I am by no means an expert, but after much consideration, we are replacing our closet/pantry (not a cabinet) with a 30" wide cabinet pantry with 4 pull out shelves in the lower portion and two fixed shelves on the top for those items not used often. I was told by more than one KD that option 5 (called a "chef's pantry" in most lines), as great as it looks, is not so ideal in that you need to pull out all those shelves to get to the back. I imagine that would be the case with option 4 as well. An I agree that those seem to waste a lot of space. Plus the chef's pantries cost quite a bit more than what we went with. Options 2 and 3 don't seem to be able to accomodate very tall items if this is your only pantry space. Our kitchen won't be in for another 3 weeks or so, so can't comment on my satisfaction with our choice yet. But good luck to you.

How deep is your cabinet pantry going to be Kaycee?

Try a Google search for pullout shelves. There are many companies that will make them almost any size you need. Be sure to get full extension glides.

Here's a link to one company.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pull Out Shelves

Standard 24" (96" high to line up with our 42" cabinets). And agree with Willtv above...full extension pull out shelves.

I just reloaded my cabinet and looked again at the two drawers we added, and then remembered why we had to leave the shelves. The wire basket drawers had to attach to them since our cabinets are framed.

I definitely want full extension. These baskets only pull out about 3/4 of the way. If there aren't any pull-out shelves made for framed cabinets, we'll have to add 2x4's to the sides after we cut out the wood shelves.

willtv, I like those drawers and the prices are good. Have you ordered from that company?

I say roll out shelves if they glide easily. I had some that look like the ones you have in my old kitchen but they didn't work well.

#3 is good with narrow shelves, but I think it would be hard to see the middle in your cabinet.

The ones like #4 and #5 are too chopped up. They only allow you to store small packages. I have cans, bottles, bags of rice, bags of pasta, small canisters, small boxes, sleeves of soda, tall bottles, and a very inconvient economy pack of small bottles of water I wish someone would drink up already, in my lower pantry. The uppers have wine, tall canisters, medicine, booze, paper goods, and oddities. How do you fit all that into those mechanisms?

Best is roll out shelves below, and static shelves with a stepladder above (though some people like roll out shelves with a stepladder). Then you can put whatever you need in.

I've got full extension rollout shelves and find them very efficient. Prior to my kitchen reno, I had a pantry like yours with the pullout baskets mounted on the shelves. The full extension rollouts are much better.

Here's a couple pics of mine. It's 41.5 inches wide and I put drawers on the bottom.

Good luck!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

That is really nice pudgybaby. What brand are the drawers?

I have no. 5 now and there is a lot of wasted space and awkward space. I previously had 4 full extension pull outs like pudgybaby. Mine were all wood and had slightly higher sides. I loved it. Above it I had tray dividers.

Forget #4 and #5 - way too complicated, lots of wasted space and very expensive.

The cabinet is 24" wide and 24" deep, right? I'd go with pull-out shelves or drawers.

Note that most of the roll-out / pull-out shelves are NOT full extension - you must pay for that upgrade and also pay to upgrade the backs and sides so stuff doesn't fall out. Take this into consideration - it will probably be cheaper to have actual cabinet DRAWERS made with bottom-mount Blum glides.

If your cabinet was wider (36" or so), I'd go with pantry pull-outs like #3 - 2 15" units attached to the doors. But with either these or shelves / drawers you lose width because of the face-frames, so you could only go with 2 9" wide pantry pull-outs, which won't be as efficient in your 24" wide cab - get 20" wide drawers instead.

I wonder why they don't use mirrors and lights inside these things. Can you put mirror tile in the back, and run a strip of LED rope light down the inside of the cabinet? Then you could see better. Or put a mirror on the "ceiling" of the top shelf area so you can look at the tops of your stuff before you decide if you want the step stool.

Course then I would need a place to stash reading glasses, too.

ps thanks for posting this - I wanted to compare these things with my DH, and it helps so much to have all the pictures together!

marti8a: they are Blum brand, and are called Tandembox. Blum also makes a similar product for Ikea (called Rationell), so you might look into that (there is an ikeafans website much like this one that could probably help you figure out if they would work for your framed cabinets). My cabinets are frameless. I remember my cabinet maker saying that he bought the components for the rollouts (the metal front and sides, slides, etc) and then cut the metal front to fit my cabinet and put them together with the gray corner pieces. The bottom and the back is melamine (1/2 or 5/8 inch).

The ikea looks really similar and economical. $24 for a 24 inch wide or $22 for the 21 inch wide, plus you'd need a drawer front. The 24 inch drawer front is $12, there isn't a 21 inch wide drawer front, but maybe you could cut the 24 inch down? These prices include the fully extending drawer slides. I think that there are also products at ikea that are not shown online, so there may be more size options and components to build your own drawers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea rational fully extending drawer

Thanks pudgybaby, I'll look into that. I have talked to a local cabinet maker about making some new doors and I might see if he will make some drawers to fit the space too.

lyvia, I hadn't thought of mirrors, but did think of painting it a glossy white, especially in the bottom cabinets. Lights that come on when the cabinet doors open would be nice too.

marti8a, I have not ordered from the pull out shelf company I linked for you. I was going to but, as it turns out, the cabinet I wanted to put the pullouts in is only 14 inches wide. After allowing for the width of the pullot sides and hardware, I was going to be left with an interior space of 9 inches and decided to leave well enough alone.

I have # 3 version. The door is 18" wide 24" deep and a little over 5ft from the floor. The shelves are adjustable to fit larger items. My only suggestion is this type of pull out even in #2 works most efficiently if it can be accessed from both sides (my pull out is not against a wall). It is super strong and I have it stuffed. Easy to find everything. I would probably put something like pudgybaby's system if I were in your situation.

I have #3 too and love it but agree that it would not work if up against a wall unless it were narrow. Mine is 24 wide and I can reach across to the other side well, but like being able to stand to either side when opening if I have an idea which side the thing I need is on.
The Lowes or ones like Pudgybaby's seem like your best bet.