You have to walk through the bathroom to get to the laundry? I would switch them.

edited to add:

When I think of lockers I think of school lockers which are very small. Personally I would do some closed closet area and some open hanging space with seating.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 17:14

I agree with Debra about the bathroom.

I would do a coat closet. I don't know how big your lockers are, but I do know that everyone in my family has more than one coat. The one used the most can go in the locker; others in the closet. The space is much more flexible.

Visiting friends who come in through the garage will also need a place to hang their coats.

Debrak2008 and annkh - thanks for the bathroom suggestion, but I actually chose this. I'm sure it sounds crazy, but it will work and the pipes are all in already anyways, so decision made at this point. :)

Would you have a 4' closet and a 2' landing area? I thought maybe a small counter and an upper and lower cabinet. To set mail, etc?

Or just a 6' foot closet with shelves inside to the left of the doors?

We will have space for hooks or a coat tree where the plan is cut off and we have LOTS of closet space near the front door for overflow coats, etc.

If it were me I would go with a small landing area. I don't know ANYONE who doesn't walk in their house and immediately set stuff down. Having a place to set it makes sense.

I would put a bench at the end of the closet, so people can sit to put on shoes or boots.

Thanks Texas Gem! I think I'm leaning towards that, but do you think 2' is enough?

No sure about the size of closet etc. but will say lots of hooks. You can hang your purse, grocery bags, book bags, coats and other clothing on hooks instead of setting them on the floor or seat.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 19:56

I assume by lockers you mean something like what I linked below? If so then you will already have seating.

I do think 2 feet would be more than enough. Any bigger and it would encourage people to leave things sitting there because they can just push everything else to the side. That is if anyone in your family is anything like mine. ;)

Here is a link that might be useful: mudroom lockers

Thanks to everyone for the responses and ideas - all a huge help to me!

Xc60 - thanks for the picture. Did you have door on that area? Was there a rod to hang coats?

Texas Gem - we must be on the same wave length because that is very close to what I was thinking. I love the bench being part of it so we several could use it at once. I think I would add doors, just because I don't want to look at the backpacks and junk, but otherwise identical. I agree about the landing space not being too big. I thought maybe the phone, place for keys, mail. But definitely can't be too big or it will become pile central, with yours truly being one of the biggest culprits. :)

That opening beside the shelves was for a fridge or stand up freezer, we had a coat closet, a door to the wak-in pantry, garage door and a door to the main hall, cubbies and laundry around the corner. The cubbies were my favorite part of the house, loved them. This is the other side of the room, the door you see here was the coat closet :

This post was edited by xc60 on Thu, Mar 27, 14 at 2:33

I am all for keeping mudroom space open, as it is an informal, use-all-the-time space. A landing area would be vital, I would think, in such a large family.

As was mentioned, if there is another coat closet near a "formal" entrance the need in a mudroom is negligible. I would, however, second the use of lots of hooks or wide enough lockers (are you talking more like cubbies?) to accommodate more than one coat or jacket.

Baskets on shelving can hold off-season things like hats, mittens or flip-flops. Do you have dogs? Consider an easily-accessible place to hang leashes at-the-ready. That has been a god-send for us.

P.S., because I am often too quick on the trigger;

If all five of your kids could potentially be in that space at once I would rule out a closet entirely and have a long bench where EVERYONE can sit if need be. You don't want to end up with a bunch of kiddos pin-balling off each other in a too-tight space.

famcook-we only have 2 kiddos but wanted the bench usable for sitting so we did not have walls built out to separate each space. We figured we would get a better use of hanging space that way.

This was our inspiration picture - but no room on the end for us to have a 'drop zone':

[Traditional Laundry Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-laundry-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_753~s_2107) by Midland Interior Designers & Decorators SPACE, Inc.

How many 'spaces' are you hoping for? You could put them opposite each other with a small closet next to one section and a drop zone area next to yours....so something like this but I'm unsure of how large you want each area:
drop zone, 3 lockers opposite each other which leaves and extra for guests or for yourself/spouse. To alleviate some traffic you could have the closet open into the hallway instead of the mudroom.

Or - you could do 3 on the side with the drop zone and 2 opposite with a larger closet - opening into the mudroom. Just my thoughts. So many decisions with a build. Good luck. :)

We really wanted both lockers/cubbies and a coat closet and room for lots of shoes.

Sorry, I don't have a pic of the floor plan but our coat closet is to the left perpendicular to the cubbies, and the doorway to the rest of the house is to the right. On the far fight is the shoe storage.

Your mudroom will be about the same size as our entryway. We did an upper shelf and hooks all along one wall (with plans for a bench underneath), and then shoe shelves, a mirror, and 2 hooks hooks on either side of the mirror along the opposite wall. If you some of your children are really little, you might want to consider some low hooks for them so that they can hang up their coats on their own.

Wow, thanks for all the responses! Lots to look at and think about.

Greenhaven- I was thinking something like the picture below. We were thinking 20" wide lockers for each of the kids for backpacks, coats, snow pants (we live in Michigan - we have had a CRaZy winter) keep boots and shoes under the seat area and then maybe a basket for hats, gloves or whatever. I have a leaning towards doors, just because it can be somewhat hidden away. Five kids under 9, so lots of backpacks and stuff for a while. And, yes, we are often all there at the same time walking out the door. So, maybe the split idea of Autumn.4 would be a good option?

Autumn.4- I'm intrigued by your idea of splitting up the lockers. I'll have to mull that over with my DH. I love the open area, but I just worry that it will out of control.

Olivertwist - your shoe storage is to die for! Wow. Maybe I'll stick a shoe shelf we have in the coat closet for overflow? Hmmm, lots to think of.

