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entry Design Dilemma Remodeling

Help create an entryway in open floor plan

2 years ago

I am looking for ideas to help me create an entryway in my open concept renovation. I am attaching pictures of the space from the view standing in the kitchen area. I am thinking of making the area under the windows next to the front door some kind of small sitting area and installing a window seat under those windows. As you can see, when you enter the house you can go straight up to the second level. The front door will swing open to the right towards that window next to the door. I do not have a traditional living room. There is a separate room off the other side of the kitchen that will be a family room. In this space I would like to create that entryway and also will have the dining room table in this area as well. I am open to any and all suggestions how to maximize my use of this space.

Comments (3)

acm
2 years ago
I guess it depends what functions you are looking for. Usually with this layout, the main room is the living or living/dining room, so there might be a small entry table by the door, where your small window is, but then the rest is furniture, with a sense of "entry", if desired, formed by facing a couch away from the stairs.

If this is the place that people are entering your house, do you really want a coat and shoe rack here? I think I'd just measure out the kind of space that your dining area needs, and then use the rest for a conversational grouping of chairs, or, if smaller, for a pair of reading chairs and a table with lamp. I think a built-in bench will just constrain your options for arranging this to suit your needs.
calidesign
2 years ago
I'd place a narrow entry table with framed mirror on the short wall near the stairs so you see it directly in front of you when entering the front door. Don't build anything in yet that might encroach on your furniture. I'd use the area by the front windows for a grouping of armchairs around a round coffee table, and then place a rectangular dining table between that seating area and your kitchen. I'd really give some thought to how you would like to use the space though. Since you have a family room on the other side of the house, it's nice to have comfortable seating in a quieter area like this. You may also want to include some sort of desk or work surface. Or buildin some sort of mudroom storage if this is the main entrance you would be using to the house. It really depends on your family and what you need.
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Hi, well, I might mention two of them. Her second book, the one called CREATING THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE, is fine. But the one I really found interesting, HOME BY DESIGN, has a subtitle, "The Language of The Not So Big House." And it is homes built from scratch, not remodels. Published in 2005. She has one where architects remodelled all kinds of houses for themselves, and she critiques the features that make the houses better.....but for your NEW DESIGN, I think HOME BY DESIGN is your best bet. It comes in paperback and hardback, same book, available from Amazon. Or for that matter, your library will probably have some of her stuff. Easy to read and understand too. A good feature I liked about HOME BY DESIGN was she showed a room with the feature added, then what it would look like without that feature. Hope this helps. It must be wonderful to start from scratch. She says that the site you build on has as much to do with your house feeling right as the house plan does. The house has to FIT the land it will forever be part of.
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I don't get this house. Besides all that has been mentioned above...The front door (the main door to the house) dumps you (and visitors) into the dining room. If that were a formal dining room, seldom used, it would be odd and awkward, but it is the ONLY dining area in the house. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, kids studying, dropping book bags, school projects--all as the first thing everyone sees when they walk in. There's no place there that can stay a bit messy (like a breakfast nook). As I look at other spaces and see huge usability and interoperability issues, I think that this is, once again, a house that no one has given thought to how people live. The rooms exist like pieces in a Tetris game, not as a unified whole. Who puts a toilet next to a bed head? Who gives prime exterior wall space to a closet? Who puts the tub and the crapper in the same room ("Sorry, honey, I'm in the tub. Use another toilet.")? Why split that room into two that way? Who designs a media room with no closable door (and a bedroom right above, with no closet)? The only--only--thing that makes sense is the location of the powder room--away from the beaten path yet handy and discreet. But with a pointless pocket door. There are so many violations of Architecture 101, it amazes me.
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Open plans are only nice if they make sense for the usage of the spaces. It appears that the office is truly just another living space and you have a dining room on the other side of the stairs? If that's the case, I think closing the wall to the living area is a good idea. Put glass french doors on the other side into the hallway so you retain the light while still having privacy. That arrangment will work best for you now, and may be better for most buyers in the future as the room could be used as an office, library, playroom, or even a guest room.
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Kathryn
Original Author
2 years ago
Thank you both for your feedback! We moved our laundry to the second floor and plan to turn that space where the laundry room was (next to the back door) into a mudroom with a built in. We don’t typically use the back door as the entrance but may need to make that change for it to be more functional for entering and exiting the house.

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