Best hall trees

A hall tree is three products welded into one purchase - a bench, a coat rack and a shoe store - and the one specification that decides whether it works is the bench rating. Sitting down is what a bench is for; sitting down is also the single behavior that most reliably gets wet boots off at the door instead of in the hallway. This one publishes 300 pounds, which is the highest figure in this set.

The storage underneath is a closed cabinet rather than an open rack, with shelves that adjust to three heights and lift out completely. That last detail is the one to notice: a fixed-shelf cabinet is a cabinet that will not take an ankle boot, and removing a shelf turns two useless short compartments into one usable tall one. The maker states up to 12 pairs.

Seven double hooks is the hanging provision, and it is enough for a household - a double hook takes a coat and a bag rather than a coat or a bag. The frame is steel with particleboard panels, which is the standard construction at this price and is genuinely strong in compression.

Two honest limits. It is 13.8 inches deep, and in a hallway under about 40 inches wide that is a real loss - measure before you buy, and consider the narrow options if the number does not work. And a closed cabinet traps damp: wet boots want a tray in the open air for a night before they go behind a door, or the cabinet becomes the reason your hall smells.

Depth is the constraint that rules hall trees out of most real hallways, and this is the one that answers it. Published at 11.8 inches deep, it is two full inches shallower than the rest of this set - which does not sound like much until you are trying to get a pushchair past it. In a 36-inch hall, two inches is the difference between a squeeze and a corridor.

It does not pay for that with strength. The published bench rating is 275 pounds, second only to the 300-pound model and well above the cheaper open-shelf units. The frame is metal with engineered wood panels and the whole thing weighs 24.2 pounds, which is light enough for one person to position and heavy enough not to walk around.

The unusual feature is that it comes apart. The two-tier structure detaches into a bench and a wall rack, so if the entry arrangement changes - or you move - the same purchase becomes two separate pieces rather than one awkward one. Two anti-tipping straps and four adjustable foot pads are supplied, and on a 70-inch unit you should use them.

The honest trade is capacity. Two shoe shelves at 11.8 inches deep will take flat shoes comfortably and let a large boot overhang, and there is no concealment at all - this is open storage. Seventeen hooks is also more of a suggestion than a load rating: hanging seventeen wet coats on a light frame is not what the number 275 refers to. For a household that needs to hide the shoes, the closed-door options are the other direction.

This is the hall tree to buy if the goal is to stop the pile by the door rather than to furnish a mudroom. It publishes a 198-pound bench rating, which is enough for an adult to sit and lever a boot off and is not enough to stand on, and the maker is clear about the number rather than describing the bench as sturdy and leaving you to guess.

The feature that separates it from the more expensive units is the hanging rod across the top. Hooks hold a coat by its collar loop, which is why coats on hooks end up on the floor; a rod takes actual hangers, and a wet coat on a hanger dries in its own shape. There are also nine hooks in two rows, all removable and repositionable, so a household with a six-foot adult and a five-year-old can set both heights.

Open shoe shelves are the trade against the closed-cabinet models. Open is worse for tidiness and better for wet footwear: air gets to a damp boot on an open shelf, and does not get to one behind a door. Which of those matters more is genuinely a household decision, and we set out both sides in open vs closed shoe storage.

Two things to check before ordering. It is 28.3 inches wide, which is narrow for a family entry - the same line is sold at 33.1 inches and that is the one most households should take. And use the supplied anti-tip kit. A 72-inch freestanding unit loaded with coats at the top and nothing at the bottom is exactly the geometry that goes over when a child hangs off it.

Almost every hall tree is honest about being storage. This one is trying to be furniture, and for a lot of households that is the actual requirement: the entry is visible from the living room, and an open rack of school shoes is not what anybody wants to look at from the sofa. Fluted doors close over the shoe cabinets, and the unit reads as a hallway cupboard.

The bench publishes 220 pounds, which sits in the middle of this set, and the maker supplies anti-tip devices. Interior shelves adjust, which is the detail that decides whether a cabinet is genuinely usable - a fixed shelf at sneaker height makes an ankle boot impossible, and there is always at least one pair of ankle boots.

What you are paying for is the door. It costs several times what the open-shelf hall trees cost and its published bench rating is not higher than theirs, so the money is going into appearance and concealment rather than into structure. That is a legitimate thing to buy; it just should not be mistaken for buying a stronger unit.

Two limits. Four double hooks is the fewest here, so a family of four with coats, bags and dog leads will run out of hanging points quickly. And the same warning that applies to every closed cabinet applies double behind a solid door: a wet boot put away damp will still be damp in the morning and the cabinet will start to smell. Boots dry on a tray in the open and get put away after.