The hallway is the room with the most jobs on the least floor space: shoes off, coat away, keys down, post down, and all of it on a strip that is often less than a metre and a half wide. So the first question in the hallway is what the shelf leaves of the passage; what it holds comes after.
What is left of the hallway
The standard that puts a figure on hallway width in dwellings is the one for accessible building. DIN 18040-2 requires a usable width of at least 120 centimetres for hallways inside dwellings and, once, a manoeuvring area of 150 by 150; for door openings and passages the standard sets 90 centimetres. That applies to the accessible dwelling, but the figures serve as a yardstick for any hallway: below 90 centimetres a passage gets tight, and with a shopping bag or a pushchair uncomfortable.
A standing shelf is 35 centimetres deep, a wall shelf of half boards 15. In a 120 hallway, 85 centimetres remain next to the standing shelf, less than the 90 of the door; next to the wall shelf, 105. Only from 140 centimetres of hallway width do the 105 remain next to a standing shelf that you pass without thinking. The table works it out for four hallway widths.
| Hallway width | Next to standing shelf (35 cm) | Next to wall shelf (15 cm) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 cm | 65 cm | 85 cm | wall shelf only, and even that is tight |
| 120 cm | 85 cm | 105 cm | wall shelf; standing shelf only as a shoe bench below knee height |
| 140 cm | 105 cm | 125 cm | both possible |
| 160 cm | 125 cm | 145 cm | wardrobe with shoe bench stays above the standard's 120 |
One exception is in the second row: a piece of furniture that only reaches knee height narrows the hallway at the bottom, not at shoulder height, where people pass each other. A shoe bench 41 centimetres tall works in a 120 hallway; a two-metre standing shelf in the same spot does not.
Shoe sizes on 35 and 15 centimetres
Shoe sizes follow the Paris point: one point is two thirds of a centimetre, and the size is the last length in centimetres times one and a half. In reverse, size divided by 1.5 gives the last: 24 centimetres at size 36, 28 at 42, 30 at 45, 32 at 48. Sole and toe cap are added on the outside; we allow one to two centimetres, which is an estimate, not a standard value. A shoe in size 48 thus measures around 34 centimetres and stands lengthways on a 35 board. Smaller sizes anyway.
On the 15-centimetre half board no shoe stands lengthways. It lies across, parallel to the wall, and then two fit side by side, one pair per level. The half board in the hallway is therefore the shelf for everything else: keys, post, gloves, sunglasses. Shoes belong on 35 centimetres, and there, at around ten centimetres of shoe width, six stand side by side, three pairs per level. With two levels for shoes that is six pairs you wear every day; the rest lives in the cupboard.
| Size (EU) | Last length | Shoe outside, about | Lengthways on 35 cm | Lengthways on 15 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 24.0 cm | 25 to 26 cm | yes, 3 pairs per level | no, across 1 pair |
| 42 | 28.0 cm | 29 to 30 cm | yes, 3 pairs | no, across 1 pair |
| 45 | 30.0 cm | 31 to 32 cm | yes, 3 pairs | no, across 1 pair |
| 48 | 32.0 cm | 33 to 34 cm | yes, just | no |
The seat height of the shoe bench
To put on shoes you sit down, and the seat height has a body dimension: the lower leg length. According to DIN 33402-2 it is 37.5 centimetres for small women, fifth percentile, and 49 for tall men, 95th percentile. In between lies everyone who puts on shoes in a home. Our shoe bench is 41 centimetres tall. For a small woman with a shoe heel that is exactly right; for a tall man it is low, for a reason: a bench you sit on to tie your shoes may be lower than a chair, because you lean forward. If you want to sit on it longer, take the next step in the grid, 49 centimetres with two boards and a 35-centimetre gap, and you have the box for the shoes underneath.