Would this put you off - Boot room entrance at front

[Helpmyreno]

Drawing up plans for full renovation project. Our architects have put our boot/utility room entrance at the front of our house. So front door is middle of house as you'd expect and to the right of it a window (looking into utility) and then another door which will go straight into utility. I feel like it looks odd having another door - like an annex but without an annex! It feels a bit old school.

Would this put you off if you were viewing the house to buy?

Personally I would be thrilled to have the boot/ utility room. Couldn’t live without one, so no, don’t think it would put me off.

I have a big entrance hall that sounds similar and it's brilliant. Can deal with wet coats/shoes/dogs without tracking mud into the living room. Plus for me!

And unless you're planning to move in the immediate future, do what makes your life easier and worry about resale if/when that problem happens!

It wouldn't put me off at all, but, having done a similar thing, the one thing you might want to consider is that if you have v muddy boots and would normally leave them outside the door, they will be visible from the front of the house. (My DS plays rugby so the boots are too muddy to allow even into the utility/shower room, so they sit at the front of the house, albeit not outside the front door.)

So you’d not have t0 enter straight into the boot room but off to the side? That would be fine.

That's perfect if you intend to use it as a boot room. We have a utility room but it's a pain as it's down the side of the house, neither my teenagers nor my muddy-pawed dog can be bothered to walk further so they use the front door and we have to mop the hall regularly. A boot room entrance beside the front door would be more likely to be used and would confine all the football boots and dog accessories to one place.

If it has gun safes I wouldn't have a window onto the front personally.

Yes, I think it would look odd having two doors so close together in one house.

@CentralLondonLife gun safes? What an odd comment

Can the utility door go round the corner to the side of the house? I think you are right, two doors at the front of the house is a bit unusual.

Also, and I might be in the minority here, but if the utility opens to the road, how do you hang up the washing in the back garden??

Where did the guns come from?

'Where did the guns come from?'

A bootroom is traditionally part of a country house where your hunting boots and guns are stored. But I assume the op is talking about a utility room.

I agree with you OP and think that’s odd. You wouldn’t normally have a boot room exterior door on the front of a house mere steps from the proper front door. It should be at the side or around back.

If you are planning from scratch, could you not have a separate boot room and utility room? I hate mixing the 2, as muddy boots/dogs and clean laundry don't go together. A small separate area at the front of the house with its own entrance for muddy paws and boots and another small area for doing and folding laundry/ironing would be my ideal.

It depends on the house. If it's an add on, I think it's fine. Could you put a large shrub between the two doors so the 2nd door is not in the immediate line of sight?

I agree with the comment about the gun cupboard.

@NellyBarney actually they will be slightly separate. You come into the boot room and then turn left into the utility room.

@Discovereads that is my feeling too.

@StillNotWarm ha you raise a good point here. I'd have to walk the laundry through the kitchen and out that way. Not end of the world but utility straight out to line would be better.

@CentralLondonLife no guns here!

It's actually both & they are separate rooms next to eachother (albeit small). I'd say we're semi rural but not into hunting. Just muddy walks & planning to get a dog!

They are kept in a boot room on a day to day basis in a locked gun cupboard.

A gun safe is usually part of a boot room- surely?
You need to keep them locked up now- cant just dump them with the boots on the bench. The boot room is where they are cleaned.

No. It would encourage me. We use the back door for this reason. We’re outdoorsy with dogs and horses and constant muddy boots

That's almost as good as our architect who put the boot room entrance on the side of the house where there is no front access.
So you had to walk all the way along the front, other side, back, then half way round the other side to get to the boot room.
That was swiftly changed.

Horses for courses. The house isn’t being designed for any of us, it’s being designed for YOU. It’s your chance to have exactly what you like and want and if it doesn’t meet your brief, talk to your architect and tell them why.

Could you put the boot room door just round the side of the house if there is another outside wall on that room? Our boot room is next to our hallway and front door but doesn't have its own outdoor entrance. If possible, I would have a door to it just round the corner so it was on the side of the house.

I would love a boot room at the front of the house but wouldnt like a door next to the front door as it would ruin the symmetry of the front of the house

@CentralLondonLife i can’t decide if your being serious 😂

Sounds like architect is being lazy/weird. Surely you want the kerb appeal of one central door.

I would have something like…

• central door
• in through the door, there’s a seat to the left with boot rack under it
• on the right side there’s a line of coat hooks and also a door, through the door is the downstairs loo
• utility room with laundry drying space is completely separate, and certainly nowhere near dirty boots.