Shoes or No Shoes?

Like a handful of other bloggers, once a month I do an ideabook for Houzz. I usually try to pull an idea from one of my current projects, something I have already spent time researching. Well this month I am working with a client on an entry foyer, along with a formal living and dining room. Here is a very preliminary plan and image collage just to give you a visual.

It will be a nice space and this client, like the majority of my clients in Boston, prefers that people remove their shoes at the door when they visit. They have a mudroom off of the garage, but most guests enter through the front door. So we looked at several seating options to make shoe removal less awkward and that is what I decided to write the Houzz article on. Little did I know, it would start quite the conversation.

My views on the subject have definitely changed over the years. My grandmother was the only person I knew growing up who did not allow shoes in the house. She had plastic carpet runners and blankets covering her sofa upholstery. I just chalked that up to being a grandma thing. But once I got older I encountered it more often and for a while it made me uncomfortable. The state of my pedicure was always a big concern if it were not sock season and if it were sock season I always had a momentary panic attack wondering if my socks matched or even worse, if they looked like they were 100 years old. Fast forward to two years ago and we move into a carpeted apartment with a 3 month old. And although I have purchased a steam cleaner to save me from my neurosis, something about people walking through my carpeted house with shoes that have been on the street (where dogs pee) and on the T (where people pee) gives me the willies. My baby lays on that carpet when he plays. I lay on that carpet when he plays. When we had hardwood floors it did not bother me in the least, but something about carpet seems so permanent.

What are your thoughts? Shoes? No shoes?  Does this all remind you of the Sex in the City episode? I've never lost shoes at the door but I did lose a coat at a party last month.