would you put a main entrance straight into an open plan kitchen/diner?

[omama]

Our back door is at the end of our drive but on the front of the house, & goes into our utility. We have always used this as our main entrance as the hallway off our front door is very narrow so nowhere to leave coats/shoes.

We're thinking of adding an extension in the side return to give us a large open plan kitchen/diner. Original idea was to have hallway, utility & wc to the left & open plan area to the right. But this would mean the open plan area is in the darkest part of the house. We have a conservatory on the back already so only way to bring in light is via velux rooflights, only possible across half the room (other half has another storey above)

Architect has new idea now, to put utility & toilet to the right, utilising the darkest part of the house for that (they'd have no windows) & open plan area to left which will maximise the daylight as it'll have loads of windows to the left, plus a view of the garden, plus still have the velux roof windows.

However, this means the back door (our main entrance) would open straight into the open plan area. We'd either have coats & shoes hanging round in the kitchen or have to walk through to the utiity to put them away. DH doesnt seem to think will be a problem but knowing how much crap stuff we lug in & out the house, & kids with muddy shoes, pushchairs etc, this will all be in our open plan area on full view. plus there'd be the draught from door opening & closing straight into our main living area. Needless to say, I am not too sure. Would this be something you could live with or not worth the compromise & back to the drawing board?

Only other way I can think of keeping to original idea (thus gaining an entrance hall) is to demolish the conservatory & install folding doors across the back, bringing light into the darkest part of the house. But conservatory is only 7yrs old, while its useless in winter, its a large space & currently used as a playroom for ds. If its gone then all ds' toys would then have to be accommodated in the open plan area (though some could prob go upstairs).

Can you not put a porch on the outside? Spread the porch across most of the front of the house so you can build a cupboard in too then you can put all your toot there.

Strangely enough we had dinner last night at friends who have ended up with a very similar situation. It's been that way for five years, and I've been there for tea, playdates, parties etc more times than I can count. The floor near the door is always filthy, due to dogs and small children's muddy wellies, there are always piles of coats and discarded PE kit, meanwhile the pegs and shelves by the front door that everyone is MEANT to use are empty. And in winter the draught is terrible.

Hi - if you re post in the home decoration bit you can add a sketch or two of your options - would give us a better idea of the space and if there's a way around this ?! As it sounds like you could do with a boot/mud room for coats, buggies, school bags, kit bags and stuff as part kf the entrance and utility area , before you get into the main family kitchen area ....

our last house had the tiniest most useless porch area ever and it was AWFUL having nowhere to put shoes etc when getting the kids inside, wet and dirty floor in the lounge in the winter and so on. now we have a marginally bigger porch area but a hall too so shoes get taken off and left in the porch, coats then go in the understairs cupboard. it is so much better. Seriously I wouldn't now want to go back to anywhere that the main entrance to the house was straight into the living space.

Mm. We were considering doing this to our house. Currently 2 long narrow rooms, we were thinking of removing the stud wall to make one big kitchen diner, but then you would walk straight into it. Although at the moment there is the tiniest most useless hall ever so I don't know it would be any worse!

Seeing this feedback is interesting. I don't think it would be a massive problem, definitely better on balance than a dark open plan area! My friend has a lovely antique hat / coat stand just inside her door to hang bags etc on. It's very well used and is gorgeous! Maybe something like that?

The laundry room and bath without windows sounds fine. I have that, it is a half bath. The laundry room is off the garage and it is where we enter. Coats and shoes are left there. The main entryway stays clean.

Previous house had entry that we used all the time. Dirt got tracked in, shoes left there. Light colored tile AND grout, so it had to be swept before scrubbing as otherwise I'd just be smearing mud around. Current laundry room has vinyl floor, is big and has a closet. Muddy shoes are left in garage.

Thanks ever so much for all the replies. Am kind of pleased to see I'm not being silly worrying about the mess & draught! Was going to post some pics, but we've had a really good think over the last week & come up with a new idea to steal a bit from the living room in order to make an inner hallway. Don't know why we didn't think of it before! This means the utility can go where architect suggests, kitchen will be nice & light & won't be cluttered with shoes & coats, & conservatory can stay. Just got to hope architect says its possible......