What do you mean by hidden closets? They will be recessed into the wall? If so, the fireplace might look random but not bad. However, if this is your forever home and you don't intend to use this fireplace, I'd drywall over it.

I think you could do what you are hoping to do and still have a neat room. I think you’ll just want to angle the closet wall abutting the fireplace so that it is at a 90 degree angle to the slanted fireplace wall (also be sure to check fire codes regarding spacing, etc). You could also do some built-in bench seating with cubbies underneath between the other side of the fireplace and your French doors. This works well for the function of the mudroom (place to store and put on shoes), but if you throw some pillows on it you’d have a nice sunny reading nook next to the fireplace…. or a place to set your husband’s plants with storage underneath 😀

Add IKEA PAX units in front of the wall to act as your mudroom.

I was thinking something similar to the first IKEA photo listed by Beverly where the coats and bags would be behind closet doors vs just hanging on hooks in the open. So ideally I would put "closets" all along that wall and can close the doors to not see the clutter/mesa. PP great idea about a bench seating on the other side. I had not brought about that but that might add some balance too.

Please do a floorplan, also a quick drawing showing the location of the detached garage relative to the house. You enter the house from the double doors next to the table? That’s pretty awkward. My first impression would be to shift the dining area to the spot you want to have a mud room, and create storage right next to the entry. Having people walk through the dining area to the storage area might be a tall task. You want to make proper storage easy since tired people tend to just drop stuff wherever.🙂

I need a to scale floor plan and honestly that pretty space with all those windows would be my last choice for a mud room so I need context Post here in a comment DO NOT START anothe rpost or we will lose you.

I would close off some of the large opening and place a pax on each side where the pillars are. this way you can still have seating facing the window view.

Agree with Patricia

I had the same ideas as roarah to set it up as a sun room for plants and sitting by making the archway a lot smaller smaller and put cabinets on either side of the new opening. This way you get a nice entrance with cabinets that look nice and are closets as well as keep the sitting room as a sun room making it look like it all belongs.

Having a fireplace in a mudroom will look "kooky" IMO. Do you think you will ever use the fireplace? If not, would you consider removing it?

Here is the floorplan for the first floor. The room that we're looking at is the one labeled "living room". The detached garage is right behind the living room so we would walk through the balcony area and enter through the double doors into the "living room". We aren't planning to use the fireplace so I'd be open to possibly removing it, cost permitting.

I think you meant to say it’s labeled as “family room” on the plan, correct? Also—it looks like the plan differs from your house in that, where the plan shows FP, you have windows wrapping around that corner to meet the FP in the other corner, correct?

Also— although I agree that you would have plenty of space to build a storage solution by creating more of a wall between family and breakfast room and having the storage run the width of these rooms— am now seeing that most of the daylight for the kitchen/ breakfast comes from the “family room” so would avoid closing that off.

Oh ha! I didn't even realize it was different. The floor plan I pulled from my neighbor's which is the same model but I see we have a slightly different configuration in the "family room". Yes, I do like having the natural light so we could consider extending the wall between the family room and breakfast room, but probably not completely closing off.