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Walk-in Pantry or Wall Pantry?

17 years ago

What is more useful--walk-in or wall pantry? Right now I have one that is a narrow cabinet that is attached to the wall but will have to be taken out when we add my sewing room. We live in an area where we do shopping once a month so we stock up on what we can.

If you have followed my post "Where Do I begin with Our Addition"? I have pictures of the area where the pantry is that we will be removing and if I do a wall pantry it will be where my Buffalo wall hanging is right now. There is probably 8 feet on that wall to cut out for the pantry but we cannot go more than 4 feet in to the garage because we need room to get around our vehicles. Right now our garage is 22' wide and 28' long with my DH's workbench on the wall that I am thinking about cutting out. We will move his workbench to the new part of the garage that will be used for lawn equipment and his work area. Right now we have one 16' garage door and I would like to replace that with (2) 10' or (2) 12' doors but I don't know which would be better. I would appreciate any help with this.

Thanks,

Sue in Wyoming

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Comments (4)

cordovamom
17 years ago
I love my walk in pantry -- this is the first home I've owned with a walk in pantry, and I'll insist upon one in my next home as well. As a mom to 4 kids (now all grown), I always buy in bulk and there's nothing like a walk in pantry for storing all those bulk items. If you have the space, and if you need the space for storage, go with a walk in and you'll be glad you did.
patti_bee
17 years ago
If you do the 8 ft wall pantry, you might consider making it a closet with shelves and bi-fold doors that coordinate with the cabinetry. You'll be able to store much more than if you have pantry cabinets and you'll be able to see it all at once as well. A walk-in pantry is great too.
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sayde, that's an interesting thought about deepening and extending a few of the shelves on the back wall. I had also considered a small wall hung cabinet similar to my spice cabinet beside my stove. rhome, no the shelves wouldn't protrude into the doorway. It's hard to tell from the photos I posted, but 5 inch shelves would just be flush with the left side of the door opening. I might think about some kind of upward lip on the shallow shelves to ensure things don't fall off. And yes, the shallow shelves would make the back shelves 29" (the 5" would still be there, it would just be blind). The doorway into the pantry is 30" wide, and the buffet on the right is shallower than the doorway by 10", so with my 5" shelves on the left, I'd still have 40" of width in which to navigate. That sounds like plenty to me, but I guess I don't know until I see it. The back shelves are 12" deep now. They work great for some things like the toaster oven and boxes of cereal, but I'm not crazy about how they work for canned goods when I only have one or two of something. If I have a dozen cans of the same thing, they're great because I know that all the cans front to back are the same thing. I keep wishing for more shelf frontage. I keep all the things I use frequently on the shelves I can reach easily, and extra inventory or ingredients I use less on the high shelves. The top shelf I've reserved for my vintage enameled fish poacher. Not my most practical purchase ever, but I like seeing it there.
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Sometimes, but it's not far and it's so nice to have all the food in one area and organized. I love not having to reach into cabinets to find the food and it makes putting things away really easy. Having the counter in the pantry allows us to put all the grocery bags there from the store and empty at will without taking up kitchen counter space as well. It's probably one of the best decisions we made and I'm glad we did the walk through. Walking around the whole time would have been a real PITA. Good luck!
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Karenseb, I knew what I wanted on the pantry shelves and measured for storage I have a fairly good idea of what I want to store in there, though it's been so long since we had a working kitchen, I may be mis-remembering. I made a list awhile ago: spices -- we have, and will always have, a zillion. I'm thinking I'll hang these on the back of the door, or on the wall to the left as you enter. I do have a drawer across from the cooktop that could possibly work (and would be more convenient), but right now I have that filled with placemats, paper napkins, kitchen linens. I suppose I could move those into the pantry instead. chip bags / snacks canned goods pasta sauce jars peanut butter & jelly jars cereal boxes (not many) oils & vinegars spice packets nuts & dried fruit bags (in basket or in a container) bags of dried beans (in basket or in a container) condiments pasta & other grains cracker boxes coffee station bev fridge diet coke cases bottled water case large bag of rice paper towels napkins coffee, filters extra tin foil extra plastic bags extra trash bags small appliances including: crockpot, rice cooker, food processor, toaster, hand mixer mops & brooms apron -- hanging from hook on wall step ladder (could be tucked away next to the furnace-- there's space.) I don't bake very often so I figure I'll keep flour in the freezer.
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IMO if you plan to use this as butlers pantry , I agree a good idea, then I would install a sink and use this space exactly like a real butlers pantry ,. Have you foor storage on one side with doors a simple set of sliding doors to make access easy. On the other side a nice set of base cabinets some glass cabinets above for all your dishes you use for entertaining and glassware , liquor and the sink is IMO a must . Set that side up as the service area for the DR and you have a perfect set up and please there is no reason to worry about moisture
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thebearsfamily
17 years ago
I had this dilemma also, but we had less room to work with than you. I was talked out of the walk-in but DH and GC because they thought it would close the space in too tight. They were right. Instead I opted for a very large "pantry cabinet" that looks like a piece of furniture. It has 24" deep upper cabinets and deep drawers on the bottom. It was built by the Amish cabinet makers who made all my kitchen cabinets. It has a counter for pulling out the small appliances I store in there, too. It was the right choice. I love it!

I used to have a walk in pantry that became a powder room. But I always piled stuff up and it became very disorganized.
ggcombo
17 years ago
we originally had no pantry, paid extra for a 5' wide, 12" deep wall pantry, and then decided on a walk-in pantry.

While the wall pantry looks great, I find the cost for the cabintery doesn't match the utility of the walk-in nor, necessarily, the 'cachet' of the walk-in for the money (i.e., walk-ins are nearly if not equally as glamorous as wall pantries, for a fraction of the cost).

The thing that we like about the walk-in is that we can put a cube freezer inside instead of in the basement, the laundry room, or the garage.

IMHO

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