There are a lot of and ifs involved. I think you do need a little landing space in there, but good set stuff down height is right in the middle of the prime storage space. Is there any landing space on the cubby side? A bench? Even a spare cubby?

OTOH, if you have a counter space will your family just dump on it as the easier space and not use their cubbies?

Oh!! I know!! How about a pullout surface, maybe on one of those Blum servo motors so you can just bump it to open when your arms are full? Then you can put stuff down, and organize it, saving the things that go straight behind the landing space for last.

Open shelves are fine, but not so great in a passage where kids run through flailing limbs, bats and hockey sticks. Doors over shelves are great. Fine finished cabinetry pays for itself in luxe feeling if the kids with limbs, sticks and bats don't destroy it. (BTW, some of those kids might be 50 years old and some might not belong to you.)

yes ...there will be seating in front of the run of cubbies so there is a place to set stuff down. the stack washer/dryer will have a pull out shelf as well to assist with that.

cubbies look (sort of) like this:
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I'm not big on landing space, and would be afraid the counter would just pile with stuff, so would prefer to incorporate that space into the enclosed storage.

If you could ever use a cart for any purpose in your home, maybe you could create a tuck-in spot within the storage wall, then move it out for landing space when needed.

Hmm... So many options, but I will make a suggestion based on the space we designed adjacent to our cubbies because I LOOVE what it has done for our daily living: We have an 8 foot long wall of floor to ceiling built-Ins (and on the opposite wall a desk, with more cabinets above). Purpose of this space: paper/clutter management! We were so tired of our island always ending up the place for mail and school papers and.... You get my drift. All moms do! So, the top space in this 8 foot wall consists of four doors that go from waist height nearly to ceiling. Behind them are shelves, for awesome, hidden storage and each child has his/her own paper trays to manage school papers, etc. Another shelf hold storage boxes for the papers and projects deemed worth saving.

Below the large door/hidden shelves we have charging drawers for each of our four family members. Below those we have 1 trash pullout (for junk mail), 2 file drawers (for our most often used files related to incoming mail), and then another trash pullout with a shredder on top of it. I can't beginto tell you how functional and clutter-free this has helped to make our new home! Everyone's needs are different, of course, but if you haven't found a place yet to manage kids papers and stuff, it could be a great use of space still available to you in that mudroom!

Well, since you have a place to set things, you don't need the counter. That's prime storage space. I'd enclose it.

Oh! On the doors--make sure to put ones that are either narrow enough that they won't be in your way, or that will open flat over so that you can move around them while you're getting things in and out.

My question is when you come in from the garage, do you have a place for your purse? Is one of those cubbies for your use or just for the kids/pets? If the cubbies are for the kids, I would think you would want the small counter space. If one of those cubbies is dedicated to you, then you most likely wouldn't need the counter.

While I am not usually a big fan of the open shelving because the clutter shows, I think doors in my mudroom might be a pain. While the kids are trying to put on their shoes, they sit, then if the cubby is open, they reach behind them and pack their backpack or search for their umbrella, etc. If the door is on the cubby, won't the open doors be hitting the person seated next to them? I do see why you want the junk contained and hidden, but most likely the only people seeing it might be you--and maybe that's one too many :), but in this case I might choose function over form. I chose cubbies for the kids and a counter for me. But, our office is right next door to this room so I can see the mail, etc being dumped just two steps further.

Your first floor looks wonderful! So nice to hear that you are progressing and your kitchen will be in May 16....my wood floors go in starting tomorrow and I am just crazed to get everything done. Hopefully done by June 15 or so--a belated Mother's Day present!

If you left the doors off the cubbies, you could mount a pretty roller blind on each - then when you wanted the stuff to disappear, you could just pull it down, but the majority of the time, the contents would be accessible and in view.

The link is to some easy directions for making a roller blind with ehatever fabric you choose.

Here is a link that might be useful: roller blind instructions

I find myself using all the landing spaces in our mudroom - and there's not really a good one (I use the cubbies, and area surrounding sink). for example, everyone trying to get out the door for some event and I'm carrying the rhubarb crisp or whatever out to the car and no place to put it while one of the kids is in need of immediate assistance. or when coming in from a long day out and you have so much stuff to carry in, sleeping kids in the car, gotta move fast to help the other one to the bathroom, etc and your hands are full. so I guess I like a little landing space other than the cubbies.

oh and definitely plan for a garbage/recycling of some sort. I ended up just putting one in under our sink in the mudroom but it was definitely needed - why i'm not sure, but it seems like there's always something!

I forget the number of kids you have. the size of your cubbies are very nice. any chance of others entering the picture? I only ask because of course we built our home then got pregnant a week before we moved in. bye bye guest room and now DH and I will eventually be sharing a cubbie :)

What is the space between the powder room and mudroom? Looks like a closet. Can you eliminate that wall and make the closet (or whatever) a deep and tall cabinet that's part of the mudroom? I'm just thinking that you're losing a few inches of space with that wall and it might be nice to incorporate that space into the mudroom.

I'd like a few hooks somewhere for car keys. (Maybe those will be inside the cubbies.)

Is the door between the pantry and mudroom necessary? You have 3 doors very close together and it looks like it could be awkward. Since your mudroom will consist of new, pretty cabinets you really don't need to block off that view from the kitchen (and it's not a straight view from the kitchen anyway.) If the doorway is framed, you could add a door later if you felt it was necessary.

I'm sorry I haven't read the comments thoroughly (running out to Costco), but is there a space for hang-dry items? We don't have a designated space for that in our mudroom/laundry combo so the rack is always in the way of something. So annoying!

What do you you plan to put in your cubbies? We have jackets and backpacks hung and kids' shoes/athletic gear in our cubbies. I wish we had some larger baskets for athletic gear (shin guards, balls, fencing mask). If you're somewhere cold, don't forget baskets for mittens/gloves, hats, etc. Those baskets can hold sunglasses and caps during warm weather.