Where do I find the space for a larger pantry & broom closet

15 years ago

This is my old DIY kitchen plan. Although I didn't get a chance to use the new kitchen I really liked the way it was shaping up. (I'll have to post some pics of the almost done kitchen).

Since I have the wonderful opportunity to start over I want to make sure it's absolutely right.

I didn't like the colors I ended up with, that's and easy change.

I am concerned that a 24" pantry cabinet wasn't going to be sufficient

I desperately want a small broom closet, just large enough to hold a broom, Swiffer and dust pan (I think 6"-9" will suffice).

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Comments (4)

Melissa Houser
15 years ago
Jen, Your house burned??? Oh My! How horrible for you guys, but it looks like everyone got out okay? I hope!!!

Good luck with planning the new kitchen. I have 24" wide and deep pantry cabinets and they are tough to keep organized. I think you could realistically steal the six inches at the far end of your pantry for the broom closet without feeling the pinch, especially if you do roll-outs on the shelves.

My pantry is actually in my laundry room, which is just outside the kitchen door in the garage. Is putting the pantry in another room an option for you? My sister in law actually converted her in-house laundry room to a walk-in pantry and moved the laundry room into the garage itself.

Good luck!
caligal
15 years ago
Jen, good to see you back at it. Wow...not much left there.

Can't you put a larger pantry anywhere you want seeing that you are starting fresh again. Or are you rebuilding the walls exactly how they were?

If not;

Do you want a separate wall oven and cooktop? Does that work best for you? You could always put a range where the cooktop is and then have lots of room to play w/ on the other side of the fridge.
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Love your cabinets and what a deal. I love the re-store store! In our last house we had a tiny kitchen, but managed to modify a pantry to have pullouts plus a six inch space for broom closet along one side. I know a lot of people would say that's not enough space, but it was plenty for a broom, swiffer and a hand vac. You will love this space. If you order a cabinet, a face frame will narrow the space, though. You will likely also be limited on heights available. You could probably just make this cabinet with 3/4 panels if you want to go to the floor and order your doors separately. We used a 3/4 panel in this way and used angle brackets on the floor and ceiling (at the top ours was also attach to another wall cabinet, though.). The angle brackets on the floor were tiled over since we went down to the subfloor. The ones at top were hidden behind our frig. I think trimming it to the ceiling would look best and maybe find a way to bridge the top of your frig. It will link the two sides visually and give the frig a more built in space. Even if you just put a nice straight line valance with a plain bead at top like your cabs, stained to match, you would get that finished look. We had a cabinet bridging that space. Whatever you use, there may still be that little bit of space to slide a cookie sheet on top of the frig. That's what we did--we used every square inch! Now I'm planning our last dream house kitchen and I'm still wanting to use every last bit of space well. Hate those fillers unless they pull out :) Isn't it fun to find a use for the little spaces that others would just use filler of leave an empty space on the other end?!
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I had a small, step in pantry that I hated, and got rid of it for a lot more storage in cabinet pantries instead. The thing is, a closet style pantry is a lot cheaper to build. That's the main reason people opt for them. You can do a hybrid if it will work better in your space but putting roll out tray shelves in the bottom, and pretty double doors on the front. You can also put restrictors on your upper shelves to keep things only in the front. For function, either way would work the same, though with the cabinets you'd have a slight ledge to set things down on, which would be useful, or a counter if you use actual uppers, rather than having them down to the top of the lowers. I don't use a lot of bulk items, other than paper goods like napkins and paper towels which are better and easier to buy rarely but by the case. I only buy 10 lbs. of flour at a time, but have many kinds of flour. The flour canisters are in two drawers in my baking area, and extra flour is on a roll out shelf in the pantry. Similarly, I don't use a lot of oil, and have several kinds. The open bottles are in my cooking area, and the replacements are in the pantry. Pasta, rice, beans, etc., are in the pantry. The paper goods are on the upper shelves because they're easy to get down and out of the way. My pantry is two 30"x18" floor to ceiling cabinets, roll out shelves in the lowers, which are about 5' high. Most of the foodstuffs, as well as beverages, are in the lower part. Housewares and general household stuff are in the uppers, as well as some canisters that have nowhere else to go, and wines/spirits. There would be plenty of room in one 30" wide pantry for most everything without the papergoods. The extra depth you want to get rid of would be quite useful for the paper, though... :)
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I'll add here that while the idea of removing or moving the fixed shelf will work as long as the cabined is supported on both sides, it is not really necessary. We just completed our kitchen. Pantries were two 24"x90" high with drawers for food and one 15"x90" high as a broom closet. The default location for the fixed shelf is 60" which is plenty of height in my experience for mops/brooms. The 60" door is the tallest that Ikea makes, so while you could move the shelf up it necessary, you won't have the shelf providing the split between the 60" door and the 30" door above it.
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Buehl
15 years ago
Well...you could take 3" off the 27" cabinet to the right of the refrigerator and combine it with the 3/4" or so finished panel and create a 4" broom closet pullout to the left of the refrigerator (finished end panel stays on the right, but the one on the left is the one that would be combined with the 3" you just freed up).

It does push the refrigerator to the right about 3", but I think it will be fine.

Here is a link that might be useful: IKEAFANS: 4'' Broom Closet Modification
jenellecal
Original Author
15 years ago
Even though we're starting fresh we are keeping the exact same footprint due to set back and zoning stuff.

I had considered replacing the wall oven with a range but DH doesn't like the idea and after a brief poll here I think there are more disadvantages to that.

I'm hoping the architect can help me find 6-9 inches somewhere.

I've always loved the Ikea pull out broom closet idea, I could easily take that 27" cabinet to a 24" one.

Where do I find the space for a larger pantry & broom closet

Comments (4)

Melissa Houser

caligal

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Where do I find the space for a larger pantry & broom closet

Comments (4)

Melissa Houser

caligal

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Buehl

jenellecalOriginal Author

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jenellecal
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