My front door opens to a wall 3 feet away (mirror, loft, doors)
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Those double doors are the front doors, and the hallway is about three feet wide. When you enter, the first thing you see is a bathroom door and a closet door for a very strange closest (it contains a latter to a loft area). I suspect it would be impossible to remove or move that wall, what with that loft area and bathroom. This is the worst-placed (full!) bathroom I have ever seen.
Any advice on making this entryway inviting and practical? The hallway is so narrow and extends so far in either direction. All my googling is coming up with advice for front doors at the end of a hallway, not in the middle of a hallway wall.
You can dang near have anything moved that you want including the ladder to the attic/loft however, it is going to be very expensive and even more expensive if you have to put up something else if it a load baring wall.
It can be done though.
If there is room in the front perhaps add a foyer where the double doors are going outward and move the double doors so you have an actual entry before walking through that doorway.
Are you renting or did you purchase? That will determine what you can and cannot do as far as remodeling.
We are in the process of purchasing this house, and we're hoping it will be our forever-house -- we bought it to grow in to. I love the rest of the house (like, really really love it -- there are little tweaks but they are minor) which is why we were willing to compromise on such a weird layout at the front.
The layout of the house is different. It is basically a long, skinny rectangle with a smaller square in the middle that houses a huge focal point chimney, two full baths, and that closet. The space inside the big rectangle but outside the square is open-concept living space. It's unique and very mid-century modern. The exterior wall in that photo is the long side of the rectangle, and the interior wall is one side of that square.
At this point, I'm looking for solutions that don't involve moving walls. A foyer added the exterior MAY be possible, but with the minimalist design it would be tricky and super expensive. At least the interior wall isn't load-bearing, but it would require bathroom remodels on two updated bathrooms and would just be a mess. Maybe years down the road we could afford that. XD
I think if you enclosed the porch and make that your foyer it would look fine and I don't really much expense there overall.
So instead of walking up the sidewalk then onto the porch to the front door you move the front door to meet the sidewalk with the enclosure.
You have time to work it all out but just for curiosity sake I myself would look into it.
I would consider taking the door off the cubby that houses the ladder to the loft. It may make it seem a bit less monolithic in that hallway. At least you can try that out pretty easily -- take it off the hinges, and if you like it better, then you can change out the trim, etc. If you don't, you just put the door back on the hinges.
I agree that extending the foyer onto the stoop even a few feet would really help to be able to give some more room into the entry. That said, with the double garage, is the front door really going to used all that much? You might find it's not really an issue once you're living there.
Any possibility of moving the door to the bathroom to a different wall and closing off more of that wall? I was thinking you could at least do something artistic - mural, mirror, etc. on the wall which would be more aesthetically pleasing than a door. That would only work if a wall in the bathroom was up against another hallway and there was enough open wall space in the bathroom to put in a new door without doing other structural changes - that's probably not that likely but figured I'd throw it out there. It does seem like an otherwise very nice house, but man, that's was weird choice by whoever designed/built it in the first place to have set up the front entrance like that!
Agree wholeheartedly with CSD610. Simply create a enclosed porch to act as a foyer, add a new front door. I would give the new porch a praire style look. Here is a link to the general idea. You can keep the lines simple and add glass on the side walls if you want.
Heads up HGTV haters- I saw this idea on Flip or Flop
They had the same situation and took the doors to the closet and made them flush with the wall. They then set the door so you pushed it in slightly and it sprung back to open. They ran approx 1 inch wood strips vertically to give the wall some depth.
I would consider taking the door off the cubby that houses the ladder to the loft. It may make it seem a bit less monolithic in that hallway. At least you can try that out pretty easily -- take it off the hinges, and if you like it better, then you can change out the trim, etc. If you don't, you just put the door back on the hinges.
I agree that extending the foyer onto the stoop even a few feet would really help to be able to give some more room into the entry. That said, with the double garage, is the front door really going to used all that much? You might find it's not really an issue once you're living there.
I love the idea of taking the door off. I'm looking for a minimally invasive solution for the moment and I can always go making bigger changes later. The closet-cubby-ladder area may require some prettification but that's just cosmetic. This is probably the first thing I'd try.
I suspect we will be using the front door. One of the reasons we chose this house was because it's walkable to my husband's work.
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