Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Catch a storage-solution-for-our-entryway by the toe...  Hmmm, the lyrics don't quite have the same ring but you get the point!  ;)

Since moving in, we've been trying to figure out how to best wrangle our belongings in the entry area.  Hall table?  Coat hooks?  Bench?  We luckily have a functional and spacious coat closet (finally! - our previous apartment hall closet was not deep enough to hang anything in!) but it's jam-packed with coats, scarves, hats, gloves & the like and the doors, while pretty, are not easy to open and close which means we avoid doing so.  ;)  The problem is, the entryway space is pretty tight, so we had to be strategic about which solution to choose.

Option 1
While on a recent trip to a Home Decorators Collection Grand Opening in Vauxhall, NJ, we decided to get a bench for our entryway so we'd have somewhere to sit while putting shoes on/off, cubbies to store our shoes out of sight (and out of the way to prevent tripping) and a convenient place to drop our keys/purse/gloves/briefcase/whatever in lieu of a table.  So after finishing our delicious hot apple cider (thanks Home Decorators Collection grand opening!) we bought ourselves this little guy:

Martha Stewart Living™ Storage Bench

Option 2
After getting Bench #1 home, we found a different bench online that Shep liked better.  It was pricier and didn't come with a cushion, but looked like it was made of nicer-looking materials (real wood perhaps?!) and appeared from the description to hold more shoes.  So, we ordered it:

Winsome® Walnut Finish Storage Hall Bench with Storage

Unfortunately, a few weeks after ordering it I received an email that the bench was back-ordered, and wouldn't ship for several weeks.  We weren't in a huge rush (illustrated by the fact that bench #1 was still in the box we bought it in), so we figured we'd just wait out the backorder.

Option 3
While I was out being a rebel on SuperBowl Sunday, a little sale fairy steered me in the direction of a sign stating that this bench was seriously discounted:

SONOMA life + style® Storage Bench

One of Kohl's famous 50% off sales AND I would get an additional 20% off from the Kohl's charge application I was planning to submit?!  That was enough of an incentive to call the hubby to discuss a revised plan of attack.  After looking up some reviews and measuring the space for the bench out at home on Shep's part, while I anxiously paced the sales floor of Kohl's holding on to a Dyson box on the other end of the phone, we decided to go for it.  So, we bought our third (and final!) bench and decided to return the other two.

Since we've already assembled lucky #3, this particular search has officially ended!  ;)  One more item crossed off the "to get" list... we're making progress!