We don't have a real butler's pantry, but there was a spot by the dining room door where there was room for a 48" cabinet, so that's where we keep our china. We haven't entertained in the dining room yet, but I think we would put coffee and dessert there. Here's a picture - the dining room is the doorway to the left (sorry it's sideways)

I couldn't fit one in either, but wanted it for cleanup area and plenty of dish storage ...A place to set the table from and clear the table to. (Now you're making me miss it.) The one I saw in an upscale house had linen and china storage, and, if I remember right, a sink for preparing beverages and rinsing.

Essentially, its just storage space that's not for food.

In the 'good old days' [when most of us wouldn't have 'had' help, we'd have 'been' help], the butler was the head of the household staff, and only he was trusted with access to the best china, the silver, the alcohol, the white sugar. It was kept in his pantry, and he kept the key.

It's fine if you have the space, but craming one in 'just because' seems like it would do more harm than good to the overall design and ease of use of the kitchen space.

wow -- that's what i'm talking about! claire, could i possible see a picture of your set-up? or could you tell me the dimensions of such a space? if you had guests over, would they walk through the BP to go back and forth from DR to kitchen? or is it more of a workspace for you & family?

november, i think we are going to end up with a 48" space just like yours, but ours will be right in the kitchen (yours looks like it's around corner from main part of kitchen, which is what i wish i could do). i'm debating putting appliance garages at the bottom there, but don't want to lose too much counter space, since it might end up being a landing pad. we do have a 6' hutch across from this, still in kitchen, that might serve coffee/dessert.

rhome -- was that one you saw hidden from public view, or more of a showpiece space? i'm being greedy and want both...but will end up with neither, i fear.

As they say, form follows function, so you really have to think about what you NEED it to do. Maybe you don't need it at all, and the space could be used better another way.

Your use of the word "cram" is interesting here. It might be telling. It might not.

I used to live in a house with 2 pantries. A pantry between the kitchen and dining room with shelves to the ceiling that held the china, glass, silver, liquor, linens etc. I have seen pantries like this with plate-warming ovens, small ice boxes for ice and wine, and sometimes sinks. Basically, in an environment where all the food is cooked in one room and served in another, they're to stage the serving, so you don't have to actually go into the kitchen to get the food. The cook brings it out and puts it on the counter, and it gets served from there. So you have dishes, linens etc. in the middle, so you don't have to go into the kitchen to get them either. Am I making sense?

I also had a little pantry off the drawing room which I believe was used for serving drinks or light meals. It was smaller, had shelves and drawers, and could be closed off from the room, and was close to the back servants hallway. But you could keep glasses, liquor, linens and cleaning things in there, serve a light meal from there and tidy the dishes away quickly.

And, of course, they were designed to keep servants out of sight. But I'm sure you like your family and want to admire them almost all the time, so that's not a problem!

So think about the way you eat/entertain. Put the things you use where you use them, and you'll be fine. Or go for a strictly decorative china cabinet look, and make the most of its decorative qualities.

I loved having my pantries. I completely understand the appeal!

That is a hard one to answer. It was kind of both. You could definitely see it, like at an angle from the entry and as you moved about the house, but it wasn't open to either the kitchen or dining room and there were different ways to enter each of those without going past it...Kind of around the corner from both rooms. I remember that it was only one-sided, so it must've faced into a hall or other transition type of area. So sorry...It was a couple years ago, I was only in the house twice when it was almost completed.

I can't say I'd necessarily do anything the way they did, because the whole house was full of expensive things and materials, but set up very impractically.

I have one now that I use to store the extra fancy stuff! Like the nice china platters and Christmas platters and dishes for serving. I have a nice large china breakfront in the dining room also but it is full of stemware and china and tablecloths. So I use my Butler's pantry for extra storage of seasonal platters and such. I am putting one in our new home also. I think they look really nice. If you can set it up to double as a bar serving area, that would make a lot of sense.

ginny

I bought my home in Kansas City nearly three years ago and the house had one. I had never heard of it before but now I am so glad it is in here.

It is a crossover area (mini hallway) that extends from the kitchen toward the dining room. It is about 6 feet long and has four glass-fronted cupboards on top, a large 6' long wooden top and four wooden cupboards underneath. The upper cupboards hold my special glassware and plates. Underneath I keep the kitchen items I don't use very often. It is a great storage area.

Robyn

Starfish, click on My Page to see pictures of my kitchen. The BP is right there near the beginning.

Yes, we have to walk through the BP to ''get to'' the kitchen, if we're coming from the dining room. The BP also includes a window seat and is the foyer from the garage entry. It's only a short distance with a wide opening to the kitchen.

Starfish, I apologize. The order has been changed; some of the pictures are nearer the bottom. Look for the Beverage Center, Food Pantry, Amana Radarange, Window Seat, A Well Used Counter shows the corner that opens to the kitchen. The next to the last picture shows the view from the dining room. The titles are pretty self-explanatory.

Oh, wow, that is a gorgeous space! I wish someone would leave orange water on the counter for me every day -- just like a spa. Thank you for pointing me toward those pics.

Yes, "cram" is precisely the right word. If it's OK, I will post a separate thread with our latest probable layout, and if any of you have brilliant ideas, I'd love them. I'm beginning to think that what I need more than a BP is an actual butler....

Starfish, Thank You! It's always nice to hear, and I appreciate it. I'd love to look at your layout when you post it; this is definitely the place to get help with tweaking your kitchen as there's a lot of talent here.

I have a Butler's Pantry that was part of the addition on our house. This space has been completed - unlike the kitchen gut and remodel we are DIYing currently. This butler's pantry is currently my favorite part of the house! It is functioning as my temporary kitchen right now. This room is a seperate space from my kitchen and not the traditional 'hallway' to the dining room. I have pantry cabinets, small sink, dishwasher and refrigerator in there along with enough cabinets that I can store minimal kitchen items like silverware, plates, coffe/tea stuff etc.

