We have a 36"w x 24" d ceiling height cabinet with doors (3 pull-out shelves and 2 non pull-out shelves) on top and 3 drawers (2 deep, 1 shallow) below. It sits in between the kitchen and eating area. The shallow drawer is perfect for cutlery. The bottom drawer is used to store all our pastas--bags, boxes. The middle drawer is used for snack foods (bulky bags, bags of trail mix, etc.) The bottom 2 pull outs store canned/jarred goods(with enough space so that most cans can be stacked 2 high,) the top pull out stores boxed goods and lesser used goods (backup mayo, salad dressings, etc.) The bottom shelf is just low enough that I can reach light-weight items without a stool--a great place for cereal boxes (the shelf is deep enough that unopened backup boxes can be stored behind the ones in current use.) I need to use a stool for the top shelf and we store paper goods there (paper towels, tissues, napkins.) This set up has worked very well for us for the past 2 1/2 years. I like having drawers for containing stacks of pasta boxes and bulky snack foods. It's much better, for me, than having these items on shelves. I feel as though the space is put to optimal use.

Our pantry shelves start 28" above the floor (trash can and recycling center below). They are spaced at 10" 7" 8" 8" 13" and to the ceiling. My shelves are 10" deep and there is pretty much nothing we buy that is deeper than that other than the jumbo Cheerios box that we have laying on it's edge with the box top facing out. I think your back wall shelves shouldn't be any deeper than 12". You could *possibly* do them deeper if you have some big platters or small appliances or big soup pots or jumbo salad bowls that you would want to put on the shelves if they are deeper than 12". Anything deeper than that and stuff gets lost behind other stuff IMO. If it was me, I would do 3-4" deep shelves on each side and 12" deep shelves across the back. There are soooo many things that could go just one deep on the sides like vinegars, oils, Pam, syrup, peanut butter, etc etc. I don't want to move the balsamic vinegar and the olive oil and the Mrs Butterworths to get to my Jif that is behind all that stuff. Also, you can store more on more shelves that are closer together. Not as much wasted air space between my 5" tall jar of Jif to the next shelf 10" up. Well phooey, I just re-read your post and see you plan on storing cookware, recycling, small microwave, small appliances, etc there. I just saw "pantry" and went to town, LOL !! I do still think 22" shelves are too deep. Even our laundry shelves are only 14" deep and nothing protrudes except the 16" long Dirt Devil stored in it's box. If you had 14" deep back shelves, your side shelves could be 23" wide as opposed to 22" deep back shelves which would only allow your side shelves to be 10" wide. I would prob do 14" deep on the back wall and 8" deep on one side. Gather up all the stuff you would like to put in that closet and arrange it by depth and then group by height and see what minimum and maximum clearances you need.

I had a small, step in pantry that I hated, and got rid of it for a lot more storage in cabinet pantries instead. The thing is, a closet style pantry is a lot cheaper to build. That's the main reason people opt for them. You can do a hybrid if it will work better in your space but putting roll out tray shelves in the bottom, and pretty double doors on the front. You can also put restrictors on your upper shelves to keep things only in the front. For function, either way would work the same, though with the cabinets you'd have a slight ledge to set things down on, which would be useful, or a counter if you use actual uppers, rather than having them down to the top of the lowers. I don't use a lot of bulk items, other than paper goods like napkins and paper towels which are better and easier to buy rarely but by the case. I only buy 10 lbs. of flour at a time, but have many kinds of flour. The flour canisters are in two drawers in my baking area, and extra flour is on a roll out shelf in the pantry. Similarly, I don't use a lot of oil, and have several kinds. The open bottles are in my cooking area, and the replacements are in the pantry. Pasta, rice, beans, etc., are in the pantry. The paper goods are on the upper shelves because they're easy to get down and out of the way. My pantry is two 30"x18" floor to ceiling cabinets, roll out shelves in the lowers, which are about 5' high. Most of the foodstuffs, as well as beverages, are in the lower part. Housewares and general household stuff are in the uppers, as well as some canisters that have nowhere else to go, and wines/spirits. There would be plenty of room in one 30" wide pantry for most everything without the papergoods. The extra depth you want to get rid of would be quite useful for the paper, though... :)

I think you are thinking this through well. I would put the deeper shelves in the middle (easier to see and get to). Measure what you want to store in the pantry and make the shelves deep and tall enough for that. I stored lots of can goods in my last pantry (in the boxes they were sold in) that fit on an 11 in deep shelf. My newer pantry had shelves tall enough to use a canned goods storage container that works better. I had shorter shelves for foil and plastic wrap and sandwich bags. I store paper towels on the floor along with grocery bags. We used quality shelving in our pantry and it held up really well.