Put a foyer NEXT to the mudroom so you can enter from the mudroom into a nice foyer and your guests can enter through the foyer. The best of both worlds. Sarah Susanka in her book The Not So Big House showcases one or two examples of where the foyer and mudroom are next to one another but still separated.

The one in Susanka's book really is the perfect example of blending "formal guest entry" and "casual family entry" into one cohesive space.

Think about how you want the space to work. Do you ever envision preferring a "formal experience" for guests? Or are all your visitors the kind of friends/family who you prefer to greet informally, a la "mi casa es su casa?"

I always disliked my formal entry in my previous home -- for some reason it always felt awkward greeting guests in that space! And I hated that it was wasted square footage to heat, cool, clean, decorate.Whenever guests were coming over, I was out there frantically shoveling snow to clear a path from the parking over by the garage up to the "formal entrance." I would have preferred people enter through our mudroom (we keep ours tidy), but that would have required snaking between cars in the garage.

Meanwhile, I didn't like that MY "experience" entering my house was so meh. A small windowless coatroom greeted me...why shouldn't *I* have a cheerful arrival? I'm the one paying the bills! ;)

So, our architect asked lots of questions about what WE want the "guest arrival" and "family arrival" experience to be in our new house, and the resulting floor plan has everyone entering into the same foyer, with benches, shoe cubbies, hooks, and a coat closet. We'll park in a detached garage and take a few steps on a covered walk-way before entering our front door. Guests will park right in front of the garage and follow basically the same path to enter the home.

But that might not be the best solution for you. The point is -- you bring the problems and desired "experiences" to the architects and ask them to creatively solve them by designing the space. That's their job!

We also use the front door for our family entrance. The mudroom/shoe room/cloakroom/whatever-you-want-to-call-it is right off the entry room/foyer/whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

Thank you for your replies. cpartist, are you referring to this image?

If not, I will have to check the book out of the Library again and see the plan that you are referring to. I read the entire book in an afternoon. It was a great read. I took notes and agree with much of what she wrote. I wanted a mudroom like the one above, but it is not ideal for our situation now. arialvetica, I am with you on this. We are working with an architect with over 40+ years of experience. However, he does not creatively come up with solutions. He looks to us to tell him what we want. We do, but there is not that partnership of ideas where he helps us determine solutions. That is one part I do not enjoy about our working relationship. He is very well experienced with homes, structures, requirements, but not with creative solutions. We want to have a small home, but it has grown too large. Thanks Oaktown. The problem is if we remove the front door that faces the street (think center entrance), then we would like one that is prominent on the driveway side, somewhat slanted/angled toward the driveway (right side looking at the house from the street) to greet guests. I do not like homes that have two front doors. I feel confused, as a guest, as to which door to enter through. We have to have an attached garage, so the placement of the entrance is tricky. If you happen to think of any ideas, feel free to send them our way! :)

arialvetica, yes, all of our guests are treated like "mi casa es su casa." We do not formally entertain. When we have family or friends over, it is over 20 people every time. We need shoe space! :)

I'm a "mi casa es su casa" kind of entertainer too. I don't mind people seeing evidence that my family owns shoes, but I don't want anyone tripping over them! :)

This is similar to what I've asked our cabinet guy to draw up.

I'm not doing the upper cubbies (they're wasted on us, we prefer to have everything on hooks -- for smaller items like mittens, I hang bags from the hooks). I also am not dividing it into "lockers" -- all they do is limit where you can/can't sit. There's no functional purpose to them.

BUT what I love in the white bench is the spacing between shoe shelves, and in the wood picture I love that the trays roll out. You could do standard drawers, but I know that we're more likely to use them if we don't have to open a drawer (man we sound SO LAZY!), and can just shove today's shoes in the slot at the front, and keep our lesser-worn shoes in the back of the tray.

If I were having a big party, I would probably move my family's shoes to the closet (yes, probably jumbled in a heap in a box on the floor...) to make room for guest shoes! ;)

He looks to us to tell him what we want. We do, but there is not that partnership of ideas where he helps us determine solutions. That is one part I do not enjoy about our working relationship. He is very well experienced with homes, structures, requirements, but not with creative solutions

Are you sure the person you are working with is a LICENSED architect and not a draftsman/designer?

I say that as someone who I even had to show with my own home how I could eliminate a bedroom and still have it be structurally sound so I know from draftsman.

Regarding what you posted, I am thinking of one where the garage led into the mudroom, and then the mudroom opened into the front hall/foyer area. I own the book but it's up in NY and I'm in FL for the winter or I'd look it up for you.

Does your front door have to face the street? Or can you treat the driveway like a street?

Or you can have a walkway from the street to a front porch even if you have the front door facing the side.

Even if you need a front door on the street, it needn't be centered, it could be positioned so as to have an adjacent mudroom shared with the garage entry, or accommodate a second entry on the side.

