With the large pantry you may not need the broom closet. I would put a large window there instead, so you get light into the kitchen. You could also replace the side door and broom closet with a double French door with just one side that opens. You will see that door from the front hallway, so I would want it to look nice. I'd keep the bench with hooks above it in the mud room rather than making them all lockers.

The most important area in my experience is the floor space in front of the area marked lockers. If you shift the garage entry door to the right, you decrease this. Yes, you add space in front of the "benches or lockers" area, but it will be behind the door and thus not used by kids at all. I'd leave it where it is

thanks mnmamax3! here is the first floor plan, we just poured the basement foundation so framing will start soon.

I agree about the wasted space, i wanted a big mudroom but the layout is proving to be a challenge. I originally had a u-shaped locker room but it created a wall to the right of the garage door and I thought that might become a barrier for the kids to get to the locker.

Kids are 4 and 8, no hockey or skiing. Skiing isn't a thing in the flatlands of Chicago!

What is the orientation of the plan? Which way is north?

I thought someone would ask that! Thanks Virgil. The house faces north

You could put some shelving behind the garage door for off-season stuff then lockers/storage on the perimeter. A low bench isn’t going to block things as much as a bank of lockers. Maybe you could float a sturdy bench (or even a fun ottoman) in the center of that open area (similar to a kitchen island). make it freestanding so you remove it if it becomes a traffic flow stopper. Good luck as you move through this process!

Most houses face north, east, south, and west; or some variation of that.

(thought you may need a dose of smart aleck this Tuesday morning)

Thanks Mark! Front elevation of the house faces north. Any suggestions for me on the layout?

I designed a house once that had a lineal pantry that was accessible from both sides, stock from one side and remove from the other side; but it never got built. What if you did something like that?

More food for thought.

Love Mark's idea for reconfiguring that space. So much light in the kitchen! I don't understand the deep/shallow pantry designations? is one on the backside of the wall or uppers/lowers?

And THIS is why I love Houzz, the power of creative thinking and building off of ideas you could never come up with on your own. I started following back in the Garden Web days. Thanks Mark!! I was bracing myself for you to tear the plan apart! That makes one big ole kitchen. 17x20. I had my head set on a walk in pantry but this is worth consideration. still need to figure out the mudroom layout...looking at the half bath layout options to make the hallway as wide as possible and maybe adding a coat closet.Please excuse my poor man renderings.

OG

Mark's idea:

Loving Mark's idea! Maybe with a prep sink on the island.

What's the area to the left of the mudroom bath? I can't make out the label.

my original question was about the mudroom. this option is showing a small walk in closet to the left of the bath. we don't have a hall closet for coats. if we lose the pantry i am going to need to add a closet somewhere.

Love your exclamation about Houzz! So true! Glad you're one of the ones asking BEFORE it's all done - rather than how to fix it after!

You could make the half bath sink opposite the toilet to shrink the width. If you are adding storage on the back wall of your new longer pantry, you could afford to lose a little of the space by the original lockers for a new traffic path. Can't draw it on the phone but you're getting there...

Can you tuck a closet under the stairs? Can't tell which side goes up on the plans...

Having lockers/benches turning a corner is in my opinion a waste of space and it makes it hard for multiple people to sit down at once to put shoes on etc. as they'll knock into each other. Also the corner is harder to use for anything. Even if you use hooks etc. it is much harder to reach. I'd try for 2 sides where each side is for one adult and one child.

Is the coat closet actually for coats? Overflow storage? I ask because I wonder if wall hooks on the back side of the pantry would suffice, allowing the bath to shift further left and the mudroom to have a little more space.

Hard to see the drawings/text. Can you make them bigger?

thanks lyfia, i agree about the corner but there isn't any option that I can figure out here, other than on each side of garage door, which previous poster advised against. i see pro and cons of both.

Given the location of the dining room, I like mark's idea. You get more storage in the kitchen where you use the items as well as light, and the reach-in pantry will hold things for the dining room and entertaining, as well as general items. And you don't waste floor space on a walk-in pantry. But not the corner lockers.

