Pantry from scratch?

12 years ago

We're remodeling our kitchen, and I will now have a walk-in pantry, about 4 1/2' by 8 1/2', with pocket doors. I've spent so much time agonizing over the kitchen, I gave NO thought to the pantry, but now the contractor wants me to make some decisions.

I'm trying to decide between built in shelves, or installing a closet organizer system, like Elfa or Rubbermaids FastTrack or Configurations. Does anyone have experience with those products? Love it? Hate it? Do they work for pantries? How deep or shallow should pantry shelves be? I like the idea of drawers in the pantry, but if I have the shelves built in, is that even an option without mortgaging my firstborn?

I plan on storing food, small appliances, bulk purchases of paper towels/toilet paper, wine, paper recycling, etc. In other words, a multi-purpose pantry. :)

Thanks for any help - this is a once in a lifetime for me, and I'd hate to mess up the opportunity! I originally posted this in Organizing the Home, but later thought it might be more appropriate here.

Mary

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Comments (7)

beaglesdoitbetter1
12 years ago
We had our cabinet maker make our pantry. We looked at Elfa and our cabinet maker made a much nicer product and we could coordinate to the kitchen and the cost was comparable. I know some people like the EFLA or Fast Track because they are flexible and can be more easily re-configured, but I wanted something that seemed more solid, so I just designed it in such a way that it should not need to be reconfigured.

We wanted drawers too but the cost got high when we started adding cabinet doors so we just did roll outs instead of drawers.

Roll outs:

Can rack, corner shelves, wine rack:
mmhmmgood
12 years ago
I have had two different (small) corner pantries. One with wire shelves and one with built in wooden shelving. Personally I preferred the wire shelves because I could see through the shelves ... when things get lost/disorganized you can look from above or below into the back of the shelf in question to see what is there. If I were building a new pantry for myself I'd probably put in some sort of wire rack shelving.

Not nearly as pretty as beagles' pantry, however! The wire racks are definitely more industrial and much less custom looking. With a decent sized walk in pantry that was better organized, where everything had a specified "spot" so as not to loose things then the see through shelving wouldn't be as important and the beautiful pantry that beagles has would be bliss!
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Thanks for the quick replies! I am posting a new layout, much bigger, so this should be easier to see. But don't pay too much attention necessarily to the placement of the appliances, as this is what our builder drew up. We definitely don't want the wall ovens beside the fridge. Also, the SO says she really wants counter/cabinet space on either side of the fridge, though I'm wondering if it's better to have the fridge flush with the wall, and just a longer counter run on the one side of it? It's basically either 36" fridge plus 2'10" of counter/cabinet, or say +/-15" counter/cabinet, 36" fridge, +/-19" counter/cabinet. I also talked to my builder this morning, and I think we've figured it out so that we can just make it work (we're going to cheat some space from inside walls). So it is now going to be much closer to 14 feet, maybe just an inch or so less. Also, I think we are going to go with just one window on the rear wall, over the sink. My builder thought that putting the two together there would just eat up too much space on that wall, it'd be 90+" with trim and everything, on 9.5 feet of wall (to the corner, it's about 11.5 total), and I think he's correct. So we may keep a window on the wall where the stove is going, or we may just eliminate it entirely (just have some high, eyebrow-type windows, as the ceiling is actually going to be closer to 12 feet, certainly over 11). We are going to go with a counter-depth fridge (would love to do a built-in or integrated, but that's just not in the cards), so that will help. And since we're doing custom cabinets, I figured we can make the counters slightly shallower, so here's where I'm at: 168" wall to wall 23.5" sink counter (we are including a dishwasher there, but I am going to try to set that even a bit more into the wall) 28" counter-depth fridge counter 80" two aisles at a more comfortable 40" each --- 36.5" for island Now to answer your other questions - in terms of oven, we are going to go with double wall ovens (because as I think I said, the O & M oven is essentially useless), we're thinking standard size, which I guess is 30"? And the O & M is 36" wide, so a bit bigger than standard stoves today, but it's not one of those huge old ones. I do want a MW (the SO says she could live without it, but I can't imagine), so do need to figure that out. I'm thinking that if we do do the fridge flush with the wall, no counter space on the right of it, then to the left of it would be a good place for the MW. I did read these various guides before posting, I'm sorry if it did not appear so (I posted in a hurry). As for the use of the kitchen, right now it is just the two of us, though that could change in the future (or it may not). We do like to entertain, but we can also be serious about not letting everyone congregate in the kitchen. It's really a one cook kitchen, I like to dabble, but she's the trained chef. Other questions? Thanks so much again! So appreciate the feedback, and hope to hear from others.
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Thank you for all the kind words. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one to get so excited over something as mundane as a pantry! I still haven't figured out what to do about my light switch. It would be nice to have it turn on as I enter, but really not a big deal. For now, I can manage to flick the switch, but I still might change it at some point. Or not, maybe that will be the one finishing touch that keeps my from being finished ;) Mags, I printed my labels on the computer. They are just your basic Avery labels. Still fairly non-committal, as I could easily remove the label when washing to switch contents. Chalk-board labels are cute, but would drive me batty trying to make them neat. Plus, I wouldn't be able to fulfill my OCD issues using barcodes. Yes, each of my jars are barcoded... I'm nuts, I know. Bpathome, no lip on the door shelves, just the lattice strips. Dove bars would need to go in a container to keep from sliding out. Or I just eat them rather than store them. Or stash them in my nightstand ;) The majority of my jars are Bormioli Fido jars, Greenhaven. I love them because they all use the same size wires, gaskets, and lids. I also love that all but the largest jars are square, so they fit on shelves nicely. The 5L round ones hang over my shelf just a tad. I haven't decided if this is going to irritate me enough to make that bottom shelf deeper. We will see! Bells and Anna, I want to thank you again for posting pictures of your lovely pantries. They were both a huge help, and I referred to them often while trying to get this all figured out, so thank you! Everyone on GWeb is so wonderfully helpful. I don't know what I would do without this site!
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Jillius, my sister hopefully won't need to move in for many years. So really the main use of the 1st floor bedroom would be a guest room/play room. But I do want to fix the bathroom with a zero threshold shower with grab bars. She's not in a wheelchair, more just balance issues. I'm imagining having a Murphy bed in the guest room that could be folded up when no one is staying with us and then the kids could play in there. I also like having the guest room close to a door so guests don't have to lug suitcases all over the house and up stairs. To answer your other questions, there are stairs going up and basement stairs going down also. The basement is partially finished. It already has a finished bathroom, fireplace and lighting. Just needs a floor really. It's a pretty usable space for an old house, very open with about 6'8" ceilings I think. But the stairs were changed long ago to a spiral staircase going down. The spiral staircase feels very treacherous to me. We would like to change it to a regular staircase, but that's beyond our budget right now.
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allison0704
12 years ago
I had a table built inside our walk-in pantry to minic a garden workbench. The underneath is used to store bottled water and other drinks. It could easily be used to store bulk pet food and/or paper products. Microwave and toaster on are top (two outlets) but could easily hold/store appliances/large items to use in the kitchen itself.

