I am attaching a floor plan with measurements of our current laundry room. As we walk in from the garage, the laundry room is on the right and is a rectangle (12'10" x 6'). We are able to steal an alcove type area from our current family room to add to the laundry room. This area will be a total re-do and our goal is to add a toilet and create a mudroom (bench, hooks, landing zone) type area. Dh and I keep going back and forth on whether we should put in a stackable washer/dryer into the alcove, or if it would make more sense to put the toilet there. I've also attached a current photo of the area (not staged). We've only been in this home a couple of months so things are still a bit of a mess! Appreciate any advice!

I am not a guru but I can give you my opinion. Melanie on the regrets - while trying to minimalize them they still will happen! Flip side is you will likely also have some grrr that ends up turning out different but BETTER than you imagine. IMO stealing the foot makes it much more functional so I would do it in a heartbeat but I am not the expert. It also opens it up and will 'feel' better. I think that's a good spot for a broom closet and charging station and should easily stay tidy. It is about 5' wide yes? That is a nice size space. Measure what you have you want to store in there and then look for pics of what you are thinking. Utility sink in the garage - really in the winter there isn't much dirt and when it's exposed it's frozen too so I'd think the utility sink would get more use in the spring summer fall when it's thawed so I'd keep it on the table too. My opinion - your money. Ha! As far as 'enough room' - it sounds like your kids are younger based solely upon still being in the 'add more' season of life. :) I can tell you only to think seasons, think sports, cleats, basketball shoes, church shoes, boots, hiking shoes, tennis shoes, flops, bats, ball caps, backpacks, lunch boxes, water bottles (if you have girls think even MORE shoes and then purses - ack)........ I will say for my 2 the space we have is more than adequate and it's quite roomy (I just double checked and it's actually 6.5' on a side so each person has 3' plus). That said we also have a closet near that I put off season stuff in and dog food. Winter coats and snow pants and boots are not in the locker area all year. I put them in the closet over spring/summer/fall. As long as you have a spot for that I think you are fine. Off season can closets can always be in the basement as well. There are always sweatshirts hanging and ball caps. Besides that there is always a stray nerf gun, goggles, flash lights and what have you hanging out there. I don't mind it there - it's out of the way and not underfoot! Old house it used to be in their rooms and all over. We had no designated space for outdoor wear anyplace besides bedrooms. If I am feeling brave I will snap a real life pic of it in action. It is easy to pick up and look presentable when needed but typically M-F it's a dumping spot. I like an open bench vs doors because we do use it to sit down to put stuff on and take stuff off regularly. And when our parents come and use that entry they love to be able to sit down to put on and remove shoes. It's comfortable and useful. With your window placement in the bathroom and the exterior door you will find it a nice light filled space. Our exterior door there is 3/4 glass and I love how it lights the hall. It is never a dark space.

If you mean configuring the laundry and powder room into the utility room space, then a remodeling contractor should be able to help you with placement/code or maybe other ideas. I think, in an ideal world, we could all have all the space we need for all the elements in a house we want. But I'd rather have a powder/laundry combo, if I've determined that I need another 1/2 bath, rather than make do with one less bath than my family needs because some people object to having a W/D in proximity to a toilet, or whatever it is they object to. If you can squeeze enough space, I like the kinds of doors that pull out and tuck into the sides of the WD to hide it if you feel the need. I had both of these pics saved when I was trying to figure out how to move my w/d from a too small for today's large W/D units laundry room to my main floor bath. The first one is a bit hard to see but the doors slide/tuck in beside the machines.

Once you move the coats, you could install cabinets in an L shape, starting where the coats now hang. You will have a blind corner, but how convenient would it be if you have a countertop front the edge of the door to the wall? Hang tall cabinets above the counter to store laundry supplies on the lower shelves and less used items on the upper shelves. Your woodwork is beautiful and the proper cabinets built and stained to match would be stunning as well as useful. For the wall where the picture now is, you could have a coat closet built to fit the space. In our old house, we kept the chair rail and notched the back of our custom coat closet so we didn’t damage the chair rail. You can protect your bead board if you just set the closet in front and only use minimal fasteners to attach it to the wall.