If you mean kids friends (guests)- they will probably come in through the garage (mine do), since the garage is always open when kids are playing outside. For party guests, that won't be hard at all- usually you go to the front to open the door, and can ask to take peoples coats, and hang them up, or have them do it. Its not big deal. A strategically placed nice coat tree will do the trick for overflow. Also, you could have a 'nice bench' where people could sit and take off their shoes (if that's what guests do in your house), and dump their coats on top of it if they are too lazy to hang them up in the closet (this happens in my mudroom bench- guests sometimes come in the back door and dump purses and coats right on the bench). Like this: [Traditional Hall[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-hallway-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_743~s_2107) by Carmel Interior Designers & Decorators Laurie Kertis, Ltd., Interior Design This post was edited by nepool on Wed, Feb 5, 14 at 13:36

Ours are on the way in (same flow as yours from that door there) and they are used. It's not always neat but it's tucked away off the main thoroughfare like yours so even if the shoes aren't under the bench you aren't tripping over them. I really like that aspect. You could also swap the lockers/closet to where the bath is (size depending) and put the laundry where the lockers are and the bath where the laundry is. That would give you a larger laundry and smaller locker area. I would definitely add windows to that back wall. It would be filled with natural light and never be a dark space (unless it's actually dark outside). I would probably even have that door with half or 3/4 glass in it. :D

Better check with the city before you go too far. I doubt a shed with no foundation can be directly connected to a living space and still be to code. If it's really an enclosed porch then that makes more sense. In that scenario, you build an enclosed wrap around porch with room divisions and in the front you can use that as the mud room. The bulkhead is tricky. you could replace it with a hatch in the mudroom but then you would not have outside access to the basement. If its just a service crawlspace, no big deal but if you use that area regularly, it would be a pain to relocate to entrance.

I absolutely do not like the mudroom and the laundry room in the same room. Seems like completely different functions: a mudroom - a place to enter from the outdoors when completely and thoroughly dirty, wet, and/or muddy while bundled in boots/coats/hats/gloves (all of which need to be shed and hung up) while also carrying backpacks, the mail, a purse, groceries, etc; and a laundry room - a place in which to wash/sort/hang up/fold/iron clean clothes. I understand why these two rooms might be CLOSE to each other, but not TOGETHER in the same room.