If you switch the family room with the dining room and reconfigure the pantry and bathroom to the front wall, you could have a divider wall across the front of the dining area. When you center the door, you wouldn't have the sitting area, but maybe coat closet.

What does you architect suggest?

Honestly, he's not a ton of help. :( He's not very creative and pretty much only does what I tell him.

It would be bad feng shui though if the backdoor lines up with the front door.

Why not push the foyer out onto the front porch? If it's a new build, simply design it to hold a foyer.

IMO, mimimomy has a good idea. It also looks like you already have a post there by the sitting room, maybe you could add another one on the other side.

To minimize the bad feng shui, you could move the back door over to the window by the dining area and make the french doors nice big windows. I lived in a house which had a sliding glass door to the backyard right in the middle of the room and I always had to walk around furniture to get out. It would have been so much more functional with a single door to one side of the room.

Just an aside, I love all the windows in your dining area!

Agree that if it's centered, you could do some closet on the left and just have your "entry" functionality along that right wall -- a console table with a few drawers or baskets for mittens and a bowl for mail. There's no critical need for a foyer as a space, per se, just as a set of useful functions.

At this point, if you want a foyer, you are going to have redesign your house. It was not designed with this in mind.

If you "architect" is not creative, he's most likely a draftsman. Or graduated in the bottom of his architecture school class. Your kitchen is going to be VERY dark. I would switch it with the DR and re-configure the panty etc.

The plan has many more issues than the lack of a foyer. The kitchen is split in two, all traffic goes either through the middle of the kitchen or diagonally across the family room, the playroom is a passageway, while the passage to all the bedrooms goes through a playroom, the tub in the bath on the right is for...what purpose? And two staircases in not-that-sprawling of a house?

Your architect needs a do-over.

Consider having an entry similar to this in the do-over.

Liz, the first thing I would do is open the hall to bedrooms 2 and 3 ! It’s hard to see the measurements on my screen, but if centering the front door, I would add a beautiful feature wall directly across from the doorway, slightly longer than the front door , but centered with it and in line with the far hallway walls - sort of creating a gallery/ walkway in line with the left and right hallways . There would be an opening on the left and right of it by which to enter the family room. If possible , you could steal 2-3’ from your porch to enlarge this area. The new foyer wall will make more of an entry statement, while still giving a peek into the family room beyond. You could then display a console with mirror there or a very large piece of artwork. You could even clad that wall in a beautiful split rock or tile or molded paneling. — Then , if you eliminated the tub from the bath by the mud room , you could use that space for a nice double door coat closet. —- If opening the bedroom hallway, I would eliminate the Murphy door btw. the family and playrooms. If it were my house, I would rather invest those $$ in a beautiful wood beam arch into the playroom from the hallway or even a glass wall/ doorway system .

Inspiration for foyer wall with left and right openings to family room—- Crittal window / door wall between playroom and bedroom 2 and 3 hallway.

Another example of a window wall for sound insulation between bedrooms and playroom.

If you have to tell your architect how to incorporate a foyer into the plan, then he is not a very good architect. The process is for you to tell the architect WHAT you want, then it is up to him or her to figure out how to do it. You may need to hire a better architect.

We are beyond disappointed in our architect. It has been a very frustrating process! I feel like we are at the point of no return though. We will be speaking with him tomorrow and we make a final decision then.

To answer a couple of questions: the two staircases are bc the one in the playroom leads to an attic bedroom and the one in the mud room is going to a home office above the garage - it was supposed to be moved to the garage but wasn’t (more frustration). The Murphy door will likely be removed. I so badly wanted it to work out and thought it’d be a really cool feature but it’s making things more complicated.

Again, the centering of the door was my idea to help the elevation work a little better. I would love for him to play around with the porch area/foyer to “make it work” but that’s just not who is is. Had I known this, we never would have hired him. Luckily I have a friend who has been very helpful (done most of the design work) but we’re both stumped here.

Thank you everyone for the replies! If we end up changing dramatically I’ll post an update.

Make the porch the foyer and put the porch out to be even with bedroom 2. Also solves the issue of where to put the door.

Have you thought about how you will place furniture in the family room? That play area is in a horrible spot. I am assuming there will be kids toys in this area?

Well...looking at this plan I have my doubts that the creator is an architect. Just too many things wrong or not properly considered.

Sorry that you are having these sorts of difficulties at this point in the project.

Nicci or Mark had good ideas. The best idea is a new architect with whom you can work. This is your home and your family, and the person designing how you will live should be able to illustrate and enhance, not dictate, your desires. Fortunately, you can use the process so far as a basis for moving forward: you now have a better idea of your wants and needs that you can write, sketch, and share in conversation with your (new) architect.

The playroom has no light whatsoever, yet the master closet has an outside wall. The kitchen is split in two with traffic going through the middle. Stairs are not where YOU want/need them to be. If the lot is wide enough to have a side entry garage with all the driveway space needed on the right, it's wide enough to have a better layout, and with windows in all the rooms.

Can you bump it out so that the entry is its own space?

I would simply add a decorative room divider/partition between the front door and the sitting area. Have the architect design one that is in keeping with the style of the house and open but still creates separation. Some ideas below:

ETA: From the plan it looks like there is already a structural post in the location I would put the divider. Run the divider perpendicular from the post to the entry wall.