What are the dimensions? It looks rather narrow. And what are you planning on using the other rooms for? Is the room across from it going to be a living room? It appears to have a door. If so, I'd use that room across from it as an office and use the open room as a sitting room if it's wide enough. Or, a music room - a piano might fit nicely there. I'm not sure I'd use that area have a bench and hang coats. It seems too big for that. Is there a coat closet? I don't see one on the plan which seems kind of odd to be missing.

One thing I don't like at all - having the wood entry but carpet right there. I would much prefer to have the entire area with the same flooring. The carpet makes that space look so small.

I agree with fourkids....I'd definitely want an entry closet of some sort....maybe close up the doorway to the kitchen and put a built in closet and storage across that far wall. Then the rest of the space can be used as a sitting room or a library of sorts with book cases and some easy chairs and a coffee table....this way you can have a place to greet guests, take shoes and such on and off, put coats away. I always like to have a less-used space for more formal guests so they don't have to sit around the kitchen which can be messier or too casual.

If you close up the doorway to the kitchen, then you can add more cabinetry/storage or put a desk/mail station in the kitchen...a place to put keys, mail, etc.

Our entries are a little similar in that when you walk in our door, there's a very impractical dining room immediately to the right. But my space is a bit larger and therefore easier to use. Right now it's serving as a home office until we get the basement finished. Once it's finished (we're doing it bit by bit so it will take a while) I'll either have the dining rom staged but unused (i.e. dining furniture storage), or... not sure. :)

Are you building your own, or buying one of the builder's existing inventories? (Wondering how much wiggle room you have for things like moving/changing walls.)

A bit contrary to the direction others are going in, I wouldn't worry (personally) about an entry closet unless you entertain guests a lot, since I'm guessing the garage will be your primary entrance and it looks like you have an entry room right inside that doorway. We DO have an entry closet, and we hang coats in it during the summer. That's about it. Daily use is managed in our mudroom/entry toom. Family usually enters through the garage as well. The few times we've had guests (in the winter) we've used it. Maybe 4 times in 2 years.

I WOULD close up the entrance from the kitchen. My floorplan is below, you can see what we did if it helps. Ignore the notes on the right - this was very early and we were heavily modifying an existing blueprint, so most of these ended up moot anyway. And apparently I couldn't spell "angled" that day!!

The room to the left of the entrance will be my office. I don't have dimensions for the dining area yet, but it IS quite narrow.

No matter how formal the party, everyone ends up in my kitchen. I know a formal dining room or sitting room will never be used. I really don't want it to be a "staged but never used" room. Would love for it to be functional AND beautiful.

I had planned on putting an upright piano in the top right corner "sun room" but putting it in this "dining room isn't a bad idea. Keep the ideas coming! :D

To give you an idea of our lifestyle, we live in Minnesota and we have a 7-month-old baby and (hopefully) more on the way soon. I work from home 40 hours a week. When we entertain, it's usually just a few friends over for a casual dinner and board games. Our beautiful heirloom-quality dining table is round (60" or 78" w/ leaves) --which is beautiful but will not work in this dining room even if we wanted it to.

I have another thread in the home building forum discussing possible scenarios that involve major changes to the floorplan (here's a link to that thread).

We are building on the builder's lot. The excavation work is done and the foundations are about to be poured, so the outer walls need to stay the same, but I get the impression we do have some wiggle room with the interior. We meet with the bulider tonight to find out--I'm trying to get a handle on my "ideal" scenario and my "good enough" scenario in case the modifications come at too steep of a price. :)

Keep those ideas coming. You're all really helping me figure out how I do and don't want to use the space! :)

I would turn it into a library/reading room, and place your heirloom round table somewhere in there for board games and puzzles. If it is in the budget, I'd do shelves all across the long wall, and include a library ladder. I went to a Southern Living home tour here in Houston recently, and everyone was completely taken with the library/homework room they included. They had a gorgeous, narrow, old pine table right down the center (maybe 16-18" wide), benches and chairs, etc.

I think I would wall it off. You could recess the wall slightly so as to not cramp your entry too much. Then I would break it into three space. The area closest to the kitchen would be accessed from the kitchen and would be a huge walk-in pantry with a counter for my mixer and food processor. I might even put a chest freezer in there.

The middle part would be a large locking closet to store my holiday decorations and Christmas gifts. The front section would become a coat closet which would also be a good place to have some bins for quick toy clean-up.

If you have flexibility, then I would definitely consider closing up the entry door to the kitchen, and I'd consider closing up the the room so the doorway matches the one across the hall...might make the room more usable...music nook sounds like a good option. I like the idea of a homework room as well.

Or you could close it up even more, leave the doorway to the kitchen and turn it into a rumpus room for the kid(s).

I would also wall it off, or at least bring the wall halfway out. Long enough where you can have a coat bench/rack.

However, I wouldn't close it off. Down the road as your family grows, you may want to use that space as a DR.

