Thanks for sharing the ways in which you all use your back entries and storage spaces. It is helpful to know what the most useful areas are to you! The room labeled "pantry" would be used more for storage of odd items, similar to chisue's closet. It will house the vacuum, cleaning supplies, ironing board, and extra overflow from the kitchen. The entrance from the mudroom into the house comes between the living area and kitchen, with the kitchen being to the left as you walk in. My main concerns come with the laundry area of the room. I really would like a designated place to hang wet delicate clothes that won't be dried. Right now I have a collapsible drying rack that I absolutely hate and can't wait to throw out. Are stationary rods the answer? And should this area be across from the washer/dryer, taking some of that space currently designated for the closet?Where do you all make room for that? Oruboris, we also need a wide range of outerwear in our climate. That is why I'm not sure about taking out the closet to make room for more exposed hooks and shelving. I don't want the closet to become a dumping ground mess...however, I'm not sure that I want everything out in the open either. And if I take space from the closet area to make more room for laundry, will there still be adequate space to have a functional closet? Am I even making sense anymore? I definitely don't want to find myself with too little storage space. To put a small bath in that area would take space from somewhere. Should it come from the "pantry" area? I guess this would need a total reconfiguration of the room. And this is my problem--I don't know how much space needs to be dedicated to each function of the room. Is the 4' bench and 2' wide cubbies enough area for 4 people to come in and shed coats? How big is a minimum area for a 1/2 bath? Any more suggestions? Thank you!

I love planning spaces so I took some time and drew up three ideas for you. This was my first idea, with the thought that it would be nice to have the most used room at the forefront. But soon realized you'd have a larger folding area if you used the top of your washer and dryer for folding so I made a few changes utilizing the last photo GeoKid shared as inspiration. Then it dawned on me that having the two sinks basically side by side and the fact that moving the toilet would be costly I thought I should remove the bathroom sink and use a double sink with a large deep side for soaking and small shallow side for washing hands when something is soaking. This last one is my favorite. Even though it doesn't give you two separate rooms I feel, because of the W/D being hidden you get the best use of the space without having the added cost of moving too much of the plumbing and electrical. This post was edited by justgotabme on Wed, Sep 18, 13 at 21:03

So if you can tweet a few things, you could have a lot more useable space: 1. Put your sink and some cabinets in the bump-out area. 2. The left side could be all for cooking. Consider a wall oven. When you have appliances back to back you need to allow for the doors to open and how will it work if two people are in that area. So I would not have anything in the island. 3. Put the refrigerator on the right. If you extend that wall to the back of the house you can do uppers and lowers on that whole wall. Now you have a “triangle” between your sink, refrigerator and stove. 4. Shorten and narrow the island so you have plenty of room to walk around. 5. If you create an alcove by the door to the porch, you would cubbies there and hooks for coats & shoes. 6. Create an opening to the mud room that is centered on the porch door. Then you could create a laundry area on the left and a bench on other side. 7. Do a pocket door to the bath and layout as shown. Consider transom windows above The vanity and in shower. You could also close in the toilet area.

It seems like you have given it a lot of thought. In that case, go with your gut. If you need a professional to say "this is the best one", or say, this is the best one, but I'd do this here, and that there, I can help, this is what I do all day long. Derek Hurd Gravitas, Inc. 112 E 33rd St. Garden City, ID 83714 208.367.1184 www.gravitaslc.com