How much space is on either side? I love the updated barn door /french door look taking the typical one door slide and turning it into two. Makes it easy to access when your hands are full and can be set up to open like a drape ( both sides at one time).

Do you have a picture? I don't have a pantry but I would think that you'd want the door to match the other interior doors in your home, although perhaps with frosted glass to lighten things up. If you are replacing a bifold with a regular swinging door, have you checked that you have enough room for the swing and thought about if the door will be in the way if people in your house have a tendency to leave it open (or even if it's just open because someone is in the pantry and someone else needs to get by)? Bifold doors can serve a purpose in saving space.

Barbara and Kim have good ideas. Both reduce the number of panels in the design from 4 to 2. Bifold is probably the only workable solution, given your dimensions. If you don't want to stay with louvered doors (possibly in a contrasting color??), you can fill the frames with solid panels, some sort of designer glass (clear or translucent, or even backpainted), or a panel such as those from Lumicor (http://www.lumicor.com/). If you opt for any glass, you need to make sure the door frames are sufficiently thick enough to carry the weight. Likewise, the hinges and screws that hold the hinges to the frame and jamb will need to be sufficient. Translucent glass or a Lumicor panel can also be accentuated by back-lighting, ideally with vertically-mounted, dimmable LEDs. Such lighting could also help with identifying items stored on shelves, beyond the reach of ambient light.

since the wood isn't all that great, paint it. no to the chalkboard panels. that will look weird so far down. I've done doors like this in milk paint, or use a chalk paint. take off the hardware and boil it if you can. If you want to strip it bare wood, use a wood stripper. SoyGel is good. you can apply a stain to it, then your milk paint. that's how I did mine. (true milk paint adheres better to a raw wood or raw stained wood) If you don't want any of the wood to show through, then try General Finishes milk paint or one of the chalk paints. I think if you do a few colors, it will give it a bit more depth and interest than if you just painted it 'turquoise'. Here are some of the turquoise milk paint colors I've also done. The little table was done in GF milk paint in two colors. the other two objects were done in real milk paint (The Real Milk Paint co) on the raw wood.