A floor plan might help. Do you have space for a pull out pantry, shallow pantry, or other pantry type if you make the change? Is there another place to put the vacuum?

Really need pictures also. You may get some ideas you hadn't thought of.

The stairs can be moved against the wall of the eat-in area, but it will be very expensive because of the plumbing and electrical that needs to be dealt with -- he estimated at least $30K. So that's out. My two choices are remove the closet and there would no walk-around space on the backside, or remove the closet and the pantry and have walk-around space from the eat-in area. In either case, stair railings would be built on three sides, obviously.

Here's a rough sketch of what it's like now:

Bumping

I don’t find your photo and accompanying description to provide enough detail or context to make sense of it. I think that’s why you’re not getting responses.

I know from your other post that you hate the dark pantry area. So remove it, as long as you have places to put whatever is in the pantry.

My only two options without major staircase work ($$$) are removing the closet or removing the closet + the WIP -- my decision will be one or the other, either will be better than the wonkiness I have now.

So I guess I'm looking more for input on whether ditching the WIP was a regrettable decision or worth it from someone who's actually done this type of thing. I see quite a few posts on here that WIPs are waste of space, but I guess once you have one you get used to it and spoiled by the convenience. I will gain 3 ft of usable floor space on that backside of the staircase if I remove the WIP -- certainly enough to walk through but ? worth losing the storage space.

I will have enough space left by removal of the WIP to make a narrow coat closet in the area where the WIP is now (the sketch is rough, not showing that a small portion of the WIP butts into the bathroom, that butted-in portion is wide enough for a coat closet).

I agree with Muriel. Do you have any pictures of the spaces?

How big is your house, and do you plan on it being your forever home? If not, and it's big enough for a family of 5-6+ people, removing the walk in pantry may be detrimental to resale if it doesn't have adequate storage for food and other items. I have the opposite problem right now. Big house, tiny pantry. Considering changing a full bath to a half bath and rearranging laundry room to get a WIP. To get creative ideas from really helpful and creative people here, more info is needed. What other storage do you have? What are the dimensions of these spaces?

My house is close to 2100 sq ft with a basement, 3 BR with flex room in the basement. Not planning on selling unless life blows up on us -- our plan is to grow old here (hence my major concern about navigating those two 90-degree turns with assistive devices). Pretty decent cabinet space in the kitchen. On the "when funds allow" list is re-do of the 1st floor mudroom/laundry for more storage/efficient use of space -- but that's down the road.

View from front door; the entire closet and pony walls will be removed to open all that up.

Oy who's the idiot that thought two 90-degree turns was a good idea?

View from mudroom - main point of entry for us. Pony walls will be removed, stair rails built - visually will be much better (still not great - but better)

Yea....sigh...

Closet blocks view of beautiful custom front door and nice view of the property in the front.

The coffin hallway:

Are you putting in new cabinets? If yes, you could include a narrow cabinet for cleaning supplies and also pull out pantry cabinets, so you’d end up with the same functionality. I like a good walk in pantry but it sounds like the stairs are a big issue so I would sacrifice the pantry to fix it.

Oh, I remember you now :)

Yeah, I would tear it all out and get your open railings installed. This is clearly a big issue for you and you have storage in the basement, worst case. Please come back and post the "afters." I can't wait to see it!

How wide is the doorway from the front entry into the hallway? The doorway that is parallel to the front door? I’m inclined to think I wouldn’t remove the closet unless I were also removing the pantry, but I might amend that if the doorway is narrower than I realize.

"How wide is the doorway from the front entry into the hallway? The doorway that is parallel to the front door?"

Do you mean the closed door in the first pic (the door that you see full head-on?). That is the door to the WIP - it is 36" wide. So all that would be gone and opened up if I ditch the WIP too. Which would get me 3-foot of floor space on that backside of the staircase (the guy measured it all out).

"Oh, I remember you now"

I posted before on this looking for ideas, but had two construction companies come out for estimates within the last week so thought I'd post again after hearing the options they posed. Moving the staircase entirely would be the best option but is not a viable one -- I just can't afford the associated expense.

I meant the opening directly in front of the pantry door. Where you would stand if you were. Heading toward the pantry, and either about to turn left down the hallway, or to turn right toward the closet (I think that’s right). How wide is that opening? That’s one of the pinch points that gives you concern about aging in place, correct? Unless there is something to really be gained in widening that area by removing the closet, I’d leave it alone.

^^ It's 36". Removing the closet entirely would get me just short of another 18" -- part of the stair return is in the closet so I won't gain the entirety of closet depth from removal. It's not that 36" is bad per se, it's the layout and the two 90-degree turns that makes the area cumbersome with walker but un-navigable by a wheelchair --> we would not be able to reach the bedrooms or bathroom if we need a wheelchair. But another 18", while not a whole lot, will make for a much wider area to navigate around the stairs and down the hall to the bedrooms -- not the best layout for sure, but the best I can do with what I've got to work with. So the closet has to go.

