Could we get a whole house layout? I can't tell for sure but it looks like there may be a lot of traffic through there.

I would not want the stove in front of the mud entry either.

I would block off that entry to the mudroom and put the stove there. Not a fan of stoves on an island (and I see you aren't either). You could put your mudroom door off the entry there on the left. Ideally, your fridge would be on the other end of the L so the order would be fridge, sink, stove.

I'm sure one of the experts will chime in.

If I blocked the entry to the kitchen from the mudroom, I could make the mudroom traffic flow through to the main entry foyer. But the mudroomers would first have to pass through the laundry room. I'm not sure I'm ready to open up my laundry room to the main hall. It seems like we solve one problem, but create another.

I personally feel comfortable with the mudroom traffic entering through the kitchen. We do live on a farm, but these people better be taking off those mudboots and washing up before traipsing through the house!

Welcome to Kitchens. In addition to the house plan, we need some measurements. I'm assuming that the scale is off, because it looks as if there is less than 24" between the island corner and fridge, and the aisles look as if they might be 30"-36". Also the stub wall beside the fridge is too long to allow the fridge door to open far enough to remove the crispers for cleaning.

Can the counter on the left be pushed out even with the pantry?

You've probably seen this thread, but I'll add a link: New to Kitchens?

We have no measurements yet. Maybe it's just too early in the process and I should wait. But I can't resist playing with the layout! These are just the architect's preliminary drawings, and he's working on our revisions now. Next drawings will have measurements.

So if we need to move walls or counters, we can definitely still do that at this point.

If you have to have an entrance from the mudroom directly into the kitchen, move the door down to the wall next to the entry; you are chopping up a long counter run with the door in the middle of the kitchen wall.

OK, I'll play:

Incorporating rantontoo's suggestion:

Or was this what you had in mind, rantontoo?

Mama goose, I'm really liking that last one. I can get the measurements to be right, the layout is what was troubling me. I think that prep sink will make this work. Thank you!

Oops, I added another one, but left off the prep sink. You're welcome. :)

I had a corridor kitchen once where traffic had to flow through it to get from one side of the house to the other. Never again. I would ride a unicycle buck-naked while juggling rotten tomatoes down my small town's main street if need be in order to never have one again.

Look how much bigger your kitchen is without a door in the kitchen itself.

I would just put the door from laundry/mudroom to entry hall on one of those automatic self-closing hinge systems so the door would never be left open for people to be greeted by your laundry. That solves your laundry-as-a-focal-point issue and gives you a better kitchen. Problems solved.

If you want people to wash up before entering the main living spaces, you would need a powder room near the mudroom or at least a sink in the mudroom or laundry room for washing hands. Maybe there's one nearby but not shown?

Funkycamper...ha! Very nice imagery there with the unicycle.

You guys have given me some really great options to take back to the architect. I'm so excited! Thanks!

Ok make it easy by closing the W/D behind closed doors. Put a sink behind the door to the right of the W/D.