I just open up a stair wall in my foyer which is exposed to my dining room and I love it. I guess you need to decide if you want to walk in the front door and immediately see your kitchen.

I like the set up of your foyer and I would leave it as is. Unless you are going to spend the money to move the toilet, it seems like it wouldn't be much more spacious to move the laundry.

I'm a little confused by the drawing. Is this a split level house, so those stairs actually go down into a living room? Generally the front doors of houses open into a foyer, big or small, that feeds to a public room of some sort. All I see is funneling to a bedroom, bathroom, and down the short hall to the laundry, which just doesn't seem likely.

As far as the staircase railing as part of the kichen wall, I guess it depends on whether that's an up or down staircase. If up, I've seen that in houses on HGTV or DIY and it's OK. If down, I've seen that too and it didn't seem like such a good idea. Here are some photos from Houzz which may be of some help:

[modern kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2105) by tel aviv interior designer NURIT GEFFEN-BATIM STUDIO

[contemporary staircase design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-staircase-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_745~s_2103) by burlington architect Smith & Vansant Architects PC

[contemporary kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by san francisco architect WA design

[modern dining room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-dining-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_722~s_2105) by san francisco architect John Maniscalco Architecture

[spaces design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/home-design-ideas-phbr0-bp~)

Right now, the house is currently a ranch. We are adding a second floor on, so the stairs in the foyer go up. The stairs in the mudroom should say down (they go to the basement). I have attached our current house plan, we are trying to stay within the footprint of the house for this plan B, just not sure if it is doable.

{{!gwi}}

Since it's an open plan anyway, with everyone, including guests, using a main room with full view of the kitchen, it should work nicely if you wanted to go that way. Someone at the front door, not invited in, would not see very much, and it would change that little hall from a closed, relatively cramped area into an airy, inviting transition, mainly benefiting your family as you move from place to place.

That last is the only, potential problem I see--if the direct, inviting route to the left diverted most front-door visitors that way instead of straight ahead and you didn't want that. You could help head that off by, say, placing a wide sunny set of doors to the back garden where you have one now to draw people that way (we always want to head for the light), or a pretty bay window perhaps, or ???.

The office would probably also feel a bit less secluded from the active areas with the open staircase, a plus or a minus?

BTW, that view line from the front door is developing very nicely and where it goes should be as gorgeous as possible, arguing for something special on that wall anyway. I notice the washer/dryer wall has crept slightly left and is impinging on the main view from the front door. I personally would stack them and move the wall of the closet decidedly right, totally out of the view, before I'd let that happen. It'd be a shame to create that nice elegant enfillade just to goof up the picture by inches.

If you plan on using that bedroom as a bedroom and not just an office, I would keep the shower in the bathroom. You don't want to have to travel to another floor to shower, especially it's a guest room.

There doesn't seem to be a living room or a formal dining room, so I would make the family room bigger.

You could move the laundry to the basement if you wanted to free up some room there.

Do the stairs go to some public rooms?

I'm a little uncomfortable with the overall plan too. I would expect a nice foyer to lead into at least one room I could keep clean. :) You know, somewhere I could sit down with the neighbor who's giving me zucchini from her garden again to have the "no more squash" chat without leading her through the bowels of the home.

BUT!

That stated, you can probably figure out that I would prefer a wall to an open railing. The railing would look perfectly nice I think but I like the ability to close off a kitchen (pocket door!) from the entry.

So I'm not helpful, but I'd prefer a wall to a railing.

The stairs go up to the second floor. I think the foyer would feel very closed in and the house small if there wasn't a view into the kitchen?

What do you think about getting rid of the shower and putting a powder room in the foyer? Then I could put the laundry room where the bathroom is now? The front room is really our den/office/4th bedroom. When guests come they usually sleep in the basement, maybe 2 times a year somebody would sleep in that bedroom.

You could, and I would, have a wall at the end of the cabinet run at the bottom of the kitchen rather than having the end of the cabinet run right at the opening.

I'd recommend keeping a full bath somewhere on the first floor. People age. People break legs (happened to friends of ours two weeks ago. Their daughter now has 13 pins and 22 staples holding her leg together. Mom and dad gave up their 1st floor bedroom so that she can sleep there while she heals. Thankfully they have a full bath downstairs.) Things happen. It would be nice to be able to have the first floor completely useful in case someone can't go upstairs for some reason.

Also, I think I'd prefer to keep the laundry and bath separate. We have a combo deal, and if I had a choice, I don't think I'd do it that way again. It seems like I always have laundry in process and containers of cleaners out on the dryer. I'd love to be able to shut the door on it when visitors are around. A perk in our laundry area that we do have is a window over the units, that makes doing laundry very pleasant.

I like all the closet space in your entry. Nice! I think I'd prefer to have the stairwell open to the kitchen. It just looks like it would feel a lot more open and welcoming that way. I'd like the look of spindles more than a half wall topped with molding, but that's me. : )

I think if you're adding a whole floor to the house you should at least end up with a living and dining room.

That dining "space" is a laugh. No one will feel comfortable sitting between two rooms dining, and the leftover family room will be very small once you accurately calculate how much space you need to leave (a lot) behind the dining chairs before you can "start" the family room with a sofa or whatnot.

palimpest - good idea about the wall

laughable - good point about the shower downstairs. I think I may prefer the look of spindles also, thanks.

marcolo - I don't need a formal dining room, but I agree, definitely not enough space here. I was looking for something similar to pps7 and soonermagic's spaces.

{{gwi:1440586}}

I am not good with design, but it seems to me that your overall layout downstairs might be better if you put the stairway (to the upper level) on the right side of the foyer, up against the garage wall and relocate the pantry to gain width in your kitchen and open it up more.

It also seems that there's alot of wasted space in the pantry / powder room / laundry layout and this could be configured better, especially since it seems the bathroom does not currently exist where your architect shows it.

Is the nicest view in the front, back or side of your house?

Also, if you are going to add an additional 5 feet to the family room, consider if this is the best way to expand. It might be better to expand into the space you now have your patio than to elongate your L shaped home. This will depend alot on your property, views, aesthetics, etc. I point this out to you because I initially planned an L shaped extension based on a pic in a magazine that I loved, but a friend of mine who is an interior designer took one look at the plan and my property and said that it was not the best design for my property. She was right.

dilly- I originally requested the stairs go on the right and I do have one drawing that way (not with me) and the architect had to put the bathroom where the pantry is because it couldn't go under the stairs and I didn't like it there. I agree that it would open up my kitchen to move the stairs when then where do the pantry and bathroom move to?

We have a very nice backyard and right side of the house. The left side (where the kitchen window would be) is probably the worst view (but not a terrible view).