That foyer/hallway will be pretty dark, unless your doors have glass in them.

It just seems like a lot of foyer space for the size of the house, but not sure how it could be changed.

The solution is to not try and design a house by putting boxes together like a tetris game.

Wouldn‘t it be cool to have the foyer on the outside wall? Naturally it means a complete redesign, but it would allow the foyer to be a light-filled space that makes entering the house a stroll along a kind of galleria, leading to various rooms on one side, and ending in a nice gathering room.

The kitchen could be at the front, then the dining, which would have borrowed light and view via the galleria and great room, and the bedroom and study at the back, where the kitchen and dining are now.

There was a time when a house like this would be designed with a side entry because it's most practical.

I would probably consider a floor to ceiling (or at least 7' high), wide mirror on one of the walls. Then add the sideboard in front of it. Add a wide decorative molding. I would hang 2 large paintings if space allows. A large mirror and/or maybe you would like 1-3 niches during the construction process. They create great dimension. They can be any size that structurally works.

Adding the bench and some art is great.

Where do the steps go to? Depending on if there's a second floor, you might could possibly reconfigure the stairs to be u-shaped or l-shaped.

Will Bedroom 2 be occupied or is it a guest bedroom? I don't see a separate powder room so I'm curious to how the bathroom attached to it will function.

What about flipping the garage/laundry side with the bedroom/study side so that you have a quicker path to the kitchen with groceries from the car. I think doing so would allow for an expanded laundry/mud/pantry area as well and possibly break up the long hallway.

I've designed a hall this long or longer several times. The longest was 60 ft. and ran the length of the front wall of the house. We put a row of adjustable/wall washer recessed lights 2 ft +/_ from the side walls and turned them into art galleries. Wainscoting or a chair rail can help.

In the 19th century a hall like this would have had a fireplace and a stairway. One of my favorite old houses has a hall from the front door to the back door.

Is there a reason the house is so long and narrow?

I wouldn't want to devote nearly 200 sq feet to this bowling alley sized hallway.

I'm not sure what your cost/sq foot is, but it will likely end up being a $30K+ hallway!

Entry:

Change double doors to single with two sidelights

-sidelights will allow more light to come in

-with double doors, you can't put any furniture within 4 ft: you, guests, and doors would bump into it

Study/Bedroom//Bath

Flip it and add two windows to the study

-this will break up the length of one wall

-if french doors on study, you can steal light from the study windows for the hall while they're closed

Laundry

Flip dryer/sink, slide over garage door, add clothes rod above sink instead of teeny-tiny closet

-put the washer and dryer side by side, splitting them is A PAIN when doing clothes

-shifting the door over allows for a HUGE bench and drop zone in your laundry that can be closed off instead of being in the hall for everyone to see

Hello all,

Thanks for all input. i will have to read it a few times to understand all comments. you know me by now... it takes long to sink in.. :) :)

The long hallway is due our lot being narrow and we wanted originally a guest bedroom ( for our daughter when visiting us) and a separate home office for occasional work I do for the colleges. If we need those two spaces?? not sure... .. This is a good question. I guess it might add to the resale value of the house with this working from home still a trend.

The stairs goes to the basement for 2 spares bedroom and bath.

I will read all comments and add them to a piece of paper to understand it well.

Thanks so much

Hello all,

I changed a little bit the floor plan to see if I am understanding the suggestions.

@ cd7733 , I couldn't understand what you meant for the laundry,. "shifting the door over allows for a HUGE bench and drop zone in your laundry that can be closed off instead of being in the hall for everyone to see"

The bathroom will work for the guest room as well as power room, would it be too far from the living space?

@ bpath, I also don't quite understand what you meant with foyer outside wall. is it a porch? :) :)

At this stage, as we are still in planning, I guess we could change things out, if doesn't add extra cost. :) :)

Thanks all for sharing experience and ideas.

One thing, typically keeping all the plumbing on the same wall or adjoining walls and stacked (1st floor and basement) makes the build less expensive. However, sometimes the design is worth the cost of not doing it. Just something to consider with your builder.

You mentioned "on the wall across the laundry would add a sideboard... with a mirror as a drop zone" which would be in the hallway visible to everyone.

But if you shift the garage door entering the laundry to the left, and take out the tiny closet, you can double the size of your currently drawn bench creating a dropzone in your laundry. This would make for a private dropzone and you can close the laundry room door to hide the area:

@ cd7733, Thank you and I need to apologize as I didn't notice you had taken the time to change the original floor plan to explain it to me.

Hello all,

I would like to share and hear your comments on more information I added after you kindly helped me with the hallway. As I am placing the items, it seems as not that long anymore.

Please bear with my drawing as i don't have the technical skills as most of you have , you can laugh of it as it is very simple... :) :) but I hope I can share the message..

What about adding some visual separation using the ceiling height or it would be too "busy", too many things at once?.

Which painting would you place beside the sideboard? I was thinking of the rectangular

Oops I forgot something.... I might be jumping too far ahead as we are still on planning phase. This help me to see if the layout will work with the painting and of course the ceiling is something I should decide. thanks again

Thanks again for taking your time to help.

Will you be going in and out of the house yourselves through the garage? We have a pocket door in our home that we left in place after adding a large addition and repurposing some spaces. We use it again now because we have 2 young Australian Shepherds and we keep them from the kitchen end of our house when we're away. It's inconvenient to open and close when you have your hands full of anything.

seagrass

@HU-753479426, we are planning on having pocket door on the laundry as the area is already too tight. We will probably will use it a lot .

Thanks