On the topic of mudroom shoe storage I highly recommend the IKEA shallow PAX units (not the deep ones) with the Komplement shelves. The shelves are metal, angled with a front lip, removable for easy cleaning. The units are very easy to customize -- as the kids get older we'll move the hook/rod thingies higher and add more shoe shelves. We have our bench opposite.

For a while we were looking at a plan that had a similar set up. Here is the layout showing an idea as food for thought. I'd have wanted to make more room if used for home and guests but it looks pretty efficient. We have open hooks like arialvetica shows and wouldn't change a thing. So nice for sitting if you need to vs. having lockers with full partitions and/or doors.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. Yes, our current architect is a licensed architect, not a draftsman. We just located another architect that may be able to really help us with the space planning and design. We are meeting with his team tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. This will be architect number 3! I am not willing to build a house that I do not love, or that is too big! Autumn, that is a very nice house plan. Good use of space. Cpartist, I did go to the library and quickly looked through Sarah's books. Nothing really stood out to me regarding the plans. I have read two of her books front to back, but the one with the house plans, I just skimmed. Arial, yes I love cubbies! We have the locker system at our current home too We did a full bench, with the divider set toward the wall so we could sit without interruption. We also have drawers, but closed in front. The shoe problem is when the 20+ people come through the front door. In our foyer, we have no place for them. People are stepping over the shoes to get through the door. I find it annoying. Oaktown, we live in a suburban area on a somewhat small residential road. Our house would have to be toward the road to really fit in. We do not have sidewalks or anything like that around here. But, your idea of having an offset front door, closer to the garage may work. I will update you after our consult meeting tomorrow! Hoping for a good meeting!

Oh so glad the new meeting went well for you. Like you said, you want to get something you love. Best of luck.

What a great feeling kymberie. It sounds like you are on the right path. Now to patiently wait for the line drawings - hard to do!

Hi Everyone! We have been working on our plan with our architect, but it still bugs me that we have to have wasted space at the front door. We don't really have people enter our front door unless we are having a gathering. I just posted earlier today about our most current house plans, see my post in the stream requesting reviews. However, going back over my files today, I came across this picture. This is a hodge-podge of features that we like. I still am holding out that we can make it work in some fashion. I really do not want to pay for a large home, nor do I want to clean it. :) Looking at this image, I would make the most interior Family or Dining Room the actual Family Room and the exterior room at the back of the kitchen the Dining Room. The actual Den on the picture I was hoping could be a scissored stair and the room to the right, near the stairs, just off the foyer could be the Den. The actual stairs on this picture could be a hidden pantry entered from the kitchen. We would have a door from the back yard into the mudroom near the half-bath that is on the picture. Have I lost my mind? I really want a well-designed plan and I keep second-guessing myself!! I like the kitchen and master bathroom that I have in my most recent plan. See here. However, I am not unwilling to listen to suggestions. I am a planner by nature and I like to know where everything will be before executing my plan. By that, I mean even the kitty litter and dog/cat food and bowls! :) I have even planned out my kitchen in terms of storage of items in what drawers/cabinets. Please help me if you can! :)

You're going to haul all the laundry from your children downstairs and through your bedroom to the laundry room? NOT a good plan! Perhaps you have a small stacking unit for you and your husband off your closet and a 2nd full-size laundry room on the 2nd floor where you children are?

No, the kids will have their own laundry upstairs.

I totally don't get the point in a "friend's entrance". Who else are you letting into your house? Instead, I think it makes sense to design one entrance that fulfills all your entrance purposes -- yes, Sarah Susanka shows several of these in her books, and it's a very practical idea. My personal favorite is the one that includes a pass-through between the entryway and the kitchen counter so you can "drop off" groceries as you walk in.

Looking at the last plan you posted, hearing you say that you still think you're "wasting space" by the front door (not much), I wonder if you could push the office (office?) to the back and bring the garage entrance to the front. Something like this, though I've depicted it horribly -- the office would still have space for a small window towards the back of the house, and your garage entrance would feel more like it's a part of the house's main foyer. You'd have space for coat storage and drop-things-space, yet it'd be part of the foyer hall.

Another big thought that hasn't been discussed: Parking.

Parking is integral to this whole thought process. Will your guests park at the back and enter with no view of the front of the house at all? I wouldn't do that personally. I'd lean towards a circular drive for a house like this, but then that would bring people in the front door. You have loads of options, but just don't treat parking as an afterthought.

I have several friends that let me use their front door.

MrsPete, we do not need a friend's entrance, but we do need a backyard entrance into the mudroom. With our fur-kid, we need a place to wipe him off without entering through the rest of the house. In addition, we have two great kids that love to dig, explore, build and just live outdoors. We need a place to take off the dirty clothes and shoes. We would like to start a small farm too, so we are anticipating lots of mud and muck! I cannot wait!!! :)

I think you do have a point that the parking just doesn't feel right. I would love a courtyard driveway, but again, not working with the people that we have hired...I guess we are limited in our own thoughts and they do not really provide solutions to our design challenges. :(

Edited to add, maybe I need to flip the house so that the driveway/garage is on the left.