News

The School Cloakroom: Our Guide
July 2024
When you think of a school cloakroom, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
From peg rails to benching systems, the school cloakroom area is a hub for the storage and socialisation of students. Having a well-designed environment can enhance the learning space, or if poorly planned out can hinder it.
BOYCO is here to offer a friendly helping hand in selecting the perfect furniture for your next school cloakroom project.
What do Schools, Staff Members, and Students need from a Cloakroom Space?
Over the last 62 Years, Team BOYCO have become experts in supporting education projects and providing hundreds of education spaces with cloakroom fixed furniture solutions. Due to this, we’ve put together our list of the top things to consider when either designing or planning your next School Cloakroom project:
Utilising Space
Firstly, students go through the cloakroom space typically as they arrive or leave the school building. Whether break time or home time, these busy periods can quickly lead to congestion and overcrowding. An optimised layout is a must; arranging the furniture to create a clear pathway and avoiding placing the cloakroom furniture in main traffic routes is one of our top recommendations. Sometimes, there is limited space for school cloakrooms. There are ways to maximise the room available through; we offer a range of space saving units, as well as heavy duty peg rails to suit all types of buildings.
A Clean and Tidy Area
Another consideration is promoting a clean and tidy school cloakroom. Upkeep and maintenance of the space can be a considerable task, especially during winter months or rainy days when mud and dirt can be brought indoors. These spaces are also high touch point areas with multiple students using the same piece of furniture. One way to overcome this is having a dedicated space for specific items included in the cloakroom furniture. For example, BOYCO’s cloakroom units offer a shoe tray include as standard to keep outdoor shoes stored, preventing mud and dirt being brought in and keeping it away from the indoor classroom area.
Safety and Security
As an alternative to standalone changing and cloakroom furniture, why not consider Lockers? Mostly used in secondary schools, they’re a fantastic addition to cloakroom spaces. Perfect for the safety and security of student possessions, they’re great for students who need to store and access items such as PE kits or textbooks throughout the day.
Popular furniture solutions for School Cloakrooms
Wondering what changing and cloakroom options would work best for your space?
BOYCO’s product and sales team member, Ainsley, offers her advice for options for your cloakroom project…
What are the most popular types of cloakroom furniture for schools?
“Currently, the most popular types of cloakroom furniture in primary schools I have seen is our WA 325 cloakroom bench. I would recommend this for your upcoming school project due to it only utilising 2 slats in it’s design, rather than our traditional 3. This makes it perfect for younger students as the benching is narrower reducing depth, making a more comfortable seat. An example of this is in our recent project at Avanti Brook Primary School.
For secondary, the WA 425 is a great choice. This has a 3 slatted benching and a wider depth of seating for older students. It comes with 2 separate peg rails, which allows in installation to adjust the cloakroom furniture to the desired height, customising it further.”
What cloakroom and changing room layout would you recommend?
“A popular trend now is a ‘U-Shape’ surrounding the walls with an island unit in the middle with a bag tray. This enables space saving and children can quickly access items. Due to the larger size of classes in the present, the more storage the better! The bag storage looks tidy and prevents clutter being on the floor, which is a trip hazard.”