Once the construction on the kitchen is done the function of my Butler's Pantry will change. I won't need it for a 'kitchen' because my REAL kitchen will be done! This pantry space was primarily designed to house the things I need to mill wheat and make bread using freshly milled wheat. I have a place designed for my large buckets of wheat, my mill and breadmaker. This room will house all my china, crystal, entertaining items, linens and the spare fridge for overflow items during a party. I intend to use it for staging parties and a place to clear dirty dishes away to after a meal and load into my spare dishwasher. Here's some photos:

mo_sgal: so that's really a second kitchen (lucky!). is it near your DR? or on other side of your kitchen? I'd love to be able to do all those distinct tasks in a BP, but, if it's near the DR, it seems like it ends up being more public (fancy plates, stemware and bar area) vs. being over in the "back" wing of the house, where it would be more of a utilitarian space. if i thought i could get all that done between DR and Kit, I'd make space for this BP!

My BP is more of a utilitariam space. It is not far from the dining room, but you can't see the space from the dining room at all. It's directly across from the kitchen. It feels a little seperated because of a small set of two stairs. For the addition we had no choice but to have the step up because of how the roof lines fell.

I think I will like having a room that's close to the DR for setting the table using dishes and linen from the BP, yet it's not within sight of the dining room table so you can clear dirty dishes away.

I'm blessed to have this space during my remodel. With a dishwasher and running water I feel pretty spoiled. But I still have no oven, and after six months of avoiding recipes that begin with "preheat oven to.... it's getting really old!!

Ours is a hallway that runs from the kitchen to the dining room. It actually occupies part of my old kitchen. We put an addition on for our new kitchen and used the old space for a laundry room and butler's pantry. It will have a sink and my old dishwasher. I will also use it for overflow kitchen storage. I haven't quite figured it out yet. The counters go in tomorrow and then I will start unpacking. I thought that I might use it as a coffee bar too, but I didn't put a disposal in, so cleaning up the coffee grounds could present a problem.

I'm designing one for our addition/remodel, and I'm calling it a "garden pantry". It will have the following farmhouse sink on legs. The idea is to be able to store baskets of veggies from our gardens/greenhouse under the sink until DH or I can get to them. The sink will be flanked by cabinets and I'm planning on open shelves above the sink. This area will also include storage for dry foods and small appliances. I just love it when you look out your kitchen doorway into another pantry area.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Judydel - That is a gorgeous sink! And such a clever idea for veggie and appliance storage!

We bought a 1926 tudor that came with a butler's pantry. It was one of the major selling points for me because I collect china, crystal and entertain alot. Well, after living with it for about a year I realized that it's best function is for storing seasonal china (Christmas, fall, spring, etc.), serving pieces not used frequently and vases, candlesticks, etc. I have bought a hutch for my dining room to store linens and silver because they were inconvenient in the BP. I also found that I keep frequently used serving pieces in the kitchen so that I can plate the food easily and put them away after washing.

I intend to add a sink and DW into the BP in the next year and then I will be set. Every house is set up differently and everyone's entertaining needs are different. I ended up using my BP for storing different things than I thought but it is still one of my favorite parts of my house.

I also think that it is a really appealing feature to potential buyers so a small BP would be better than no BP.

I think that a BP is an anti-thesis to the current Great Room school of thought, where host(ess) is often the cook.

In the old days where butlers were serving families sitting down for a formal dinner, BP's served well, since the person who was serving had that as dedicated job and was not eating/cooking at the same time. In the modern setup, the hosts are typically in the kitchen and guests gather in Great Room. For the lifestyles where open kitchens make a lot of sense, BP's do not make much for exact same reasons. While it is essential to have storage for all your fine china/silverware etc. it need not be in BP. A corner in an open kitchen could work. The key here is accessibility.

I definitely think that a BP makes the kitchen all the more inaccessible from the dining area, since it usually lies between the kitchen and formal dining.

However, it might actually be a better idea to allocate room for storing dirty pots/pans and dishes, since typically people linger for a bit after food and an open kitchen very soon begins to look like a junkyard. Maybe an extra dishwasher, an extra sink etc. that is away from the site.

We have one off the existing kitchen (between kitchen and DR, since the kitchen has no DR access) and after much deliberation we decided to keep it, and enhance it's functionality.

When we add a new kitchen onto the house, the layout will be (according to a clock) Kitchen at 12 o'clock, DR in the center of the clock and BP is 3 o'clock. Between BP and kitchen will be a hallway with a powder room and mud/laundry room off it.

I intend to add a nice sized bar sink, beverage fridge, and use this room to prepare my AM espresso and my PM glass of wine. We could also use it to serve appetizers or desserts at a dinner party.

I toyed with the idea of a DW, but ours is not that big (7x11) and the DW would really cut down on my lower storage. Plus we are planning on 2 dws in the kitchen.

You all are making me just want this BP even more! Yes, I agree a small BP is better than no BP, but I have to be careful not to shrink my DR too much (in case I ever get that big, gorgeous round dining table that I would love). If any of you are so inclined, would you please take a look at the new thread I just posted, asking for layout advice for this BP? If it's not possible, I will just call the little corner of my kitchen (which will have appliance garages) my "butler's pantry," even though it will be open to rest of space:)

personally, I wouldn't give up DR *or* kitchen space for one.

I'd much rather be sure I had a landing zone in the kitchen near the DR door.

A place to set the just-filled platters (for someone else to set on the table), and to set the just-removed platters and plates (for me to load into the DW later).

But a whole room (even a small one)? Nope.