First, measure your clothes to determine how much short. medium and long hanging space you need. Rather than one set of drawers under the hanging rods, have a stack of drawers. Instead of bifold doors, have double doors. You can mirror the inside and use both doors to get a good look at your front and back. Here's an example of a closet with double doors. These doors are very wide. I have 18" wide doors, for a 36" wide opening, which is plenty. Inexpensive door mirrors are around 14-16" wide and 60" long, so they can fit easily on the inside of the closet door.

Interesting perspective! Didn't think about that. My closet door is usually open. One thing that makes me hesitant about B, is additional construction (tearing a wall down, and adding 2 walls VS just adding one wall). Any other reasons B is better, helping convince myself it's worth the costs.

You can get a LED recessed fixture (for a housing or "canless") whose lens is slightly or not recessed. Light from these fixture is nearly omnidirectional so there wouldn't be any dark spots. You can also use a shallow surface-mount fixture (example) that can be attached to an existing ceiling j-box.

What am I missing? Which is more functional/aesthetically pleasing? A is more functional because you get the coat closet; however, the coat closet doesn't look very functional. It's in a narrow hallway, and more than one person will be bumping into the wall and each other. I'd rather have an open area with hooks and a spot for tote bags and purses. On the other hand, B is more attractive. First thoughts: Yeah, people tend to (mistakenly) say "butler's pantry" when they really mean "walk in pantry". Or people think it sounds fancy. A butler's pantry is more of a staging area next to the dining room. Regardless of which option you use, do I understand that the "front half" of the pantry is going to be something of a "pretty pantry" ... a place where you'll keep the coffee pot, cake, snacks and such. And the "back pantry" is the real pantry. BUT you also have that secondary cabinet run on the back side of the island. Why do you need that AND the "pretty pantry"? Seems like two places for the same function. If I'm understanding, I think you've allotted too much space to the "pretty pantry". I think a 36"-48" single cabinet (visible through the cased opening) is enough ... and leave the lion's share of that space for the functional storage. Have you made a list of the things you want to store /the functions you want this "pretty pantry" to serve? The better you define the space's function, the greater the chance that you'll get what you want. Other thoughts: - I don't think you need a door into the functional pantry. It'll be around the corner, so you won't be able to look into the pantry. - I would absolutely go with motion-sensor lights that will allow you to come and go hands-free. - I agree that walking through the "front pantry" is not ideal. It adds steps to your cooking routine. - You could add a pass-through between the "back pantry" and the kitchen. This would allow you to go into the pantry and "set out" the crock pot and a couple cans ... you'd still do the walking, but you wouldn't have to make multiple trips, and you wouldn't have to carry things. Forget a corner upper cabinet they are a dated look . Don't make any decisions based upon what's "dated". Trends come and go, and you can't change your cabinets every time a new style comes along. Instead, choose an overall cohesive design that meshes well with the rest of the house ... and a design that pleases you personally. I like drwers for all my everyday dish and glassware next to the DW along with cutlery and the drawers near the stove to have all my gadgets organized in shallow drawers above the deep ones. I think you have aton of space but not a well thought out use of that space Agree that you have a ton of space but it isn't all that efficiently laid out. Things to consider: - You want your food storage to be near the family/garage entrance ... yet your refrigerator and your pantry are far apart. - Dishes aren't "much" to carry a few steps to their cabinet, but you do want silverware to be close to the dishwasher ... it's such a pain to put away. - You get drinks pretty often, so you want to put thought into that layout: you want your dishwasher to be close to the drinking glass cabinet ... and you want the drinking glass cabinet to be right next to the refrigerator. - With all that pantry storage space, do you see yourself storing kitchen ware in the pantry? For example, I'd put cookie baking items in a plastic tub /store it in the pantry /bring out the tub just when I want to make cookies. Overall, with this pantry concept, I'd consider losing the "L" shaped kitchen cabinets and instead going with something like this -- I drew it very badly, and I'm not saying it's all that well thought out -- but it would allow you much better access to the pantry, and you could store, well, everything in the pantry /keep the cabinets for actual work. Personally, I love the idea of a small kitchen area (which would be easier to keep clean) and a huge pantry for storage. Shead, your pantry game is strong. I hate clutter on our countertops so the “butlers” Agree, and excessive countertops invite clutter. (although maybe functioning pantry is a better way to describe it) will house our mixer, coffee maker etc. I like "working pantry" or "scullery".