IMO, angled islands don't really give more counter space, and tend to make the rest of the kitchen look and feel more crowded.

Seriously, I'd work on talking your husband out of the corner pantry. Why is he set on it? They're dead space, not useful or functional, and it's limiting your layout. If you can get him on board with better storage, you'll have a lot more options.

@Gennifer B I'm not sure I'm sold on the angled island either; I just thought it might allow for the island to be lengthened. Why do you feel a corner pantry is not functional? In our case, the corner pantry allows us to utilize some space behind the basement stairs. You are not the first to say you dislike the corner pantry...I just can't wrap my brain around why it is such a poor decision.

Hi, Lori

I agree with others that an angled island isn't the best solution. Would something like this work for you? There might be door swing conflicts with this refrigerator placement, so I left some space for filler or something. Also, I didn't cleanup extra lines for the island.

A pantry should be a big enough closet that one can walk in while carrying something big, and turn around. These corner pantries are in an awkward location, and are too small to do much inside. Don't give up having a pantry - just put it elsewhere! Mud room? Attached garage? Basement? If one lives out in the country, having to drive all the way to a grocery is a big nuisance so a pantry is valuable, but it must be a nice big pantry with lots of room inside - even a counter for unloading groceries.

Who does the majority of the cooking in this kitchen? You or your husband?

@zsmith Thanks for taking the time to draw that out. Maybe? I'm worried that it won't look as nice aesthetically, but maybe that is because I had envisioned walking in and seeing a large island.

@Anglophillia We can definitely store extras elsewhere. We have a closet in our current home where we stock up on paper towels, toilet paper, etc. You don't think that if the pantry functions as storage for canned goods, small kitchen appliances, etc. that this one is large enough to be usable?

@cpartist Unfortunately me! My husband is by far the better cook but he doesn't get home early enough on work days to be the primary cook...which is a shame. Meals made by him are much tastier.

Of all I see so far, Sena's is the best! I was going to suggest making very similar changes.

@cpartist Unfortunately me! My husband is by far the better cook but he doesn't get home early enough on work days to be the primary cook...which is a shame. Meals made by him are much tastier.

If you are the primary cook, then you should be the one who decides how the kitchen is laid out and that includes the pantry. After all, you're the one who has to work in it everyday.

One other question? Are you sticking with the plan you had on the Building a Home forum? If you're making major changes then I'd wait regarding the kitchen.

CPArtist asked who cooks the most b/c usually, the person who works the most in the Kitchen has the best feel for what works/doesn't work and has to work in the final result the most. That means that person's opinions should be given more weight. That works in all rooms, btw.

E.g., in our case, I use the Kitchen the most (prep, cook, etc.), so I had the primary "say" in what we did in the Kitchen. Since my husband does most of the cleaning up, he had the primary "say" with regards to the cleanup sink and DW, but I chose the rest of the items and worked on the layout, etc. (He doesn't spend anywhere near the same amount of time in the Kitchen while cleaning up compared to how much time I spend while prepping and cooking!)

When we finished the basement and put in a "home theater" of sorts, my husband had the primary "say" about what was done b/c he is the primary user of that room.

That doesn't mean we didn't discuss what we wanted with the other, we did. But, when it came to making the final decisions, the opinion/choice of the person who used something the most carried the most weight in the decision.

I'm sure it doesn't work this way in every household, but that's what we've found works best for us and is the most fair overall. YMMV.

[Cross posted with CPArtist!]

I could be bigger, but it's that awkward corner entry. Whenever I see pictures posted of one of these, I think it must be SO awkward to have that door opening right into a countertop, smack dab in the middle of a work zone. I've had a small walk-in pantry and adored it, but it was not in a corner.

The problem with the corner pantry is that it chops your kitchen up into several little areas, and doesn't leave with any particularly good prep space, plus your clean-up area is crammed into the two feet to the right of the sink on the island (and you are missing landing space entirely on the other side of the sink). In addition, I suspect the shelves inbetween the fridge and the pantry would become a magnet for clutter — you won't want to prep or clean-up down there because its separated from the rest of the countertops in the kitchen.