Would the dimensions work for a hybrid of the above? E.g. a built in bookcase wall, some chairs and a table for games with friends, etc.

Have you considered using it as a playroom? (Unless you have a dedicated playspace already). Another house similar to ours is going up a few streets over and they are turning their FDR into a playroom.

Regardless of what you do with it, if you close off that kitchen entryway, you could easy section the area off with some nice drapery. I've seen that done with smaller rooms and it always looks nice IMO.

Another couple who built a house similar to ours turned theirs into a study. He is a paleontologist and has the fossil from sonething goat-sized mounted on the wall... :O

Make it a lovely library type office and put up walls with French doors.

Yes -- excellent ideas above!! :)

a)Close up the kitchen entrance - and extend that adjoining wall to create a better-sized opening to your new room. That move will give you the future option of adding glass French doors on your office and on the "music room" Now close up the window -- now you have three walls of space!

b)Create a full storage wall on that wall (where the kitchen wall is) It could have a cupboard to hold coats and boots -- plus an area to stash toys)

c)Put the piano in here (where the window was placed) -- and create a "music room".

LOL we need a huge fossilized goat. I'm going to suggest that to my husband just to see his "vomit face."

I like the library/study/music room ideas best. I would definitely close it off from the kitchen and consider putting a half-wall from the foyer with a double-wide open entry from the foyer to keep it an open feel (half-wall on each side of the opening). I like the idea of full storage but wouldn't clutter it up with coats and boots at your main entry. Would definitely continue the hardwood or whatever you use in the foyer into this room.
I would leave a nice size window, however. If you're going to use it as any kind of study or music room, I would think you would want light from outside in there and not feel closed in or windowless.

We have a similar space just inside our front door. We put bookcases, storage cabinets, and a table. Right now my kids (6 and 4) use it as their art room, but it will be the homework room as they get older. I love being able to leave projects out and not have to worry about clearing the table before every meal. And I will love having a computer where I can keep an eye on them when they are older. We have a separate office, but that's mine and DH's space. We wanted a similar "office" type space for the kids.

I would also extend the entry wall on the dining room side to match the office side. You can place a bench against one wall and hooks on the other. I would even consider closing off half that opening. That way that room won't be the first thing you see when you come in. I'd also keep the doorway to the kitchen, especially if you are going to be using it as a kid space. Much easier to see them in there.

And I'm a fellow Minnesotanite, although I'm from across the river in St. Paul. :) Now I live in a small town in Southern MN.

Something else we considered that I'll throw out there. If you do end up leaving the passageway between the kitchen and "space" - you might want to think about having some cabinetry added and making it a small butler's pantry. If nothing else, it gives you a few junk drawers.

Where do you plan to put the dining table you have? Would your large round dining table work in the room you talked about using as an office and then make the "DR" space into and office/library? That narrow room does seem to lend itself to an office/library/music room sort of use better than a dining room -- especially with your table.

Could you move the front door over a little?

I would do exactly what you said, minneapolisite: "I think there needs to be a bench to sit on and a wall with hooks to hang coats."

I would do that, too. What a nice space to be able drop things and collect coats, shoes, bags, etc for the folks who live there as well as visitors.

How about turning part of it into an entryway with a closet, part of it into a full pantry and getting rid of the corner pantry + other pantry.

Turn the powder room into a full bath, reconfigure the rest for mudroom. Also have some kind of access to the full bath from that back room behind the kitchen so it could be utilized as a bedroom if necessary.

A couple years ago two people in my family were in a car accident and ended up in hospital beds in my parents house, one in the dining room, one in the library, but there was no full bath on that floor so a caregiver had to come in. It was either be trapped upstairs where the full baths are or be downstairs and no full bath. Even for a few months it was a major inconvenience. And if you end up housing an elderly relative or long-visit inlaws it would be nice to have that flexibility. You have the room for it, so I would consider repurposing it entirely rather than turning it into another room for family use.

Great idea on the moving of the pantry, palimpsest. I thought about suggesting that too, and it would/could be a huge pantry if needed. And could gain some additional counter space in the kitchen. Don't know the dimensions of the space in the mudroom/half-bath, but a bedroom and full bath might be tight but I like your thought. If you have a pet, I've seen people use that space to double as an dog-washing area (combined with a people-shower).

It is handy to have a closed-off guest closet in the foyer if you're not planning to have something else in that space. I just don't care for having a cluttered room as guests walk in the door. The more 'clean' you can keep that space the better IMO and keep the day-to-day life in the space off the garage. The coziness of the photo Annie posted is really nice. I can see myself retreating off to that space when I just want to go read and be by myself.

I think you've gotten a lot of good suggestions here. I just want to add that if you are considering walling it in and using French doors, consider having the doors be pocket doors, or hang them from barn-door hardware. Because that room looks to be, what, about 7.5' wide? (Assuming the pass-through from the kitchen is 30"). If you hang 30" doors that swing in, you're bound to have trouble placing furniture in the room.