Go hug a tree :) You may feel you are an outstanding citzen/human by being a teacher. WHOOP DE WHOO!!!! You chose that profession and obviously get more of a reward from patting yourself on the back than your pay check. Its teachers like you that make me want to home school my children. You do more harm than you realize by your judging, and arrogant attidue/ ego. I hope none of your students learn that trait from you. I provide safe, clean, affordable, and for the most part quiet homes. This is obviously a very important issue and housing is considered a bigg need. Basically I interpret your commets that anyone not parenting/ educating/ or contributing to the world in a way you deem worthy is selfish. I do make money renting out property, and my family is financialy stable. Being financially secure I am able to donate money to multiple charities and spend hours each week as a volunteer. But that type of work and those organazations have little to no benefit to anything which means its not a WORLD contribution. Perhpas with all my money and time I will go back to become a teacher and CHANGE THE WORLD!!!!! On a side note I do teach a class every week to K-8th graders. Its called J/A and its one of the most impactfull courses todays youth will ever learn. In case your not familier with Junior Achievment, it teaches youth about personal and world finances. Something our local criculum has been falling short in. But that to, must be a waste since learning a tv isn't a need and how to save money for college/ retirment isn't important. Why don't you check yourself in the mirror next Monday and start being a model citzen instead of talking about being one. I'm not saying you don't have an important job or don't help out todays society, but what I do is important to many others also. Keep judging all you want, people ask for opinions and I give them my honest opinion.

I'd definitely avoid regular shelves for at least the lower 60 inches perhaps. It is really hard to access the backs of the shelves, so you'll get more usable space with pull-outs. Pull-outs would not really work for any space over your head - you need to be able to look down into pull-outs. Be sure to verify that the interior of the broom closet is tall enough for your brooms and mops. Make sure that the vacuum will fit, too, if you want it there.

mama_goose - Thanks so much for the suggestion! If we could afford custom doors with glass for the pantry, I think it would need to be safety glass (since we have a little one), but - I will keep your suggestion in mind for future cabinet projects! Thanks! blfenton - Thank you for your reply! I put a 12" deep piece of furniture there last night, and it does feel a bit cramped. I think we're going to need to go with something smaller, if anything. lavender - I don't think that we can exchange our doors anymore since too much time has passed. But - I am definitely going to keep the glass with shirred fabric idea in mind for future projects. (I hope to one day replace the Ikea doors with more traditionally styled wood Shaker doors, and swap out the countertops for soapstone or granite.) Thanks again for your wonderful ideas! They are giving me so much to look forward to. :) taggie - Thank you for your reply and kind compliment! After living with a 12" piece of furniture there, I think 9" is the max that I want to go for the pantry so it doesn't feel so claustrophobic. DH has plans to put an end panel on the side that opens to the kitchen - but, it is a plain, flat panel - not shaker style. Hopefully it won't look too bad... marcolo - Thanks for your reply! We won't make it flush to the wall. Bellsmom - Thanks so much for the mockup! I'm afraid that DH isn't up for such a big undertaking though. It looks like we're 1eaning toward the 9" deep pantry the whole way across. But, thank you again for your thoughtful suggestion and mockup! dianalo - Thanks for your reply! Option B and sticking with the simple doors now (with perhaps some glass doors in the future), is the direction we are leaning. bmorepanic - Thank you for your thoughtful reply! I'm concerned about 21" wide doors opening into the space too. The only way around it would be to use 3 12" wide doors and lose 6" of space. In order to line up with the fridge cabinets, the max amount of space that we have to work with is 42". I wish it was 45", since then we could have done 3 15" doors. Sigh. DH isn't willing to lose the 6" of space. If the 21" doors become a huge issue, we could always change it up down the line. Also, I think we're going to stick with a 9" depth all the way across. DH will have to cut wall cabinets down in size. As for dining room usage - that is yet to be seen. We're not using it yet as it's still under construction (and was DH's workshop in the winter). It does have another opening that is much larger, from the foyer. I think biggest problem will be congestion with people using the garage entrance. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Another mini update - After trying out a 12" deep piece of furniture where the pantry will go - we're going to aim for a 9" depth. It will let the space breathe a bit more, and should allow for 7.5" wide shelves once the full overlay doors and fridge end panel are taken into consideration. The plan is for the pantry to house seldomly used things - like duplicates of food items, cans of soup and veggies, that type of thing. We don't want it to be a place where people linger or use frequently (to avoid traffic jams). Cereal and snacks will go to the right of the fridge (nice and out of the way of people using the sink and stove) - and frequently used cooking supplies will go in the cabinetry by the stove. The doors will stay simple for now - with the hope of adding some glass in the future. Thank you taggie and marcolo for the warning about bringing the cabinetry flush to the wall. I'm embarrassed to admit that we DID in fact make this amateur mistake in other areas of our kitchen (it was either that, or we would of had to lose 6" of cabinetry or do major construction to the wall). DH is comfortable with it flush; he believes in function over form, and the doorway openings are straight (he said that if the walls weren't straight, he would have stopped the cabinetry a few inches from the wall). Being a perfectionist, I'm bummed that we made such a rookie mistake, but I'm going to have to let it go. Thank you all, again!!!

There are a lot more 36" wide than 33" wide fridges on the market and fridges don't seem to be getting any smaller, so I would go with a bigger fridge so you have more options to replace it when it dies. You do need a couple of inches at the sides and top of the fridge to allow air flow so your fridge doesn't overheat, so your fridge hole will need to be bigger then 36" - take a look at the specs of the fridge(s) you are contemplating to make sure the hole is big enough. You also need to account to for the side panel(s) of the fridge, which I would guess at about 3/4" wide. Let's do the math then: So, 52 - 36 - let's say 3" for air flow but I really have no idea - 3/4 - 3/4 = 11.5" left for the pantry. If there is going to be trim around the hallway entrance you will have to reduce the pantry by that amount as well. Now, a shallow pantry can really hold a lot so don't despair. Cindyandmocha has a 7" deep pantry (see link below). It's actually nicer to have a shallow pantry so things don't get lost in the back. I have a pantry in a 24" deep closet with 15 to 18" deep shelves and it sucks, I have to move everything around to see the stuff in the back, things get lost and I buy replacements I don't need, things get lost and expired before I use them, etc. Here is a link that might be useful: Cindyandmocha's finished kitchen w/ shallow pantry