The shelves on the right are deeper than they appear in photos, and the pantry does hold enough for us.

Don't let yourself be rushed in making your decisions. They can wait over the weekend. The point is to get it to work right for you!

Here is a link that might be useful: my pantry - last 2 pictures
NatalieChantal
12 years ago
Funny that mmhmmgood should mention loving wire shelves... I have them right now and will switch to solid shelving when we remodel! I find it difficult to get anything NOT in a box (cans, bottles, jars) to sit straight. The wiring makes them tip over, and allows small packets to fall through. I loathe loathe loathe the wire shelves and can't wait to replace them!
OTOH, I can see that the wire shelves allow for better ventilation, easier cleaning, and less likelihood of dark corners or lost items. There are benefits!

I would suggest that you compare the cost of getting built-in vs modular, if they're close enough you may as well have your cabinet guy make you built-ins. Allow room for the things you KNOW you want/need (recycling center for instance), and leave the rest flexible enough to rearrange if your needs change in the future. Lots of shelves and ROTS (roll-out trays) will always come in handy! And a word of caution: make sure some shelves are spaced tall enough to allow a big box of cereal to stand upright - mine are a 1/4" short and it is a nuisance!
magdiego
Original Author
12 years ago
Wow, beagles and allison, those are gorgeous pantries! I love the idea of a worktable in the pantry, mine should be big enough to accommodate that.

Natalie, I hadn't even been thinking about the shelving surface with the closet systems - I am currently using wire shelves (in my kitchen in the garage!) and don't care for them. I have empty cardboard flats lining the shelves so I don't have to deal with the tipping problem, but who wants that in a brand new pantry! And cereal boxes were exactly why I was thinking about something configurable. Our old pantry shelves were just about an inch to short as well, which put the cereal on the top shelf, way out of reach of the kids. Very annoying.
rhome410
12 years ago
I also went with stationary shelves in my pantry. I knew once it was loaded I wouldn't be moving shelves around.

Also went with sturdy, solid shelving. Not only do wire shelves allow things to tip, it's a HUGE mess if anything breaks spills and drips down through other shelves. I don't think wire is easier to clean than wiping a solid shelf.

There is a whole thread dedicated to pantries in the gallery section of the forum and my pantry is pictured and my shelf spacing specified there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pantry thread in the gallery...LOTS of pantries shown there
allison0704
12 years ago
DD2 has wire shelving in her pantry - I hate it. I've put extra placemats in several places to avoid things falling over.

Pantry from scratch?

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