Do anyone have an opinion on 20" lockers? We've only had open hooks and, currently, a walk in closet with hooks.

Any opinions on splitting up the lockers?

Thanks again!

Laughable- your shoe shelves! I likey. A mirror . . . So glad you chimed in, that is a great idea. I have one in our current house on the back of the closet door, but didn't think about that. What a help this forum is!

I tried to take a pic of ours but I can't get both sides in the shot so here is our layout. We liked it off the main garage entry hall so any over spill isn't in the walkway and we can close the door. We do also have that other closet off the main hall as well. It's so hard to figure it all out, what goes where, how big, etc etc but it's better than anything we've ever had so I think it will be GREAT! It shows 3 and then one with a larger area but we decided to do 2 and 2 for more space per person. It's 6'5" across so each person gets a little over 3 foot of space, two shelves under the bench and 2 shelves above. Haven't decided on hook quantity or placement yet.

It's an angle so it's hard to get just that in the snip.

"Greenhaven- I was thinking something like the picture below. We were thinking 20" wide lockers for each of the kids for backpacks, coats, snow pants (we live in Michigan - we have had a CRaZy winter) keep boots and shoes under the seat area and then maybe a basket for hats, gloves or whatever. I have a leaning towards doors, just because it can be somewhat hidden away. Five kids under 9, so lots of backpacks and stuff for a while. And, yes, we are often all there at the same time walking out the door. "

We live in Michigan too! So, yes, we are quite familiar with the winter from heck that will NOT end. We are new to the state, though, and folks tell us this is very unusual.

Those lockers are lovely, and you have plenty of low space, too. I actually really liked autumn.4's suggestion for a small closet facing into hallway and splitting the rest of the space into lockers and landing. I think you have gotten some great suggestions and will find exactly what works for you.

Greenhaven - we moved here 14 years ago from Chicago. We haven't had a winter like this since we've been here. We are in GR, so way more snow than Chicago, but have never had such a crazy time driving around! We joke its like Russian Roulette to pull out of driveways with the snow banks. And our street, whoa, like toboggan runs all around the historic district!

Thanks for your help and here's hoping for nice, cool summer!

Well I'll be.......waving (with gloves and winter coat on) from just west of GR in the Holland area. What the heck is going on around here anyway!

So because winter was mentioned and we have worn boots non stop for oh lets see 5 months now.......we did do a tall section under the bench for boots and then put a shelf in on either side making more room for shoes - got that idea from someone else on the build blog.

Something to consider, especially with the kiddos.

Autumn.4 - small world!
What are shoes? :) Great idea about the taller boot section! I love it.
Another question for you, is that slate tile I see? I'm considering slate for our mudroom area. Do you like it?

Very small world. :)

It is a porcelain tile that looks like slate.

We are not in yet (the winter has umm slowed us down a bit), but I think it will hold up fine. We had a similar tile in our last home and it was very durable.

We purchased this at lowes, American Olean Kendal Slate Easdale Neutral. It was special order but only took maybe 2 weeks to come in. We have it through the whole back entry. We also installed it in the kids bath. It's reasonably priced and plenty of variation I think. Here is a larger area:

I found a better picture of our setup. Thanks for the kind words. : )

We tried to deal with the boot situation by leaving the tallest space under the bottom shelf of our shoe shelves. All the rest are closer together. We needed lots of space (7 kiddos here.) The shelves are made of recycled flat bifold doors.

The basket on the shelf is for our library books.

(We've replaced the Mr. Mustache ceiling light since this picture was taken.)

Famcook in GR and autumn.4 in Holland? I am south of you but not by a whole lot! Outside Bridgman.

autumn.4's mention of snow boots reminded me that I feel the same way about tall boot places. Plus, your kids' shoes are itty right now but they will be a buncha rowdy teens in no time flat, and they (and their friends) will be dumping shoes by the truckload into your mudroom. We became empty-nesters last year so we are not so far out from those days.

I am experimenting in my pseudo-mudroom space with a very cheap mudroom bench and I find that even though it is just me and DH (and two dirty dogs) our shoe space is inadequate and I cannot get our snow boots or my muckers into the cabinet beneath the bench.

Definitely something to think about.

FamCook, I have slate in my front entry. I'm in Western Canada, and we also have winters that won't end. The slate has held up well for 11 years. The installer hated it, because no 2 pieces were the same thickness. We have since learned that you're supposed to just install it and chip off the high sections afterwards.

It can be hard to clean, but it never shows dirt, so it doesn't bother me.

And I would leave the lockers open. The doors will just be in the way when you've got 5 bodies (and parents) trying to get out the door.

I would prefer to have the doors and individual lockers with a decent seat in front so people can actually sit down in front to tie laces, put on boots..... Open lockers look messy in a real home, doors keep it cleaner. But also many kids want life quick and easy and may just drop things on the floor instead of opening locker doors. Doors also add to cost, and here they are expensive, it would be several thousand to do the built-ins in your inspiration picture.

So cost.... really factors in on what to do.

These are our new built-ins in our new home. I cheaped out due to the cost of the whole house build adding up and put in the standard lockers. I wish we would of spent more for the added expense of adding the side walls to each locker. In our previous build, we had side walls to each locker, one double hook at the back wall higher up and two lower double hooks lower on each side. Making each locker a six hook instead of the only the double on the open lockers. Back hooks for jackets, side hooks for backpacks.... So much better and functional to add the side walls. We still might down the road but our children are getting older, but if I had young children in a long snowy winter environment, it would of been a must.

This post was edited by xc60 on Fri, Mar 28, 14 at 0:58