Reconsider the pocket door and use a portable gate, in some fashion, in case you lose your senses and get a dog (pet commentary). The plumbing for the sink can go through the floor and not the wall, and not decrease the size of the powder room.

Also note that the dimensions on the partial drawing provided is to the centerline of interior walls and to the exterior of exterior walls. The width of the hallway will not be 3'-11 1/2" as dimensioned, but closer to 3'-8" wide finished. Keep this in mind when reviewing the size of spaces.

I'm pro door. The drop desk is probably going to be a mess most of the time, so I would prefer the option to hide it away. For dog ownership, we crated our dog for about a year, and then limited the rooms she had for about another 6 months until she had free roam of the house. If you use the mudroom door to let him/her out, it also help to have a barrier to prevent a wet dog running down the hall before you can towel dry them...ask me how I know :)

IMO the oorway would need to have someone look on purpose into the actual mud room . I do however wonder what a desk in the MR. As for the dog many things have to considered before getting any pet. We have had dogs our entire married life of 60 YRS and cannot imagine a life without one . Ours have the run of the pretty much we have a huge dog run ( 3 huge dogs) with a doggie door they go in and out at will in all kinds of waether so we have LVP flooring in the walkout where they come in. Mops up at the end of the day . I dislke tones of doors in a home for no purpose and IMO if the mud room is tidy I woudl not add a door.

As drawn, the doors swings open without getting in the way of anything. If it remains so after you nail down the other details of the plan, then I'd keep it. Doors are never a bad thing. Be aware many dogs can jump a Dutch door. (Also, why would you use a Dutch door?)

As for dogs, mine was crated until potty trained (and now occasionally when we take him on vacation and stay at people's homes--he considers it a prison). Then he was rarely locked in a mudroom when he needed to be restrained (rarely) with a pocket door. That room did have his bed and food and an exterior closable doggie door. Dog was trained to not go into the bedroom wing of the house and he never violated that rule...until...we remodeled and he had to spend several months in the bedroom wing. We broke a wonderful and beautiful rule and now we hear him at night checking up on us...he still stays out of the bedrooms except for the spare one we lived in during the remodel.

When mine were puppies they were crated for their own protecion so they did not chew a wire or something like that. now i baby gate them in kitchen area so they dont go on furniture

I like Mark's idea for a pocket door (Dutch pocket door...? is that a thing???) but must respectfully disagree with his opinion on pet ownership :)

I'd leave off the door, have a cased opening and use a pet gate if you get a dog. Regarding the desk--can you have something built with doors that could close up so your view into the mudroom would be a closed cabinet?

Hi all, these are all such excellent ideas! I did confer with our builder in regard to the pocket door and having our powder room plumbing go through the floor. Apparently if that is done, it takes away a lot of the powder room vanity storage. So, we probably would not go that route.

I do love the idea of just using a baby gate. That seems like a good compromise.

I also like the idea of having pocket doors be part of the drop counter.

I would definitely want a door there, but a nice pet gate would work too ONLY IF you can keep the drop desk clean, which is your focal point as you come down that hallway.

There are many reason to confine a dog to a smaller space when you are out. My 12 year old small dog is gated in a storage closet when we are out. She randomly vomits and would search for a non visible rug corner to go vomit on if she wasn't confined. The 2 larger dogs get the back hallway laundry and mudroom, which is all tile. They usually just sit in the mudroom staring at the garage door where they last saw us leave! Two of the dogs had stomach issues after being boarded a few weeks ago and I am so glad the mess was confined to a small tiled area. No one wants to clean diarrhea off of rugs/carpet and furniture. The small dog is separated from the other 2, because even though they have gotten along well for 6 years the size difference is too great to take a risk with the 2 larger dogs in the same space when we are not home.

@chispa, how do you feel about crates? Could a small/medium dog be in a crate vs small room?

"it takes away a lot of the powder room vanity storage"

How much is "a lot"?

How much do you plan on storing in that powder room? Storage under a sink is not ideal for many things.

Skip the door but build in a doggie gate. Like this:

Shaker Transitional Kitchen & More Morristown, NJ · More Info

As Mark suggests, the plumbing can be re-routed to allow for this pocket gate installation. And if you plan to have children at a later juncture, you could add these gates to the stairs, too.

In my experience, it is important to have a not-too-large and easily cleaned space in which to confine a dog with diarrhea or vomiting overnight while you sleep. We have a lot of deer and 2 dogs kept getting giardiasis over and over. Lots of mess.

As for crates, we have had dogs who LOVED their crates. They would put themselves to bed in there at night or just go there for a break if there was commotion at home. They would have been very sad without their little dens.

@thekeller4, we have used crates when we first got each of the dogs (all rescues adopted as young adults), but I prefer to give them a bit more space to walk around if we are going to be gone for a few hours. They aren't destructive dogs, so they can be trusted with a bit more space. Some dogs might get stressed out with more space and chew on stuff they shouldn't, so you have to get to know your dog and decide what works best for him/her and your family.

The crate is going to depend on the dog and your ability to train the dog to view it as a good, not a bad, thing. They can be comforting or punishment and the owner should be knowledgeable.

Put a door on your mudroom. Although we keep our mudroom tidy generally, sometimes it's nice to stage a project in there (bags of donations, boxes and shipping tape, things that will be placed in the closet but not until tomorrow when we have the time to reshuffle the closet storage etc.)

I have a 12 year old dog and a 2 year old. The 12 year old has the run of the house and is never destructive. She was in an X-pen for the first 2 years of her life until she settled down.

The puppy was crated for the first 3 months and then the crate was put in an X-pen. She now goes in the X-pen at night but is allowed to stay out during the day. We just don't want her roaming at night.

I would do a cased opening and just get a baby gate.

Well, that's another issue. Do you want a crate sitting somewhere? I bet it will be placed in the mudroom, lol.