Are you going to have a "covered back stoop" outside the mudroom door? Do it. And add a man-door from the garage, so you can easily get your summer and gardening stuff into the back yard.

The deep pantry could be 24" deep pantry cabinets or wall and base cabinets on the kitchen side. The shallow pantry could be 12" deep pantry cabinets on the Mudroom side. Or it could be mixed with part of the kitchen side having 12" deep cabinets and part 24" deep cabinets, with the corresponding back side having 24" deep cabinets and 12" deep cabinets open respectively to the mudroom.

I like walk-in pantries, but there is something to be said for having what you need to cook right there in the kitchen without having to leave the kitchen to get it.

Mark's idea for mixing cabinet or closet sizes and going back-to-back, whether you can access them from both sides or have a wall between, works well. I've lived with such an arrangement and much prefer it to a walk-in.

"I was bracing myself for you to tear the plan apart!"

I am saving it for when you ask about the stairs.

Thanks all! Was going to ask builder for a quote for a door to the garage. every change order adds up. The kitchen and dinette are south facing, so less concerned about sun into the space. Given the feedback so far, this is what i have, the mudroom options don't change between the two, but I would see the lockers more from the kitchen without the pantry option.

okay...i'll bite...what about the stairs? how did you know that they have been the hardest thing for me to figure out!!? this is one of the builders 'standard' layouts

Your drawing (not the most recent post with drawings but one prior), is what I would avoid. It seems great with all the storage on each side of the garage entrance, but with kids.... you will end up with pills of stuff (shoes, book bags, swim goggles, towels, sports balls, etc.) that are right in front of both the side door and the garage door. (I know from experience)

I like to make stairs so each step is the same experience for the person negotiating them. In a stair with a straight run, the rhythm is the same all the way down:

1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 .

Your stair is:

1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 8 - 1 - 1 - 8 - 1 - 1 - 1 .

I think an irregular tread in a stair is a potential trip hazard and dangerous. I avoid them.

This might work better. An aisle area where the doors are and a long locker/bench area that I think is large enough to accomodate all 4. Nobody is in the way of the doors and the shoes are out of the way too as well as less visible from the hallway as well. That was a good point about the shoes. We have ours about 6 ft across from the door and there is always a pile of shoes in front of it.

There is about 9-10ft of locker/bench space so you could use part of it to create a shoe shelf tower to help contain the shoes some too.

What lyfia drew would be a good idea keeping the mess away from the dual point of entry

In any of the layouts a closet could be carved out of the cabinets between the kitchen and mudroom, accessible from the mudroom.

Mark's suggestion of including the pantry into the kitchen is great. So much more open and you still have plenty of storage in all the cupboards. The mudroom is large - I like the idea of adding a coat closet and moving the bath down further toward the mudroom. You may also be able to add the coat closet under the stairs, which is wasted space otherwise.

I agree with Mark. Take some space out of the kitchen part to make a coat closet that opens into the mudroom area. It will be nice to be able to store away some of the clutter that otherwise ends up hanging open.

Do you have a basement? If not then use the under the stairs for some extra pantry storage as well.

Just remember, no matter how beautifully organized a mudroom is built, if there are children, it will all just be dumped in the middle of the floor and you are providing a large dumping area.

My DD is a bit of a tartar when it comes to neatness in her house and with her two boys (now 16 and 19), but no matter what she provided for them, coats and athletic bags always ended up dumped on the floor. The backpacks got dumped there, too, but were moved when it was time for homework. She would have had to stand there and force them to put them away. One can only do so much.

I think a mudroom can stay organized - it just has to have EASY ways to put things where they belong. A long bench for sports bags, baskets for sports equipment like shin guards and gloves, open shelves for shoes, and hooks for coats, backpacks, and car keys. If each child has their own space where they can leave things and find them again in the morning it works well. I think the key is open shelving and cubbies. My kids never threw things on the floor in the mudroom.