My house is a center hall colonial. Between the main structure and the garage is a small family room, with a 4ft deep front porch at the front (see attached sketch of family room and porch with next message). The highest-traffic entry door is here too.
We have no mud room, and no other space for it without adding on. I’m considering enclosing the front “porch” area to at least give us a small area to transition from outside. It would probably include a small coat closet at one end of the area, and maybe a bench for removing boots, etc.
The porch is approx. 12 ft. x 4 ft. After framing the front wall, the width would be slightly under 4 ft. MY QUESTION: Is this narrow space TOO narrow to be useful?
There will be large windows to open up the space visually, and I’ve considered a bay window and window seat to add some depth, but I can’t figure out if this whole idea is trying to squeeze too much from the space. The rear porch wall (the existing exterior wall) would be fairly open too after the existing windows and door are removed.
THANKS!
PS: The long term plan is to build above the family room and garage, so we would probably want to build a wall here anyway at some point.
Edited 6/24/2002 2:32:48 PM ET by RICKGREG
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RickGreg,
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Thanks for the fix. My original drawing was the smaller size... it grew when posted. If only the porch space would do the same...
IMO yes, four feet wide is too small to be usable but the best way to convince yourself one way or the other is to come up with some card board from Appliance deliveries or whatever and tack it up, using a knife to cutout the window. I do lots of mockups for folks who have a hard time visualizing with card board and foam, hotglue and staples.
A floorplan would be really helpful--showing doors, windows, and dimensions--but offhand I don't see why this wouldn't work for a vestibule. Especially if you did open it up with the bay window/window seat. Maybe put storage for shoes under the seats. Will the entry door be on the long wall? It would be rather constricted if people had to walk the whole length to get in and out.
Good suggestion... floorplan is attached.
The door to the front on the new wall is a question mark at this point. We may just use the garage entry door, leaving nothing but windows on the front wall.