I would rather have the dining room. In fact, we eat in the dining room every day, and I ditched the kitchen table and chairs in our recent remodel because we never used the kitchen table. As a point of reference, we are close to retirement, no kids, don't entertain a whole lot (maybe every 3 weeks or so?). The pantry is in the basement and I think that's the best place for it, as I am a firm believer in "stairs keep you young".

I'm not surprised. I'd have gone with the majority in this vote.

We eat in our dining room everyday. Definitely dining room for us. Now, if the choice was eat in kitchen with dining room or pantry with dining room, I'd take pantry with dining room.

I love my dining room, even though we eat in the kitchen most of the time. I just think it's so pretty, and enjoy having dinner parties in there. I would be bummed if it was turned into a pantry for soup and paper towels ;)

The pantry is in the basement and I think that's the best place for it, as I am a firm believer in "stairs keep you young".

Stairs do keep you young. It's why I'm happy to have my studio and workout room/guest room upstairs in our new build. Sometimes though, life throws a curveball.

My Mom got Parkinson's at 72 and after the first 4-5 years, stairs became her enemy. This was a woman who went to the gym 5x a week. Stairs for her became extremely dangerous.

And for that reason, we are not only putting in stairs in our new build but also an elevator. Just in case. (Plus we're in a retirement area so it will be a good selling point if we ever need to sell.)

Oh and I'm with the majority. We're not putting in a dining room in our new build.

I think in a new build I too would go with the pantry. But in my reno, it just didn't seem right to lose the dining room. I wonder about resale with all the comparables having formal dining rooms. In a new build (assuming a new development) that would be less of a concern.

In this day of open plan and lots more space. I would choose a pantry.

Now I miss the lack of closet space in my 1920s house but I can do without a huge pantry. Food is meant to be eaten not stored indefinitely so I find I'm better off without a huge amount of storage space. A small cabinet pantry is plenty. It's just not necessary. Formal dr is only not needed if you have another large table in which case it's kind of silly to have both. Our kitchen table only seats 3 so love my dr for entertaining and for projects.

My first impression is neither. I don't stockpile food, so the giant pantry seems like wasted real estate to me. I'd like to see the alternative eating space before getting rid of the dining room though.

We seldom used our dining room when I was growing up, instead taking most of our meals at the cramped kitchen table. Seems like such a waste to me now, since the dining room had such better space, lighting, ambiance.

In homes with 2 pleasant places to eat, a 'dining room' could be flex space. An office, study, sitting, homeschool/family/away room. Many things more versatile than a big fancy pantry.

Not sure about this one. A pantry the size of a dining room would probably cause me to over-buy and stockpile things that I really don't need. I guess it depends on what kind of kitchen equipment you have and how often you use it, i.e. mixer, crockpot, cuisanart, large platters, etc. I have a corner pantry in our kitchen, and it's plenty big, however, I'd like to overhaul the layout to make it more efficient. (cubbies, new shelving, etc) Just don't have the budget right now.

For our current home, we use our dining room for all of our family meals b/c we decided not to have a breakfast room in lieu of a sitting room.

I know several people that have a formal dining room, an informal dining area that can seat up to 10, and island seating for 4-6. The formal dining room is never used. We also live in a climate where we can eat outside often. It really depends on your lifestyle. It seems for us and our friends we go for a more informal buffet style when we have gatherings with family/friends and people eat at counter, informal dining area, and outside. Formal dining room table becomes a drop zone and as someone else said an area for school and home projects.