I see two opportunities without changing much in the floorplan:

1) Make the butlers' pantry a real pantry in between the dining room and kitchen. It can be deeper than what is shown to maximize the wasted space under the stairs.

2) Delete butlers' pantry and move the powder room to under the stairs with access door from family room side right about where the back wall of the current butlers' pantry meets the stair wall. The sink would be on your left when you walk in and the toilet on the right. (I went to a co-worker's Christmas party that had this set up and it was a great use of space.) Then turn the current powder room into a pantry.

If you're flexible on changing the plan around some (i.e. moving wall, adding square footage, changing space configurations. etc) there are other ideas.

This plan is quite similar to the one CamG has posted on the 'Building a Home' forum you may want to check it out and see what everyone came up with for him.

How many square feet do you have there? I'll have to look for you, but a Don Gardner plan is coming to mind (that I can't remember the name of) that may be an option for your layout. Are you set on the master being behind the garage or could it be flip-flopped with the secondary bedrooms?

Hope this helps!

it could be flipped as long as i keep my closet. I did see cams layout cause it reminded me of my own. the closet under the stairs i planned on using for audio equipment for whole house sound and surround sound.

the square feet is currently 2006. Really don't want to go any larger as we wanted to keep 2000 or less so i'm already a tad over.

I was thinking of forgoing the double oven and putting the fridge there. then where the fridge is currently doing a large tall cabinet for the pantry?

i have seen some morning rooms with a narrow pantry with closet type folding doors that open out. not sure if thats an idea.

we are doing a slider door in the breakfast nook so there will be more room for a table.

we plan on doing a small table in the breakfast room for 4 people.

You could knock out a square room between the dining room door and your range and bump it into your master bedroom. The benefits are proximity, it doesn't steal any space from really useful parts of any room, and it doesn't add any square footage. Losing the corner of your master shouldn't really inhibit your space planning in the master.

what I would do,in the laundry room is get a slighter smaller work sink cabinet than what you show, the washer/dryer could be a stacked unit[can vouch-do it!] or move them to the right, and the space created at the left of this run can be a narrow tall cubbie section. Then the cubbies you have on the other wall can be reduced in width, and make a pantry section with wire shelves[even without a door enclosing it]. I have this kind of set up-at a distance from the kitchen about like this. I prefer it for stocking up-paper goods/canned goods/crockpot/spare cleaning stuff/sponges,etc. I think you'd like this-there are other things than cubbies for this room-think about it-with fewer cubbies and this pantry storage-maybe even hooks and space for a drying rack-don't underestimate what you can do with this area.

P.S. a pocket door from hall into laundry will allow the unused wall inside laundry to have some hooks, maybe other use. I think a door there will be open for the most part,except when you have company or the like,so I would think about it. [don't forget a little side door off your garage to side yard-in and out with gardening tools,etc.]

herbflavor- thanks we have added the side door. our builder noticed that too. we are considering a pocket door in laundry room.

I actually vouched for the laundry sink to be moved to the garage. cubbies and washer and dryer were flipped to give me more cubbies.

alex house i'm having a hard time visualizing what your saying. so i would have a 2 ft box sticking out in my bedroom?

gingerjenny--I think that is indeed what Alex House is saying. I had thought of that as well. It sounds like it would look awkward, but I think with a little thought, it could be made to look like an accent in the room. Also, I don't know if you're planning to maybe put a piece of furniture on the wall at the foot of the bed, but that furniture would hide the view of the bumpout anyway--especially if it was an armoire or something like it.

Another thought I had was maybe you could move the entry to the master bedroom to where the double ovens are and move the ovens so they are on the other side of the counter from the fridge. Then continue the kitchen/master bedroom wall across the hallway to the mudroom to make a pantry in that area. For the master bedroom entrance, you could make a kind of alcove off the kitchen to help provide greater privacy. Just a thought...

Thanks everyone. i have a lot to think about. I am not sure a bump out into the master would look right but I'll play around with the idea