If you live in a climate of extreme weather, I'd put in the door to give you an extra "airlock" to keep the heat or AC in. Otherwise, I guess it depends on whether the view into the mudroom from the rest of the house is something you think you'd rather be able to hide from time to time, and whether you think an extra easily-moppable room with a closable door would be valuable to you. Are you an animal lover, for example? Leaving the door open gives you one less obstacle to maneuver when bringing in groceries, to be sure, but it also robs you of a good place to seclude sick pets, mud-covered dogs, etc. Only you know if you're likely to have a need for such a space, or to consider it more valuable than the loss of the ability to travel unimpeded from the garage to the kitchen.

Thanks Lyfia! All three ideas could work well. The closet wall currently would be between the two transom windows, so it wouldn't block either. Still, I especially like your idea of putting in a nice PAX closet, at least initially. A 59" (or 49") PAX closet, with a bench or plant in front of the left sidelite. I think that could work very well (if DH will be willing to be unconventional. I'm from Europe, so I'm quite used to wardrobes and no closets). I've been wanting to do a closet organizer anyway, so PAX could accomplish that. And, as you'd said, it means we could see what the space really feels like after we move in. This makes me wonder whether the entry door should be 2'8" rather than 3'0" wide. A smaller door might make the space feel larger ... and would leave more of the closet accessible. I'd assumed that 3' was more practical for bringing in fridges, couches, etc. But if 2'8" is a standard, then there must be other ways movers cope with massive furniture. Thanks! Very interesting ideas for me to sleep on. :-) (Yawn).

"I went to work in an office that had a pocket door that never worked right because someone had driven nails into it at some point and it was never the same after" (palimpsest) Yes. This happened to us when DH nailed the baseboard on the wall between the laundry and kitchen. The door came off track. When we renovate I will replace or remove. However, this was builder grade. On our extension I added three pocket doors. The one I had put in for the powder room is a solid core door, not thinner than most doors, as I wanted as much sound-dampening as possible with such a device. We used Johnson Hardware - not the home depot variety which runs $ 40 or so, but commercial grade. Look at the Johnson site under 1500 Commercial Grade and you will also find non-standard size frames (door max thickness 1 3/4"). Use a good carpenter.

Hi all sorry for the delay in my reply! Thank you all very much for your input, sure made me think lots! We decided on Option 1. Keeping the door swing the way it is to promote natural flow from entrance to mudroom with coats, will also have some hooks by the door. Will likely add a small bulkhead between the entrance and dining room to create a feel of separation. The door is blocked nicely from our prevailing west wind by the garage (if the plan were a map, it would be upside down - north is at the bottom). I've also had some mixed feelings about not having the mudroom joined to my pantry and kitchen on the same side of the house, the concern being distance with groceries. For anyone who was curious, this is the full plan, the driveway comes up around the left side where the yellow line is, so this is why we've opted to have the 'public' rooms on this side of the house and the 'private' bedroom side on the back. That, and the views to the top and left of the page are quite nice so we've tried to orient our living spaces to face them. Thank you all for your input.