Do you have halls in your home that are empty and you don’t know what to do with them? I have two space like this in my house that I’ve been pondering. One of them is connected to a remodeling project we have been working on. We recently remodeled our family room and there is a small hallway, really half of a hallway since it only has one wall and the other side opens to the family room. It’s complicated even further by the fact that there is a closet that opens into the space, so I can’t block the door. When we first moved into this house I painted a tree mural on the wall. When we repainted the room, the mural was done and gone and I needed something to make this little space work for me.

I thought about this little space for quite a long time until I came up with a great solution. The theme of our new family room is travel (a post about this room is coming soon) so I wanted something that would relate. Everywhere I go, I try to buy a coffee table of photos of the area. These books ended up stacked on tables and never were displayed to their potential. A bookcase would be perfect, however the wall it could go is behind where the closet door opens, so it would have to be very narrow. So narrow in fact that the books would need to face out.

I did a lot of searching and even considered putting up some narrow shelves and just leaning the books on them. Then I stumbled on this bookcase.  Initially I thought the bookcase would hang on the wall, but when it arrived, I realized it is meant to stand on the floor and be attached to the wall so it won’t fall forward on children (and yes, it’s technically a child’s bookcase!).  It is the perfect depth. I can open the closet without an issue and it fits the space perfectly. All of my travel books fit and I can see their covers and titles. I’ve also stuck in a few photos for variety and plan to add a few things other than books as time goes on. I hung a painting we bought on our honeymoon above it to complete the space.

A bookcase ended up being the right solution for my space, but here are some other great hallway solutions.