I'd make sure all the shelves were pull outs until you are above your head! I have a pantry with shelves and wish every day that I could pull them out to better utilize the space in the back. I also have small shelves in the door that I hate because they weren't properly designed and everything falls off of them...

Can u post pics of the small door shelves?

Mine will be similar to this . I wanted pull out but it wasn't feasible .

What do you want to keep in it? Bulk items? Small appliances? Dishes? I made a list of the items I wanted to use and measured or planned my storage that way.

Go do a Google search for pantry ideas or designs then choose the images tab. That's what I have been doing and saving the ones I like to my tablet and my pinterest

I don't think roll out tray shelves (ROTS) or drawers would be that useful as shallow storage in a pantry. I think walk-in/step-in/reach-in pantries work best with shallow shelves - you get better use of space, nothing hides or gets lost, and you don't lose valuable storage space to cabinet walls, drawer/ROTS boxes, space around the drawers/ROTS, or glide hardware space. In addition, you can use the entire space - floor-to-ceiling - and you can see it all at a glance - no opening/closing ROTS or drawers looking for something.

There's a Pantry thread that might be useful: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2401919/pantry-photos-pics-of-pantries?n=64

And this one...

Walk-in pantry -- can I see yours?: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2662215/walk-in-pantry-can-i-see-yours

And...here're a couple of picture of my pantry. It's a corner pantry, but you can see how easy it is to see everything at once and how easy it is to access everything and how everything fits on 12" deep shelves - even small appliances!

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Paper towels on the very top shelf!

I hate roll outs. I wasn't sure about drawers, my KD recommended. Maybe I just stick to shelves similar to a closet type.

I like a step in pantry (with shelves in a U opening to the door like the photos several have posted) and I'm with you on no roll outs. But it does matter what you want to put in the pantry. If you need a place to store a Kitchenaid mixer that can influence the entire space. If you want to put brooms and mops in the pantry then you'll want space for those items. I still prefer pantry shelves for food items over drawers. Just seems more flexible.

Of course I also don't mind a 24" deep pantry having had them in every apartment or house I've lived in since I graduated from college. I find it no problem to arrange shorter and frequently used items in a front row and taller or less frequently used items in a back row. And then there's that Kitchenaid mixer, food processor, and blender which all together fit very nicely including attachments on one shelf in a 24" deep pantry.

Mine will be primarily small food items with some larger bins for flour, rice, etc and things like paper towels and 12 pack soda. cans. I don't plan on storing small appliances in there. It would be nice to stick my stick vac in there but we have other closets for those items.

Those dimensions are similar to our current space. 24" deep shelves are not optimal! I'm planning a redesign as well, but am moving one of the current side walls over to gain more space. I do love the L shape, and U shape even more, but I think 53" is not enough for a U. Can you take space from either wall for a wider space?

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out drawers and eventually dropped the plan. Consider the 22" or so protrusion you would have with the drawers fully extended. How far is this from the island edge?

Regarding shallow door storage - DH built spice holders on our uppers which are terrific. As raven suggests, google shallow door storage, and save ideas off. (Or start a new thread, just on this).

Ours:

Regarding cubby storage - I put 12 baskets in the upper mudroom shelves, fully intending to label them. Almost 4 years later, they're still unlabeled and I have no clue what's in which. (Usually, non matching gloves and misc. hats)

A few of my favorites which might give you ideas:

Flush:

Pantry · More Info

Love the baskets, but not sure how ventilation is accomplished:

Kitchens · More Info

Surrey Bespoke Traditional Shaker Kitchen · More Info

Surrey Bespoke Traditional Shaker Kitchen · More Info

p.s. buehl - I always love seeing your pantry!

Thanks OldBat2Be! SharB was my inspiration...but no chandelier!

Regarding storing a KA mixer - mine fits on a 12" deep shelf when it's turned sideways - which is also makes it easier to pick up/put down.

Old bat, I have all of those pantries saved! I'm not sure about drawers however as my designer has them at about counter height. I'm just not that organized to know what's in the drawers unless I just do a couple on bottom like this.

I might have an extra two or 2.5 ft to go deeper which would give me a 53 x approx 53 in which case I think I can do at least an l shaped closet. Won't know unless we start demo and the cost moving that wall was estimated at $3500 plus flooring which we will need to get custom made.

perhaps I can do 18" deep drawers with 12" deep shelves on top

Keep in mind that if you have deeper shelves/ROTSs/drawers below shelves that you will not be able to reach most of the shelves b/c you will have to lean forward and then reach up to get to the shelves. It will be the same as trying to access upper cabs over base cabs in the Kitchen - most people can only access the first couple of shelves easily.

If you have all 12" deep shelves - floor to ceiling - then you can reach much higher and access other things more easily since you stand right next to the shelves.

Regarding pantry cabinets - in addition to the advantages mentioned in my prev post about built-in pantries over deep pantry cabinets, pantry cabinets are much more expensive than built-in pantries. And, cabinet salespeople make a lot more money off pantry cabinets than built-in pantries!

