Make half the dining room a pantry accessed by the kitchen and the other half your mudroom that connects to the foyer. So don’t close it off from the foyer, as that would funnel traffic straight through your kitchen.

Your best bet is to tell your architect your concerns--what you like and don't like about your current layout. Then it's up to him or her to figure out how to solve the problem.

That being said, I don't think that eliminating your dining room is a good idea. Your "nook" looks to be quite small--what do you do when you entertain larger groups?

You say that most guests enter your home through the garage because of the way the driveway is set up. Perhaps you need to reconfigure the access to the front door to make it more likely that guests will enter there. It seems very awkward for guests to enter through a small laundry/mudroom instead of your more gracious foyer.

I didn’t see your other post, but I would put lots of thought into making your existing mudroom/laundry more appealing to you before making these bigger changes. The current layout makes sense to me with the rest of the floor plan. I like Diana’s suggestion of emphasizing the front door for nonfamily members.
What about making the mudroom have more style? There are so many amazing examples on Houzz.

I like the idea. You are using unused space to solve a problem. I’d suggest calling it an entry hall instead of mudroom, so it is more inviting for guests. In my book, any additional storage is a good thing!

You could also just put a door from garage into dining room without making any other changes, then put benches, shoe racks, hooks, etc that can be easily removed when you sell.

I understand guests coming through the garage. I assume you have a side load garage like I do; when guests drive up, they don’t have a sightline to the front door. If I ever build a home I’d either have a front load garage or a nice family entrance by the garage doors.

IMO this is not a good plan where will you eat if you have guests . I agree guests should be steered toward the front entry and that is done by putting a walkway closer to the street and to the front door. IMO the laundry is in a perfect spot but not sure about the bathroom could you show the whole floor plan. I d think replacing the DR with a mudroom and laundry is not the answer.

Thank you for the comments and suggestions. I would like to address a couple things.
Our eat-in area is sufficient for 10 people. I have custom built in benches and a table in he nook area.
If I went ahead with the plan to close the dining room, I could always use the open office space across the foyer. It doesn’t lend itself to “office” work anyway.
Our front walk is quiet long with a side entry garage, this is the reason most people don’t use the front door. If I were to have a formal occasion, I would certainly close the garage and have people enter this way. However, we very rarely have any formal guests or gatherings that would call for the formal dining room or formal entry.
My laundry/mudroom area is very small and there’s no room for style as is (washer/dryer) cabinet for some cleaning supplies. I should also point out, this house has no extra closet space, meaning the closets in the bedrooms are it...no linen closet, utility closet, nothing. Right now, any mop, broom, vacuum, etc are in the spare bedroom closet and in the corner of the tiny pantry.
I’m just trying to maximize my kitchen area without having to change the kitchen. I thought a butler’s pantry/entry could do that. I see that I should possibly look at other options.

There goes the home value. You’d do better to take over the smaller nook space than the larger dining space. There’s no way the nook space offers the equivalent seating that the dining room does. Move the kitchen to the nook, and reapportion the new entry with a butlers pantry between the new kitchen and dining.

Emily, I can appreciate where you're coming from and what you're trying to accomplish. I would not close off the dining room wall though. I would use the new entrance into the dining room as a thorough fare to the foyer.
So if entering the new entrance, to the left, maybe through a trimmed out opening, would be a mudroom area for coats etc and yes, please add some cupboards for linens and vacuums etc. I would look to closing off the other half of the dining room you want to be a pantry, but I don't know that I would make that a walk through from your new front doors, because then, people really would use your kitchen as the entrance.
And I would make all of these changes knowing that for resale, you will most likely need to undo what you've done, except that I like this idea, and the next woman of the house, needing a mudroom, will most kindly line it too. Those decisions can be made based on realtor advice.

Drawing is poor. sorry.

I like this.

Lisa T- thank you so much for this. I like the idea a lot.

Like I said, the “living room” could become the dining room of the next owner wanted one. I think the addition of storage would benefit someone more than formal dining.

We are planning on staying in this house for many many years so we’re not too worried about resale value. Thanks to everyone for your comments thus far.

Emily, I would want storage too.
I have one question. Are you thinking to put the new doors where I did, or where the current window is? Not having the full plan, I didn't know if the door I added was also in the garage.

I was planning on putting the door where you had it. The garage is behind the dining room.

Any update? Would love to see pics :)