I’d redo it like the picture but also add doors. Kids’ areas are never neat.

Sliding doors will always make visual and physical access difficult. Have a bench, but no cushions or pillows, cubbies for each person, without baskets you can’t see into. Try 2 very large round or squared baskets that all hats go into one and all gloves and mittens into the other. Boots and shoes line up under the bench.
Do you have a garage where you can put hooks and shoe shelves for the wet, snowy, messy garments?

I would go with doors. It looks neat.

Doors, so you can store coats on a rod, shoes below, and anything else you want to stuff inside where it can't be seen.

I'd assume that wet shoes would be on the floor now and again. Laminate can warp when it gets wet, so I'd rethink that.

Can you show us a plan of that entire hall and the rooms that are off of it? What's on the side opposite the closet, and how wide is the hall? Are there any other closets nearby? Can you see this closet and hallway from other main rooms of the house?

I really disliked bifold doors in my previous place, and replaced them. In your case, since you've already decided to use hooks instead of a rod, it seems like it would be easier for everyone to use without any doors.

In our back garage entry/mudroom for a while there were 6 of us using 10 hooks, cupboards over the hooks used by adults, a 7 foot bench with 3 deep, and wide drawers under it for kids gloves, hats, etc, and a closet.

You can never have too many hooks for kids in order to keep things organized. If you remodel this area to be similar to your inspiration picture, I'd also put hooks on the side walls, and probably stagger the hooks to get room for more of them.

Anne

i vote for closet doors. We have French door style on our entry closet, we have sliding doors on the bedroom closets and they’re annoying.

your inspiration picture is pretty, but it doesn’t actually have anything ‘stored’ in it. Once you start putting coats on the hooks and shoes in the bin, it won’t actually look neat.

Consider 3 bypass doors for complete access to the closet. I like your inspiration pic but would definitely add the doors in whatever style you choose. Insp doors below. Allows full access to the closet. I prefer the triple to a double for easy access. JMO.

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You could get creative and make half a built in bench space and half a closet. Or something similar to below.

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Picture of entryway, living room that’s off the entryway, and the hallway that leads to the entryway. I was standing in the dining room taking the hallway picture. The kitchen is to the right in that last picture and the hallway leading to the bedrooms is to the left of the piano. So the closet is visible from most of the main living areas.

I like that bench + cupboards idea, but maybe just on one side. I don’t have a cleaning closet and could really use one...maybe a bit bigger cupboard on one side could be a cleaning closet. We really need more coat hanging space though. The only other non-bedroom closet on the main level is a small linen closet

We have boot trays for wet boots/shoes.

Hanging rods don't work with my kids. With a hook there’s at least some change they’ll hang up their coats...with a hanger, never. And if they do hang something up, they don’t fasten the coat at the top so it promptly slides off the hanger. We tried that for a few years at our previous house.

A long rod will give everyone more reason to keep it neat. And doors, for sure. It’s a good amount of space for coats, hats and boots.

I would not want to see all that gear or have it be the welcome view into my home. Doors are the answer.

Just add regular doors to hide the coats/shoes etc. I would remove the striped wallpaper and just paint.

With what you're showing us by the front door, I assume there's no coat hanging place by a back or side door, and that everyone enters from the front. Can you draw a measured floor plan of all of the first floor rooms? Maybe we could find a place for you to add a cleaning closet/cupboard, so you you could keep all of the space by the front door for coats, boots, and some outdoor-wear storage.

In addition to your closet area, you also could use the opposite wall for more coat hooks, at least the part that will be behind the front door when it is open - there's enough space for the bulkiness of winter coats. Looks like you've got about 10" behind your door, which is plenty of space - we have 5" behind one door and 6" behind the other door, which works well for all but the very bulkiest of coats. When people are visiting, we temporarily move all of our family's coats to the other hook area, and the hooks behind the door to the outside are used by guests.

Be sure the hooks are substantial enough for the weight of a leather coat, and are firmly attached to the wall. There are lots of nice, solid decorative hooks that wouldn't take up as much space as the ones in your inspiration picture, and a double prong one with the smaller prong under the larger works well.

With 6 kids, you've got to have function, and doors interfere with this in your case as you've found out.

Anne

I could probably put a cleaning closet in this corner where the desk is. This is technically an eat-in area but we use the formal dining room behind it instead.

The back door is in the dining room so I didn’t want coat hooks there. The garage door opens in the laundry room which is small, just the width of the washer and dryer on both sides. I considered using half of that as a mudroom, but then I would lose my utility sink and have no place to put hampers.

The first things guests see is an open closet. Of course they know you have a big family, and a big family needs outerwear if you live in a zone where you have actual weather (as opposed to California or Hawaii where winter clothing is rarely needed). Wet things need air so they can dry out, but when they are packed together, air doesn’t circulate. Solid doors would not allow air to circulate, either, so my suggestion would be to set the hooks further apart to allow air to move between coats. Remove anything that doesn’t need to be in that closet. Teach everyone to place boots neatly below their coat, toes out or toes in. Guests will have coats or jackets, too, so they will need hooks, too. Just try to keep the area neat (kids CAN learn the concept).

I am leaning toward no doors. What are some ways to help an open closet look neat? I’m thinking cutting down on the number of coats would help. Each kids has two or three coats of varying weights plus snowpants hanging there.(because our temperatures fluctuate a lot even in the winter and they prefer to wear lighter jackets when they can). Maybe light jackets could be tossed in a basket during the winter and one side of the closet could have hooks just for snowpants.

Also flooring color...I was thinking of a wood laminate in a similar color to the stone floor in the entryway so it’s not too obviously different, maybe a dark grayish one? The stone floor is a mix of black, dark gray, and dark brown.

If I remember correctly, you have six children. I love your inspiration picture.

Your children would probably put their coats on a hook, but not on a hanger. I would go with your inspiration picture.

Something where they have their own space:

Since you don't mind opened storage - consider a coat rack for the tiny bit of space outside of the closet area that can hold some of the extras(snow pants).