Most people are not rigidly disciplined to always put short things in front and tall things in back, especially if the tall items are used more often. Even if one person is, usually the rest of the family is not!

Buehl I was thinking like this. Everything would be 18" deep and the upper door I'm thinking takes up approx 6". Do you think this has the same reaching issue, as that was my major concern with my KD's design.

If you have 53" x 53", then I would definitely do either an "L" or a "U" shaped pantry!

My pantry is 41" x 51" and I was able to have an "L". I put in 15" deep shelves on the short b/c I had planned to put a second MW on one of those shelves. However, when I tried to put it in there, I realized it didn't fit - I couldn't open the door of the MW fully b/c there wasn't enough room! Now I wish those shelves were 12" deep - believe it or not, things can sometimes get lost on 15" deep shelves, especially the very bottom and very top b/c they're the most difficult to get to! (We're a tall family, so the bottom shelf requires leaning down quite a bit for us!)

18" deep...It would still be an issue, but not as bad as 24" deep cabs/shelves would be. Are you and your family tall? If so, it might be OK. But, if you're short or average height, I think it would still be somewhat of an issue.

Not tall. I'm 5.5 and hubs is 5'8". We eliminated all uppers on the cooktop wall because of this and are doing a couple counter to ceiling hutch style uppers at each end of our u.

Here are a few more pics. The fridge wall is being pushed back approx 2 ft.

we can get rid of the small liquor cabinet in the hallway and make that all pantry but we don't know if there is dead space behind that or if it's structural support.

I was thinking if we can get that whole 53 x 53 we can put a door to pantry that opens in facing the hall. Hubby isn't keen on that idea but we haven't fully explored functionality.

You have a lovely space! I'm sure you've bookmarked this pantry too - this is 60 x 48, which you could access from the hallway perhaps.

Spacious Kitchen Pantry - Riverside, CT · More Info

I agree with buehl about the L or U shape, with the space you have. Figure out square footage of shelf space, with each design. With the pantry you linked, there look to be 4 wide shelves; I'm guessing here: 12" deep x 48" wide so 16 square feet, plus the doors. My U shaped plan for a similar size space (60x45) gives me over 50 square feet.

yes, that is exactly what I had in mind with a walk in with cubbies. Thank you for the pic! We can even store our stick vac behind the door!

Here is the current layout of that area. The green is definitely usable space as there are cabinets/desk area there now. The red is the unknown. If it's dead space I have a perfect square 53 x 53 space to do a walk in with narrow shelves and perhaps pocket door entry from the hall. If it's structural, then I have to work around it with walk in or stick to the cabinet pantry original plan.

Let us know about the "red" space in the pantry!

Personally I would prefer to have mine open into the kitchen rather than the hall. Even though it's close I think it's more convenient . Good luck on the red space . We discovered a huge dead space hidden in our hall wall when we had to remove the drywall because of the flood. I couldn't believe it , why would someone do that . I now have a very large nice hall closet right between the bedrooms and the bathroom . Perfect for linens, bedding and towels.

I suppose I could have it open that way but it's further from the kitchen since it'll be more in the eating area. With the kitchen area moving back towards that dining room nook on the plan it'll be more in kitchen.

My husband is currently building wall cabinets for our pantry. I measured all the things I wanted to be able to store (including small appliances, mason jars and other large jars we use to store bulk purchases), drew the space to scale, and then planned the shelves to fit. We put a header in the wall so half the cabinets go into the stud bay and are deep enough for my instant pot, crockpot, etc... The others are only 11ish.

I think you'll be able to plan better if you know exactly what you want to be there.

Fwiw, we had originally planned on something that looked like the pantries with a full door but found that once my husband started putting our plan into sketch up, it overwhelmed the space. Breaking the cabinets up horizontally so they looked a bit more like the cabinets in the first example of flush cabinets that oldbat posted helped it look better. Your kitchen designer's suggestion for drawers beneath might have to do more with aesthetics than function.

Mine are still being built, but this shows how there are low, middle, and upper cabinets:

They have demo the wall and the area (the red space) is dead space. If u may recall, the kitchen is getting pushed back into the area marked dining room by about 19". (See the wall designated by a small box on the upper rt corner of dining room?, that's where they are expanding kitchen, by removing a built in that's in the dining room). We can push back the new pantry area same amount and do a reach in cabinet pantry. Then eat in area and kitchen will be one straight line. Otherwise, we can keep the pantry area as is and just do a walk in approx 53 x 53. But then the walkway area might be a bit tight with stub wall from pantry getting in the way of aisle.

Thoughts?

Heres plan keeping pantry wall as is with the kitchen pushed back.

Bump

I think it says 42" between the corner of the pantry and the island, right? It's going to be narrower than your aisle so it may feel a little bottle necked right there. You could go either way, I think. How much pantry space to you need?