I was wondering the same thing! I have a 12 inch pull out coming. How are appliance pulls different than cabinet pulls? I know they are bigger, but the prices are so much higher! Are they stronger? Would I need an appliance pull for a 12 inch pullout pantry to handle the weight?

Honestly, I'm confused. How big is your pantry closet? 36" long x 24" deep? Or is it 36" long by 36" deep and you want to narrow the depth to 24" and put a 12" deep cabinet BEHIND it? I cannot picture this at all! Do you have cabinets next to the fridge right now or just a deep pantry closet? OK, well, you only have a coat closet if you completely get rid of the pantry closet, therefore I say that you must have at a minimum a 24"x24" utility / broom closet. As far as an actual "pantry" goes, it's hard to say without a floorplan. A well designed pantry is invaluable, a poorly designed pantry is a major waste of space. If you have a small kitchen and lack counterspace then you may be better off without a pantry, but usually that would be replacing it with 24" deep base cabs and 12" deep uppers. You still need storage space - the equivalent of what your pantry held at least. A "pantry" stores food. A "closet" stores non-food items such as cleaning supplies and, well, yes, dog food too. A pantry can be replaced with the equivalent in cabinets (drawer base - regular base cabs are just as bad as a poorly designed pantry). Food and non-food items should have separate storage spaces - otherwise you end up with a mess as you apparently have right now (as do I - my pantry is poorly designed and at the opposite end of the dining room diagonally across from the kitchen - I don't know what the builder was thinking). Note that a 24" deep pantry only works if it is a pull-out, otherwise 12-15" shelves are the way to go.

I had a walk in pantry that was about 7 feet deep with narrow shelves along one side and slightly deeper across the back. It was across the hall to the garage from the rest of the kitchen and it was a pain. It looked great when staged for selling the house, but it didn't work that way. My pantry here was in the kitchen proper -- a step-in across a corner. That was better for convenience, but the shelves were only across two sides and nearly half of them got lost in deep corners. I tried trays and baskets to keep things organized, but it just didn't stay organized. My kids would throw things back in and it seemed we were always loosing stuff in the back or underneath. The dog food and drinks that went on the floor somehow gravitated out to the step-in space at least at times. The shelves in both of these were fixed and the function could have been improved by ripping out the shelving and reworking things, but never had the chance at the last house and we decided to take out the corner pantry and replace with cabinets. It really opened up the kitchen space, so we were happy about that. We'd had a 24" pantry cabinet that came with minimal shelving before and we knew we didn't want that. We did the rollouts for dry goods (boxes and bags) and a pullout tower for cans and bottles. My spices went into a drawer. It seems to be more efficient - easier to see what I have and to get to it, better turn over of staples, and most of it stays better organized. I don't have to straighten them too much -- just the bread and snack drawers at the breakfast hutch, and they are much easier because they are not too large and I can easily see and reach everything. Never underestimate the value of full extension glides. LOL

Toronto - are you talking about a pull for the front of the pocket door or the edge pull on the door side? We have recessed handles on file cabinet drawers in another cabinet; occasionally they don't fall back all the way to flush. I don't think I'd add this to a pocket door, or the 'emotion' pull nicole linked; someone (probably me) would close the door and scrape the trim. How often will the pantry door be open? Note that an open pantry door solves the ventilation issue. Ours are almost never closed, except to photgraph:). We added the Clinton pulls, which are shallow, true, but DH who has large hands has no problem using them. (They come in different sizes). The harder decision was the edge pull - I ordered two different models from House of Antique hardware and both felt too small, so I ended up with the Sugatsane edge pull. Here it is on enduring's beautiful pocket door: Good luck!