I agree to open things up the closet has to go. You might consider pushing the pantry back for a bit more open space. Just a few visuals.

Without the pantry, the staircase will basically just be floating in the center with railings on all sides, not connected to any walls at all, correct? And the pantry area would just become another pathway with two right angles to get to the hallway? I really don't see the point of removing it in that case. Since you have to lose the closet, can you keep the pantry but reorient the door to open into the hallway? Personally I would widen it so that it remains anchored to the stairs (and maybe leave a wall on the back side of them so they aren't just floating in space). Then you could install a bank of shallow pantry cabinets in the eating area if you find yourself short of storage - like this:

ETA: To answer your question about removing the WIP, I don't have personal experience, but in my childhood home my mother did the opposite - she removed some shallower cabinet storage in order to install a WIP. Unfortunately, the WIP was awkward to access and therefore not nearly as useful as what she had previously. I don't know if she regretted it, but I found it extremely inconvenient when I cooked there as a visitor.

"Without the pantry, the staircase will basically just be floating in the center with railings on all sides, not connected to any walls at all, correct? And the pantry area would just become another pathway with two right angles to get to the hallway?"

Correct and correct. But it would be a nice 3' path around the other side, at least. The door already opens into the hallway, sorry if that is confusing from the pics.

Wider pantry and shallow cabinets is a good idea you came up with -- something to consider. But wouldn't it look just as goofy to have a staircase touching just the corner of a wall as it does completely open in the middle of the room?

Here's a visual of what similar to what it will look like if I ditch the pantry (this is the type of stair rail I want -- something rustic but a little nicer than this):

Pic of stairs the floating in the kitchen -- not my style, but showing to demonstrate if done well it might not be too bad; same with shirlpp's pic, done well it's not the worst thing one would ever see:

It would look a little weird to have the corner of the pantry and nothing else touching the staircase - if this were my house I would probably put a full-height wall on the back side of the stairs to better define the dining room and allow for more storage options/furniture placement (see red line in drawing below):

Whether or not that would work for you may also depend on the future reworking of the mudroom/laundry and how attached you are to the more open floor plan. If your future mudroom layout will allow for a slightly more spacious foyer, you may not care as much about openness in the stair/kitchen. Personally I am not a huge fan of open floor plans - I like some separation between kitchen and dining especially, as I hate looking at dirty dishes while I eat - but if you like it open then at least removing the pantry would eliminate the weird corner touching issue.

^^ Hmmm, I had not thought of that option -- put an entire wall up. Agree that would look better, at least the stairs would be attached to something and look intentional.

There's a big downside, though. The front of the house and hallway are dark -- even on sunny days there is not much light in the foyer, the door is a big iron and glass door (you can see part of it in one of the photos) but there's a porch and it faces north, so the light is indirect. The coffin...er hallway has zero natural light, absolutely nothing, it's always dark. The back of the house, though, has a lovely bay window and patio door, facing south the light just pours in -- so if I put up a full wall, the front will be even darker than it is now, it at least gets some light coming in from the back because of the half-walls. Plus, there are no windows in the kitchen, which is why I'm clinging to the open-ness for dear life.

But I really like your idea in that it "anchors" the stairs visually. Wonder if leaving that part of the stairway as a pony wall might be an idea? Like in the photo shirlpp posted above:

I could easily put a sideboard on the eat-in side of the pony instead of built-ins (I love me a good sideboard! I have all sorts of stuff in the one that's in the great room)

If the back of the house gives you natural light, then by all means, keep it open! A pony wall on the far side to anchor the pantry and stairs (and give you a nice place for a sideboard) sounds like a great compromise (and might save you a few bucks in railing costs).

So that would look roughly like this without the pantry (he can make a small closet butting into the bath):

vs. keeping the pantry:

I do like it better without the pantry.

you don’t have a basement do you? The stairs aren’t stacked? Because there should be a possibility for some storage under the stairs. That might give you a place for your broom and vacuum at least.

Yes, I have a basement; stairs not stacked. I'd love to do some storage under the stairs, it's a great use of space in an otherwise neglected area.

This is another great idea -- because I love small enclosed spaces for reading/napping/sleeping:

But -- gotta work on the upstairs before tackling what's going on below stairs. Although DH is working on his bar area (I posted on the crazy quartzite he picked recently), if we have to call a carpenter in for some of the trim work I can add the under-stairs to the bill HAHA!

Yes, it really opens up the space without the pantry and closet. You can probably make room in the mudroom for all of the stuff that the pantry held.