As stairs to the basement drop, the space over is called "headroom". To figure out how much headroom you have at any point along a staircase, multiply the number of steps you have gone down by the riser height of your staircase then subtract the thickness of the flooring, floor joists, and ceiling sheetrock. Here is a diagram to help... Typically you will need to have about 11 steps down before you have sufficient headroom to stand upright. In your diagram above, you could definitely turn the storage area into a utility room and use the current utility room area for a mud room with a door between the two located next to the garage wall. There would definitely be plenty of headroom beneath the floor by that point. The spot RIGHT where you have the words "stair line" would likely have a sloped floor but it would probably only extend about 2 feet into that space so you could put a regular height countertop and a false front cabinet there and use it as a drop zone. Alternatively, you could just continue the stairs on towards the right another 4 or so steps and put the landing beneath where the word "Work" in workbench is. If you waited to make the stairs turn until you reached that point, you could turn the entire utility/storage area into one big mudroom/laundryroom and not worry about sloping floors anywhere. Probably wouldn't want to put the washer and and dryer into the corner where the "workbench currently is" because of the need for drainpipes. But other than that, you'd have a free hand. Of course, this would change how the basement rooms would have to be set up but... Then again, depending on how you plan to use your basement and how easy you want access to it from the main floor of the house to be, there is yet another possibility. That is, turn the stairs around by 180 degrees and start them over where the work bench is. By the time they reached the hall, you would have plenty of headroom. You could probably even shift that little closet toward the garage so that it sits over the stairs tho it would have a sloped floor. But, you could put angled shoe storage on the sloped closet floor and make a positive use of that space.

[https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-to-work-with-an-architect-stsetivw-vs~3182504[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-to-work-with-an-architect-stsetivw-vs~3182504) [https://www.houzz.com/magazine/architects-toolbox-6-drawings-on-the-way-to-a-dream-home-stsetivw-vs~13648036[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/architects-toolbox-6-drawings-on-the-way-to-a-dream-home-stsetivw-vs~13648036) [https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-to-hire-the-right-architect-stsetivw-vs~22038031[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-to-hire-the-right-architect-stsetivw-vs~22038031) [https://www.houzz.com/magazine/go-beyond-the-basics-when-interviewing-architects-stsetivw-vs~23364465[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/go-beyond-the-basics-when-interviewing-architects-stsetivw-vs~23364465) ETA: Builders may or may not be working with an architect. Check your builder's designer's credentials and references. So many come here with a builder's plan that simply doesn't work. The most important step is hiring the right professional to design your home on your very specialized lot: an architect with design talent. Not all architects are the same.

How will you feel about your guests walking through your working kitchen and into your mudroom to go to the bathroom? Will the mudroom always be neat and clean? Why not put a closet in the u part of the stairwell? BTW: A couple of thoughts. That garage is not a 2 car garage if you have anything over a compact sized car. Trust me on that. Your breakfast area is not large enough for a table unless you're planning on a small bistro type table and it's especially not large enough considering you need the walking room into the flex space. Consider the space is 9' wide. A small dining table is 3' wide and a more standard one is 42" wide. That allows only 3' on each side of the dining table if you go with the 3' wide one and then you run the obstacle course around the table to get to the flex space. The flex space is not a bedroom since there would be no place for guests to use a bathroom. and there is no closet. The dining room is nice and large but it's far from the kitchen. Consider how you'll be shlepping food back and forth. That foyer is very long at 16' and what looks to be about 7' wide. That's the size of a whole room but it's wasted space. And you'll be paying for that space for as long as your mortgage. The mudroom goes right past part of your kitchen work zone. Now imagine a child running past just as you're taking hot food out of the oven. And your fridge has no landing space. That's a traffic pattern there. Not a place for a fridge and oven. I know you showed two other plans. This is not such a good one.

IMO mirrors need to reflect something worth seeing twice or they're useful tools in a foyer to check yourself before leaving the house. Carolyn Oliver, Your foyer has walls that clearly delineate it from other rooms, so having something different would be fine! Just make sure it still ties in with the overall decor theme. I'd suggest wallpaper in a fun pattern but keep it in a color scheme that compliments the surrounding rooms. So maybe like gold/silver, grey or beige.