This Over-100-Year-Old Home Feature Has Gone Extinct, and It’s Overdue for a Comeback

When I was a kid, my mom worked for a woman whose husband had custom built their home. The house was beautiful, and I remember wandering around and admiring all of the little touches he included to make it work just for them. The one that still sticks out to me is the phone nook that included a seat tucked into a small table that could be pulled out, so they could sit while they were on the phone.

Honestly, I’ve thought about that phone nook on a regular basis since I saw it all those years ago, and it makes me sad that phone nooks have gone the way of the dinosaurs and other old home features like Victorian dust corners and dumbwaiters. I mean, it makes sense — you no longer have to be tethered to one spot with a phone cord, and phones can be charged anywhere there’s an outlet. But this is my campaign to bring phone nooks back or revitalize the one you have!

Basically,  a phone nook is a rectangular area recessed into the wall with a phone jack where a landline phone would hang and be out of the way of any walking space. The ledge at the bottom of the nook could be used to rest a notepad and pen to take messages, a phone book or even an answering machine (remember those?). 

Some phone nooks even had a shelf under the main nook or a tilt-out drawer to store supplies. For phones that hung on the wall without a nook, people would incorporate a built-in shelf next to them to create a place for the phone book or notepad.

Although there’s no exact year that the phone nook was invented, reporting from Taste of Home suggests that they were common in homes built in the first half of the 20th century — which makes sense because they were built for bulky landlines that no longer exist. 

Telephone cabinets, as they were also often called, were also sold in the Sears Roebuck catalog and could even be included in some of its Sears Kit homes at no extra cost.

Phone nooks began to fall out of favor as times modernized and the landline became far less popular, or even changed in design. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans own homes without landlines, according to USA Today. Even just two decades ago, only 5% of Americans relied on just their cellphone.

If you have a phone nook in your home, here are a few great ways to repurpose it and bring it into the modern era — especially if you’re giving prospective buyers a look at your vintage home.

Many retro phone nooks still have the phone jack installed in the back. While you can remove it, an easy way to cover it up and add aesthetic appeal is to hang artwork over it, without investing in a repair for a home you’re trying to sell.

The ledge of a phone nook makes it an ideal location to place a few books. This can make them more accessible, and you can even rotate the selection to keep it fresh for family and even friends. Maybe that’s where you put a little lending library for your guests?

These little spaces make a perfect place to create a little vignette. You can change the decor for each season or use it as a place to highlight little celebrations, like when someone gets an award at school or work. 

Each month, you could use this area to feature a different family member. You can put up a picture and do a mini interview and write down things like what they’re into at the moment, their goals, and exciting things they’ve done. 

Hear me out. What if you used a phone nook as a phone charging station? This would be a great way to cut down on phone use and have a centralized place for everyone to put their phone when they get home. 

You can take the charging station a step further and include a place to hang keys. You could also use this as the starting point for a home command center, and use the surrounding walls to hang your calendar and a corkboard for important papers and create a place for paper mail.