Please help me design my narrow 36" wide Pantry/Appliance closet!
Hello again!
One of my goals for my new kitchen is to keep everything off the counters (except for the toaster oven and expresso machine). Thus our "step-in" (not walk-in) pantry/appliance closet will house my stand mixer, rice cooker, and bread machine, among other things. These will sit on a countertop inside the 36" wide by 45" deep closet. The rice cooker and bread machine will be used inside the closet -- I will not be transporting in and out (the stand mixer will have to move to the kitchen island when I need to use it). I plan on having a 36" wide by 24" deep base cabinet with open shelving underneath and a countertop above where the mixer, bread machine and rice cooker will sit. About 17.5" above the base cabinet/countertop will be open shelving 12" deep.
1) Should I extend out the countertop on the right to make an "L" shaped counter? This way I can fit more appliances on the countertop? See pic below -- the blue tape on the floor to the right outlines where an 8" wide stripe of counter could extend past the main cabinet in an "L" shape. The two metal cups on the ground are the left and right points of the closet door (so the 8" wide counter would extend a little into the doorway since the door is only 5.5" from the left and right drywall). The last picture shows how I could potentially store the vita mix and food processor on that 8" strip. NOT extending the counter would give me more foot space though, and more flexibility to put random baskets and such on the closet floor.
2) Regardless of whether I extend the counter or not, should I have the upper open shelf storage wrap around all three sides of the pantry or just have the 12" deep open shelves on the back wall? The open shelving on the right and left walls would only be 4.5" or so deep to keep the closet from feeling too claustrophobic. If I just had the 12" deep open shelves on the back wall, the closet will feel roomier, but wondering if I could use the space more effectively for storage.
Thank you for your responses!
Comments (13)
Kippy
7 years agoThis is a timely subject for me. Is there anyway to add some width to your space? I am working on ours and have spent several days in the little space. We have more packed in than yours since I have the broom etc. But I just took out a couple of shelves because it was so tight and claustrophobic. Even 12" would help Ours is 42" wide and about 48" deep (first coat of paint and missing some of the edge trim-earthquakes and the counter is covered
Stan B
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoRelated Discussions
PLEASE help me convert my desk into a pantry.
Comments (13)Gillylilly, Since your house is so new does that mean you think you can get matching cabinetry pretty easily? If you can... Right now you have that open storage on the uppers. If you were able to move the door on the left to cover the center storage instead so now you have the open cabinet on the left. Then you could pull out the open cabinet and the drawer set below them and put in a full height pantry with pullouts. So you'd need to pay to move the door, take down/cut down that newly open upper, pull out the drawer base and cut the ctop down, and buy/install the pantry from the original cabinet people so it matches well. Then you'd still have a small desk area for your computer and piles (I'm thinking 24"? but it's hard to tell from the photos, but an entire pantry of what? 12? 15? inches and all enclosed uppers for basically the cost of a single large cabinet and the labor for install and cutting the granite. You'd end up with a left over drawer set (maybe you need to replace a regular cabinet with some drawers somewhere else?). The second phase here could be that if you didn't want the knee hole any more you could buy a second set of office drawers and put the two sets side by side under the desk drawer. That will give you an area that is probably a little higher than the rest of the kitchen but that's usually more comfortable if you are going to be standing in front of it looking at the laptop at all. Just some guesses as to options since there are no measurements! Here is a link that might be useful: Example Cabinet...See MorePlease Help me Design my Pantry
Comments (4)I'd probably opt for sliders over the shelves. I'd likely move the micro to the area beside the ref and plunk it on a micro shelf. I might tuck it into an oven cabinet with a pull out shelf underneath to take care of providing a landing space for the micro - the advantage being able to site it at counter height for shorties. The other potential position for a micro would be a drawer micro under counter next to the ref - the advantage to that being that I could use simple uppers. I'm not a big fan of bifolds. I don't mind those sort of stacking sliders where there are more than two sliding sliding doors. Or something like having 15" of wall on the sides and 12" of shelf depth across the back - then use a pair of 18" doors that each slide out to the side - leaving about a 36" opening in the center. It uses up around 60-64" of width leaving 20" to 24" for decorative shelving or a drop zone or a family communications area. Any measurements above are just sorta-kinda widths or depths. Framing can take up any amount of space from 6" of depth down to just about an 1" if you use plywood to make something close to a built-in-place cabinet. Also, you'd need to choose between shelves supported on adjustable brackets on the back wall or shelves that are run between uprights with at least one extra upright....See Morewasher/dryer closet + pullout pantry design--any thoughts?
