Need pantry layout ideas!

14 years ago

Just met with my kitchen/cabinet designer for the first time on Thursday, and will likely be posting with many questions as drawings come back. My first issue: I have a butler's pantry connecting my kitchen and dining room. It is 5' long, and we will put china, cabinetry/bev center, etc on one wall. On the opposite wall is the space for my real storage pantry for the kitchen. Unfortunately, we couldn't work a walk-in into the plans. I now have a space 5 feet long and 2 feet deep to work with. The designer suggested 2 large cabinets, built-in, side by side, made to look like furniture, with doors on top and drawers on the bottom. I like the idea of how this will look, and like the idea of the bottom drawers, but suddenly I am concerned about the shelving above being nearly 2 ft deep (extra microwave will be on 1 shelf, btw). Any ideas? Roll-outs on most shelves? Decrease the cabinet depth? Start over and do pantry pull-outs? Sorry I don't have a drawing but the space isn't too complicated and I'm open to ideas!

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Comments (4)

kitchenredo2
14 years ago
What will be the style of your kitchen/butler's pantry - traditional, modern?

What is the width of the butler's pantry? And the height of your ceilings? With this information we will be able to come up with more solutions.

Would you be able to move the doors to the kitchen and the dining room more to one side to increase the amount of space on one side and create a walk-in pantry?

I wouldn't want to open doors and drawers to get to my stored food. I wouldn't be organized enough to know where everything is - especially if I am not the one who puts away the groceries.
niffy
Original Author
14 years ago
The style is traditional. The kitchen will be a white Peacock-esque kitchen with a stained island. Width of the whole area is 7.5'. 2 feet on one side (which is the outside wall of the house and therefore can't be moved) is for the butler's pantry, 3.5 feet for hallway, and another 2 feet for the pantry on the opposite side of the hall. I can't make the pantry any deeper as it backs up to my powder room, which is already quite small. So, nope, I'm pretty stuck with the size area I have allotted to the pantry, unfortunately. Ceilings are 10 feet. They will be white painted beadboard. Butler pantry cabs will be white with dark stained beadboard backs, and I was thinking of staining the pantry side dark to match my island.
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We definitely need a plan with dimensions. My first thought is to put the fridge & freezer on opposite ends of that back wall with the range centered between them. You'll want a pot filler, but it shouldn't be a problem as there's already water there for the fridge. Put the microwave and warming drawer in the island, and leave the sink where it is. This way you don't need to move any walls, or mess with the floors if you don't want to. And I would definitely remove that crazy soffit over the island! :-)
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Sadly each of us seems to be recommending a modification to your footprint. If possible, I would put more space at the front of the auto slot adjacent to the kitchen and I would move the pantry and the mudroom into that new space so that the mud room faces the staircase that way people coming out of the mudroom can go straight to the stairs and it would also it would give you the shortest walk with your bags of groceries. I completely side with those who insist that there must be some kind of a bed/bath downstairs. Even though you don't intend to age in place anyone of you or your children could have an accident that makes it impossible to go up and down the stairs for some months and assorted older relatives may visit and be unable to do the stairs as well...or they very well may be able to do the stairs but you don't want them upstairs. I personally would flip the locations of dining room and the kitchen. You have indicated that the dining room is to take advantage of the views but the person doing the work in the kitchen is the person most in need of the views. The cook could look out over the main kitchen sink to the outside and the people sitting at what would be the new breakfast bar area on the island would also be facing outside if you flipped the island and dining room table. Also it would put the kitchen between the dining room and the covered porch which probably will also have a table for eating outside when the weather is fine. I also think it will look strange to have an island that is bigger than the dining room table and to step through this relatively large front entryway into the kitchen. Usually kitchens are accessed from the back door only. Of course the drama of the views and custom cabinetry may make this a moot point. This is such an open plan it seems to me that even with a great hood you run the risk that the living room will always smell of cooking. One miscellaneous note, with these views you may anticipate having no window coverings and it may make it difficult to see any television set which I presume will be located in the living room because there is no family room. Just something to think about.
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We will definitely have a prep sink in the island. I just couldn't figure out how to add it on the software. Does anyone know how to add it with the NKBA software? In regards to the island location, our current kitchen has it as going from left to right and we have no problems with isle width. It is generally 42 inches. We did consider moving the island as you have drawn it but it would interfere with the table in the breakfast room. For resale value we decided to keep the space for the table. Changing it to a peninsula with seating will interfere with the sliding door on the left (which isn't drawn). It is the only access to the back yard which is used all the time for the dogs. Also we go back and forth on the dishwasher location. If we move it to the left side of the clean up sink then that blocks access to the sink from the table. Usually I like to have the family help with clean up and blocking access may be an issue. Location of the dishwasher is still under consideration. The issue we are currently debating is whether or not to have a built in pantry. My husband wants it gone. I want it for storage of large items (like dog food, costco paper towels, and those small bag of chips for the kids lunches. I don't think we can easily fit those in pull out pantries. My kitchen is my old house was tiny with no storage. I moved to the current home 10 years ago and just loved all the storage I have. Not surprising after 10 years we have filled every space and could use more. My husband is a gadget lover. I appreciate everyone's comments regardless if it about the pantry or not. Every comment has me thinking of what I can do to improve
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this is the only "major" change we want to make (*aka move cabinets around.) We are happy with the builder just want to redesign the kitchen. Originally we were fine with the pantry but want to maximize our budget aka look at alternatives (aka if we can make the change great if not we are not crazy worried .) And ty for everyones points its beyond helpful. we can't find anything even close in our market for this amount. (been looking for a long time now) plus we love the lot and the neighborhood (small city)
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desertsteph
14 years ago
I think 2 ft deep is too deep for a pantry that isn't walk in. could you set it back in to a depth of 1.5'? that'd give you a cushion on body space thru there also.

I'd do that and then probably 2 rows of lower drawers (for bulk storage - maybe roasting pan, serving pieces, linens etc and then doors (4 if you have 5' in length to work with),

I might even consider pushing it back to 1' deep and all doors (tho split with uppers and lowers; lowers being less used). I don't like the deep space for things to get 'lost'. I'm short and have short arms (I guess) so it may not be that way for everyone.

OR could you put shallow (maybe 8" deep) shelves along the side walls inside of a door with the main shelf across being only a foot or so deep? (not a walk in - but a 'look' in). those shallow depth shelves on the sides would be good for canned goods, bottle stuff (salad dressings, ketchup, pickle jars etc) or even some boxes - a box of saltines should fit on them. the higher ones on the sides would be the right depth to store spare paper towel rolls, paper napkins etc

or you could even put a false back in some of the shelves to hide valuables.
niffy
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you desertsteph. You have articulated exactly some of the ideas I was "half-baking" in my brain. The look-in idea could be the one. I'll have to see what my cabinet-maker can do with these!

Need pantry layout ideas!

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kitchenredo2

niffy
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Need pantry layout ideas!

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kitchenredo2

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