I can't see any plans.

Oops, "minor" oversight. Here is the plan:

do you need the door from kitchen..is this actually a "mudroom"??...with frequent passage from garage into kitchen then the rest of the living zone?? At least get a hook setup so the door can be latched to wall and left ajar .....close it occasionally when you don't want the view....

herbflavor - Great question! I need a door there to protect the living area from laundry noise. The laundry is in the same "mud room" as the pantry (just to the left of the door to the garage). When you go into the main part of the house, you're in a great room with kitchen, dining, and living area all in one big room.

And in answer to your previous question, I do plan to put frequently-used pantry items (flour, sugar, spices, oil, soy sauce, tea & coffee, cereal, bread, a few snacks) in the main kitchen area. I think that will work fine with the way we cook; most of our day-to-day cooking is out of the fridge/freezer.

Really depends on what you want to store in there. You could make the shelves inside a bit more shallow than the full 18" so that you could have some storage on the door to the pantry itself. Smaller items that might be lost in the 18" depth of the shelves could go in the storage on the door. Make sure the door will support the weight of whatever you would be putting there. Of course, if you need the deeper shelves, then that might not work. Another option would be to have a few deeper shelves at the bottom and then more shallow shelves above those. Then you might still have room for some storage on the door that doesn't go all the way down to your deeper storage in the pantry. If you can use adjustable shelving that would give you more flexibility also.

I second @sail. Do three drawers at the bottom then doors with shallower shelves and wood storage on the doors. This way you won't have to deal with pullout drawers while your pantry door is open.

Quick access will make it easier to avoid collision at that door into mudroom.

you can make pantry look like a hutch.

Can you flip the powder room fixtures, and PR door? Then you could have 48" x 24"
or deeper bases for drawers, and deeper uppers, or a tall reach-in
pantry. You could even include some shelves in the stud bays for canned goods, bottles, etc., with or without doors. Would it work to change the swing on the garage door?

Mama Goose, that's a really interesting idea! We've already gone through structural engineering and permitting, so I'll have to ask the architect.

I hope it works out. What will you have in the alcove (in the great room? DR?) adjacent to the powder room? If it's a large piece of furniture to act as a buffer, you could also have stud bay storage in the powder room--not necessarily for pantry items, but for cleaning supplies, extra toiletries, TP, brooms, etc. There is space across from the toilet, too. (areas in red)

Mama Goose, that's a really interesting idea! We've already gone through structural engineering and permitting, so I'll have to ask the architect.

That's not a structural item so it shouldn't be a problem. It's what is called a red line item. As usual, I like Mama's idea. :)

I wonder if I could do something like this:

Those are 12" deep shelves, which I think will be plenty of depth. That leaves clear floor space of 39"x28".

Would that area between the three doors feel too claustrophobic?

A 30" walkway by the pantry is going to feel too restrictive. Picture trying to carry in bags of groceries, or worse yet, those oversized packages that come from the super stores like Costco or Sam's Club. If you nicked the corner off the pantry and did an angled door, it might feel a little better.

My pantry is off a 36" wide hallway--I wouldn't go any less than that. I like laughablemoments' idea:

Thank you, cpartist. :)

how exactly does this open shelving help with the "cat issue" do you have method to keep the cats out.when they will be at your feet as you pass through doors, headed for open shelves? with hands full of items...how do you pick them up to remove them from the area.. and also closing the doors to secure the space at the same time.......cats will figure it out.. wouldn't a pantry in the kitchen be better.....rollout type..when they are looking up and see the tall rolling object about to close I'm sure they'd run. Whereas upon discovery of a door that isn't very secure and completely open shelves, I think would be an invitation,...If the cat issue isn't really "the issue", but just storage in general, i'd rethink passing through two doors since this is the bulk of your food storage space,

Have you posted a floorplan of the entire kitchen and mudroom area? Perhaps there are more solutions to be found, but it's a little hard to tell with the included pictures.

Thanks for the visual, Mamagoose. : )

Herbflavor -- it's funny you should ask about the cats. In our last house we had a nice walk-in pantry. Our "fat" cat (no longer fat because we put him on a serious diet, and now he thinks he's starving all the time) would dart into the pantry if we left the door even slightly cracked. We had to put a fast-close mechanism on the hinge so there was no chance of the door being left open. It made it a huge PITA to get food out of the pantry, but our cat is still at fighting weight.

But your point is well taken. It might be more "cat-proof" to have closed cabinets than a whole mini-room with a bifold door.

Sheesh, the things we do for our animals!