WA (325) V (WA 425) Wall Bench with Peg Rail
What trends are you currently seeing in 2024?
“At the moment, we are currently seeing a lot of dark greys and muted tones used in cloakroom projects. This is due to schools currently being renovated; choosing neutral colours allows the cloakroom furniture seamlessly to blend into the current school surroundings. This most popular is higher education settings, such as colleges and academies.
We have also noticed SEN schools are incorporating more variations of colours in their cloakrooms. The current movement on providing better accessibility in schools has encouraged the research into various tones and shades which could support those with special needs.”
How can you customise School Cloakroom Furniture?
When you are planning your cloakroom project, it is important to consider customisation options to suit the needs of the school:
Size Options: Primary V Secondary
When considering sizing options, it is important to take into account the age range of the pupils who’ll be using the changing and cloakroom area. Here at BOYCO, we offer three different height ranges for our cloakrooms – infant, junior, and senior – to offer solutions from nursery to higher education.
In primary schools, the younger students have a shorter. Adapting to this, peg rails need to be placed lower on the wall allowing them to hang items with ease. Primary school students are also more likely to climb on the furniture which is a health and safety risk as they could fall or have an accident. Due to this, we recommend considering both wall-fixed and simpler designs for cloakroom storage solutions, such as our Cantilever Wall Bench with Peg Rail. It’s also important to help younger students with organisation. Name pegs, such as our Lollipegs, have space to place a number or name at the top of the peg so that little one’s can easily remember and identify where to place their coats and bags.
In line with secondary school students being taller, we would recommend senior height for changing and cloakroom benching, along with independent peg rails places higher on walls. You should also consider options that offer a touch more space due to pupils typically needing to bring more items to school. Lack of adequate space can lead to clutter occurring quickly; this is a trip hazard and is visually unappealing. We suggest a bespoke storage solution that is not only large enough to house items, but utilises as much space as possible. Our Cantilever Spacesaver Peg Unit with Bench & Shoe Shelf is compact, provides storage space above and below storage for books, bags, coats, and much more.
Materials
The materials that are used to manufacture cloakroom furniture are dependent mostly on the location and purpose of the cloakroom. ‘Wet areas’ such as secondary school changing rooms with showers, require specialist material which won’t rust in a damp environment. Solid Grade Laminate is a popular material choice for this, such as in our lockers with aluminium carcass and SGL doors, due to both resistance to moisture and durability in damp areas.
Read more about Lockers as a school storage solution with our guide here.
In dry areas, White American Ash timber is a popular choice in both peg rails and benching. Known for its robustness and longevity, this timber can withstand daily wear and tear. It also offers a fantastic finish whilst being a lighter weight compared to other hardwoods; this makes it more versatile and easier to work with when creating bespoke cloakroom designs. BOYCO uses White American Ash in the manufacturing of our cloakroom and changing room furniture, which is FSC® Certified or PEFC Certified supporting our ongoing steps towards more sustainable manufacturing.
Colour Options
Colour selection is crucial in any cloakroom project. As previously mentioned, neutral tones are currently on-trend such as white, black, and grey proving to be popular due to the sleek modern finish they give to furniture.

It is important to consider cloakroom colours carefully
Brighter colours such as yellow, red and orange also have their place in the cloakroom too. Commonly, coat pegs are selected to be in brighter tones and shades, especially in primary schools. Younger students need more suppo
rt with organising, and the vibrant colours draw attention to the location of the changing area and peg. Greens and blues are used more in secondary school cloakrooms due to the neutral calming tones they provide; a perfect addition in changing rooms where energy can be high before lessons.
Want to learn more about how different colours affect student learning and behaviour? Read our insight here.
How do you ensure the quality and durability of cloakroom furniture for schools?
Now that you have selected your cloakroom furniture, thought about materials, discussed your options, and discovered your perfect colour… how do you make sure your cloakroom furniture provides both the quality and durability needed in a school?
Quality Manufacturing
Starting at the beginning, it’s important to know where you’re sourcing your school cloakroom project furniture from. Tried and trusted by contractors and architects, BOYCO’s furniture is proudly made in Britain. We are meticulous when ensuring superior quality, so much so that it’s part of our brand ‘Built to Last’:
- Going above and beyond compliance requirements – We are Safe Contractor certified.
- Supporting sustainable practices – all BOYCO’s in-house timber used in our cloakroom furniture is FSC® Certified or PEFC Certified.
‘Hot Dip’ Nylon Coating
All our in-house metalwork used to manufacture our changing and cloakroom furniture is coated with our pioneered Hot Dip Nylon. 4X thicker than standard polyester powder coating, it offers unrivalled impact resistance and durability against scratches and scraps.
It also provides comfort for students due to its ‘Not Cold to the Touch’ finish. Compliant with the Equality Act (2010), the metal does not become excessively cold even in low temperature environments such as PE changing rooms.

BOYCO pioneered ‘Hot Dip’ Nylon Coating
Anti-Microbial Protection
‘Hot Dip’ Nylon coating also offers anti-microbial protection. The Bio master additive has been tested and proven against the most common of organisms. Using silver ion technology, when bacteria lands on the surface of the coated mental work it’s prevented from growing, producing energy, or replicating which causes them to die. It is also non-leaching, so stays permanently within the treated coating.
In addition to our metal work, all our in-house timber is twice coated with anti-microbial lacquer. Preventing the spread of 99% of all known bacteria, it offers a perfect addition to the health and safety practices of the school.
Why is this important? It allows our furniture to support the school’s regular cleaning routine, which contributes to maintaining a healthy environment, especially in high traffic environments such as cloakrooms or changing rooms.