs of 4  2” L brackets with screws (12 brackets total)
• 2  black drawer pulls
• 3  black coat hooks
• Box 1 ¼ “ finishing nails
• Miter saw
• Circular saw
• Screwdriver
• Hammer
• White eggshell finish latex paint

Cut list:

• 1 1”x6”x8’ pine board: cut into 2 39” pieces + 1 3”x1 ½ “ piece
• 1 1”x6”x4’ pine board: cut 1 39” piece
• 1 8’ piece of 1” shelf trim: cut to fit around edge of shelf with mitered edges
• 5  1”x2”x6’ pine boards: Leave 2 full and cut other 3 in half (to make 6 36” pieces)
• 1 piece crown molding: to fit between shelf brackets (37”)
• 2 8’ pieces of cap trim: cut 2 17 ½” pieces, 2 41” pieces mitered on the bottom, and 1 39” piece mitered on both ends
• 2 packs 8’ bead board planks (6 pieces/pack): cut 9 17 ½ “ pieces and 9 40” pieces

Click here for PDF of materials and cut lists

Build time for project:

Once he got all the supplies, it only took my hubby about 5 hours to create this amazing wall organizer (mainly because we had to let the paint dry before we hung it), and it didn’t take any special tools or equipment.

The total amount of supplies was just under $75.00. Not bad for a custom unit!

So if you enjoy DIY projects, this entryway wall organizer is a great way to add some stylish yet functional organization and storage space to your home, for both you and your guests.

And if you’re looking for other ways to organize your entryway, this post has even more smart entryway organization ideas!

Happy organizing!