The Forgotten Hallway Feature That Was Actually Genius

Modern hallways are often straight, bland passages that only serve to connect one room to another and need to be livened up with chic hallway decor. However, that wasn't always the case. If you live in an older home, you may have a hallway with a small alcove or shelf embedded in the side. These were called telephone niches, phone nooks, or sometimes even telephone cabinets. In the heyday of landline phones, the phone line would run up through the wall, emerging in the phone niche. A landline phone could sit on the shelf, hooked up to the phone line, and be ready to use. These niches kept the wires out of the way, so that homeowners didn't need to worry about tripping over them. Aesthetically, hiding the wires also kept one's home looking tidy and elegant.

There's no formal invention date for phone nooks, but they're common in homes built in the early to mid 1900's, and slowly fading out of more modern homes as both phones and their wires shrank. If you have one in your home, it's likely somewhere fairly central, where members of the household could have easy access to their phone. Some are simple cubbies with a shelf, but others are large enough to stand in while you make a call. In addition to being convenient, some phone niches have elegant designs. After all, if your phone was going to be a permanent fixture in your home, wouldn't you want it to match the rest of your decor?

One option is to hook up a phone line and use your telephone niche for its intended purpose. Landlines may be old fashioned, but they can offer a welcome break from high tech life. You could also use it for a wireless home phone or turn it into a phone charging station if you want to preserve the connection to phones without returning to a corded phone. If the niche is near your entryway you might want to use it to store your keys or even keep a guestbook on the shelf. Depending on the size and shape of your phone niche, it may not be ideal for larger storage, but it may be just right for a small bowl or dish to collect your spare change in. Lean into the vintage vibe of the niche by picking up some vintage thrift store organizational finds to place on the shelf.

If your phone niche isn't in a convenient place for storage or you already have an organizational system that works for you, use your phone niche for decor instead. Add a flower vase or some ceramic knickknacks to the niche to give your hallway a bit of life and color. You could also add visual interest to your hallway simply by highlighting the niche through paint or wood stain or even by adding decorative trim to it. If your hallway doesn't have a phone niche and you're feeling left out, you could try building your own.