Comments (7)Thanks so much. FWIW, to the left of the fridge, I want to put the micro in the upper cabinet and the toaster oven below. (so the fridge is scooted to the right. That 6" endcap is for the broom closet, if I can't find another home). But let me re-measure all of that area and see if there is room for the 15" tall cabinet. Always good to revisit. Thank you! The tall shallow pantry cabinet along the bedroom wall--you are astute! I have one there now (5' long) but...even a shorter one at 12" deep would interfere with the flow if we add an island. The current 48" wide aisle could potentially be cut to 42" but then I'd need to lose 6" in the island. (actually, we had debated making the island 4" wider, so I could have storage for books on the W/D side, but decided a 48" aisle might be good. I may still make the island wider). Another issue is that this corridor is in direct view of the front door, so today when I open the door I see that side of that 12" pantry. I'm trying to clean up that sightline and improve the flow. FWIW, I have a 1940 bungalow, so everything is smallish. Thanks so much for all your thoughts. If you have other ideas, I'd love to hear them. ;)...See MoreNeed design help for a small reach in pantry - 32" wide X 36" deep
Comments (8)I had that pantry in my first house! I was young and poor and not particularly focused on the pantry (we never expected to stay in that house too long), so I did pretty much nothing ... but if I had that space again today, I'd do these things: - Yes to Elfa pull-out drawers on the lower portion. - You have a hinged door? Then consider the space on the back of that door. Again, Elfa. - Maybe a pull-out cart ... I'm imagining a 3-self metal Ikea cart ... to hold "like stuff". For example, you could have a baking cart to house flour, sugar, cookie cutters ... and it'd all pull out easily. - For smaller things, I'd looks for long, narrow plastic baskets for the upper shelves. You could group "like stuff" (for example, all your Kitchen Aid mixer accessories) together /bring down the baskets when you need them. - Lazy susans (from Bed, Bath, Beyond) for glass bottles. - If you're storing anything metal ... like BBQ tools, maybe ... in the pantry, consider attaching magnetic knife bars inside the pantry. Alternately, could you fit in a narrow pegboard towards the front of the pantry?...See More
Karenseb
7 years agoloonlakelaborcamp
7 years agoeliasgrace
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
Errant_gw
7 years agoKarenseb
7 years agoI was thinking roll out trays. I think in my last house I had a 30 inch cabinet with no support bar in the middle and two wide roll out trays, one on the top and one on the bottom. I kept my pots on the roll out trays. If you get good under mount glides, I think you'd be okay. If your pantry is 45 inches deep and your cabinet is 24 inches deep, the roll out shallow tray would be about 20 to 21 inches deep. (total 44-45 inches deep)
Of course you would have to move things that you store on the floor. If you store extras in baskets like you suggested, the extras would be easy to move.
It would be easier to retrieve things from the roll out trays than 24 inch deep shelves.
You could do a built in cab like this with roll out trays. Maybe have your rice cooker counter a little higher to allow for 3 trays depending on what you want to store.
One thing I hadn't thought of is they might be hard to install since the front of the closet is closed in on either side. In that case, you could do a 24 inch wide roll out trays in the middle.
Converted Malthouse: artisan-built kitchen · More Info
practigal
7 years agoKippy
7 years agoeliasgrace
7 years agoKippy
7 years agoTomorrow I should have better photos of the counter with appliances on it, but here it is tonight. I have 42" - 12" shelf - 4" shelf for about 26" yikes! If my plan was to actually work in there I think it would be too tight But to just keep stuff it is okay. I
tempted to cut down the 12" side shelves to 6" to gain some space
eliasgrace
7 years agoGreat progress Kippy! Looks like you've got space for everything you need. Looking at your pic, I think I could swing a 36" wide pantry with 12" deep back shelves and 4" deep left wall shelves. Thanks for the pic! I'm having my cabinet person do something like this (but won't do the L countertop like they did).
practigal