If it were me, I'd get rid of the corner pantry, and put a 36" pantry cabinet with roll-out shelves in the kitchen, and then hopefully look for space elsewhere in the house if you need more bulk storage pace than that cabinet.

This lets you create a proper clean-up area on the bottom of the kitchen for dirty dishes, with space on both sides of the sink. Then, you get two nice sized prep areas — one on the island, the other to the right of the stove — that are clearly out of the way of the clean-up area.

I get wanting storage... I live in a rural area, also. It’s a 20 minute drive to our small-town grocery store, and an hour to a decent one or someplace like Costco. And we are a family of 6.

The problem with a corner pantry is that you are losing 10-12” of space, just by adding walls in each side. You also need to account for clearance for a door swing. That angled wall alone takes up roughly 9sf of your kitchen. Do you feel like your kitchen has that to spare?

Be honest: how often do you need to access 12 rolls of paper towels at once? Or use more than 2-3 cans of cream-of-something soup? If you’re like most people, the answer is hardly ever. Build yourself a large pantry-storage area somewhere else, and add a few full-height pantry cabinets in your new kitchen. You can store so much in those, especially if you have pullouts/drawers! You can store all of your day-to-day foodstuff there, and have backup stuff in the pantry.

If it was me, I’d put the fridge at the end of the counter run, closest to the dining area. I’d slide the cooktop down toward the lower wall. And I’d turn the whole bottom wall into full-height pantry storage. I’d extend the island both directions... looks like you have a solid foot available next to the dishwasher. Once the angled pantry wall is gone, you won’t need a 4.5” aisle, so you could probably even go 18” there... a 36” aisle seems perfectly respectable since it’s not a work area. That gives you almost 9’ of island... plenty of prep space, and probably 5-6’ on the counter behind, between the fridge and range.

A 12’ run of wall pantry cabinets will store probably triple what that corner pantry would. It will give you a better workflow, more countertop prep space, and look better to boot.

@sena1 Thank you for drawing up your version. I like how much more usable all the counter space becomes in your solution.

@buehl and @cpartist I get what you both are saying, but my husband doesn't have very many wants this build, so I'm good with the corner pantry.

@Matt E. You are probably right about that long span of counter accumulating items. The way things are set up now, it is destined to be used for the storage of 'stuff'.

@cpartist We made quite a few changes after my initial post. The footprint of the house is set now.

Lori, I too live in rural KS and completely understand about stocking up! We just moved from one house to another while we wait for our new home to be built. In my previous home I had a designated pantry area similar to what your floor plan is calling for. The home we are currently living in has a total of 8 ft of pantry cabinets and I absolutely love it. Everything is visible and accessible. I didn't necessarily realize how bad my prior floorplan was until I had been in this kitchen for a while. I get what you are saying about your hubby not asking for much in this process. However I suggest that you show him the layout Matt put together and think hard about Gennifer's suggestions. You will have far more storage and work space available to you in the end. Good luck!

There are pros and cons to corner pantries -- best to be well-informed at the planning stage.

Best wishes with your build!

Here are two threads (and two posts):

What is wrong with a corner pantry?

OK, I'll bite, What's wrong with a corner pantry?

@ Lena M Thanks for the link. A good thread with information for and against.

Thanks to everyone who has chimed in thus far on our kitchen layout. I get it..many of you don't like the corner pantry, but my question really involved the island prep space.

I spoke with the custom cabinet company we will be using this morning and I will start working with their kitchen designers next week. I'm sure that will help clarify a lot as to what is best for our kitchen and the way we live.

Thwack, thwack - sound of beating the dead horse. My mother has a pantry cabinet that holds so much in a small area that I'm always amazed when I open it. http://www.rev-a-shelf.com/showProduct.aspx?SEName=swing-out-complete-system-tall-pantry-accessories&ProductID=239