Hi IFCgreen,
I have a pocket door for my pantry, and I love it. I keep it open 99% of the time for convenience, and because I like to look at my pantry. : )

Also, take a look at the thread below. I absolutely love the kitchen and pantry in the link below. She has a swinging door on her pantry though.

Here is a link that might be useful: chinese grandma's kitchen

My louvered door--oak. I don't think it looks cheap, but I am biased.

The glass door on the left matches another door out of photo (left of the chair)--both connect to the dining room and from there to the balance of house so they're open most of the time but get closed when we want to close off a space. The oak door shown on the right goes to basement and matches nearby sliding doors on front hall closet. Guess which is the door to kitchen closet-pantry in which we operate two dehydrators and in which we store spuds and onions?

I lost the argument to put a vent window into the stairwell from inside the closet at top of back wall. This would have improved air passage tremendously.

I argued for high-quality doors and won the argument. Mr Oak (DH) is very pleased. These were all special order ones and therefore expensive. There's another door in vicinity--steel fire door to garage which is painted gentle brown to match (haven't wood grained it yet) plus an insulated steel door to front step. (We have a lot of doors--the curse of this part of the house, which was originally designed by a drunken committee of men.)

This photo will be deleted pretty soon. I hope baseboards will be installed before end of August. Painting on wall is one of many we rotate into this position--this one is the Minn state bird. (We're into scientific illustration.)

You might search around here also. I remember many months ago when I was posting how, and even if, to get door on my pantry, someone else was talking about swinging doors and associated pros and cons. Actually, there were good comments and suggestions on my post also. Worth looking.

Mine, which matches the other doors in our house, swings out, because my pantry is much smaller, so would be greatly impacted by one that swings in, and we didn't have enough wall space in that location for a pocket. You have room for a pocket, so that's probably how I'd go...although I think you are just short (an inch or so) of having enough room to do a 3 ft opening and have it centered.

Thank you, everyone! We're leaning toward pocket, from a practical standpoint. I'd probably leave it open most of the time, which would help with the ventilation issue. I love the frosted glass ones because I think they are pretty, but probably not as practical.

Florantha, I don't think louvered doors look cheap. I hope I didn't give you that impression! I don't prefer them, though, because I have vertigo issues from my brain injury, and the the lines make me queasy!

In that same line of thinking, DH has vetoed swinging doors because one more knock to my noggin could be fatal.

Arlosmom, your pantry door is gorgeous!

I love pocket doors. We ended up with only one in the house, but they are fabulous for doorways that will mostly stay open or have a lot of traffic in the area.

OT to ICFgreen....sorry to have been defensive (and aggressive). Have read a number of snipes at louvered doors on this forum and I have meant for some time to respond with a photo. Finally got the chance but did it at your expense. Apologies.

Wish you well on your quest.

BTW, would have done one more pocket door if the walls had allowed it. I don't mind the closet-pantry opening into the room, though. Much better than the lousy bifold that we used to have. And our door is not that wide because the closet has limited space and we need the wallspace on outside much more.

Florantha, no worries. I love the functionality of louvered doors, but when I walk by them, I feel like I'm on spinny ride, so they wouldn't work for me. But I'm glad you were able to show it off. It really is pretty!

I don't have a full on photo of our pantry door because it's directly across from a wall that is only about 36" away, but here are a couple to help you piece it together.

Standard 15 light door with glass panes covered in rice paper look film. It swings out because it was originally designed to be a guest coat closet so space is small.

Jodi-