I hate walk in pantries but to me a pocket door at least leaves space to work with inside and does not interfere with walkways outside As for leaving it open that is your choice , I much prefer true pullout pantries

As much as I'd love a pullout pantry, I don't have the space and they're more expensive anyway, so we need to do a walk in. Appreciate your thoughts on the door.

We have some pocket doors in our home. They have their pros and cons, but it would be my preference for a pantry like yours.

I had my architect design my pantry with an out swinging door. I didn’t want the door intruding into my pantry space when open. I also want my pantry door closed when the pantry is not is use.

ive pretty well trained everyone to shut the door when they exit. In addition we used a light in the pantry which is automatic. the switch is in the door jamb. .not tempting to leave the door open when it causes the light to stay on. I would not choose a pantry pocket door because in my house the door would never get closed.

if you do decide to do a pocket door, make sure you use the soft close feature. I have it on my pocket doors. Such a nice feature.

one more thing..if your door is moved a little to the left, would you have room for shelves on the right wall as well?

I think we'd be able to fit in shallow storage is we did an out swing door...I just always thought those were a no no! I will consider that for sure (add ANOTHER choice to my dilemma!).

I don’t know if it’s technically a no-no but this is the second time I’ve done it 😉. No regrets.

If it's not visible from the rest of the house, can you omit the door altogether?

it will be across from the powder room so I would like to be able to close it off when guests are around.

Swing the door into the pantry to open against the wall. There is more circulation space in the pantry than needed. The door could be located with the hinge side allowing shelves on three walls of the pantry.

Get rid of the angled walls unless you have a compelling reason for them, even if you have to redesign the entire house.

@mark
thank you for your input.
the angles are to accommodate a semi side entry garage. I didn't want the garage front and center but our lot and our budget can't afford a larger lot that can accommodate a true side entry, so it's angled. we do what we can with the money we have. if it comes back too expensive we'll look at squaring things off, but that will likely result in a front and center garage.

In this situation an outswing door is awkward. An inswing door would be much more natural to use. Just how much storage do you really need in this pantry?

@virgil Carter fine art my bigger concern wasn't really storage, it was having a door that would close automatically. it seems impossible for my family to close our current in swing door, at least in my house, and I hate that the pantry is just open all the time. I thought with a double acting swing it might solve that problem, but then I was concerned that I wouldn't get far enough inside to have the door close behind me, which would make it awkward getting hit by the door while I'm grabbing stuff off the shelf. I think this would be a great solution for a larger pantry but not sure about mine.

Ah! I agree about wanting to keep the pantry closed when guests are around. I don't have one but I can see how a walk-in pantry would be a good hiding place.

Would something like those saloon style swinging doors work? They wouldn't take up as much room inside as a single door.

I have (and love) my walk in pantry, and I had a pocket door installed because of my limited space. That said, it's almost always open, even when I have friends over. For a more formal event, I'd close it, but I'm happy having it open all the time and would hate a permanently closed door (like a swing door).

Generally angled walls create inefficiencies in a house design unless it can be done without awkward or void spaces. The triangular space to the left in the drawing is called void space, and costs just as much to build per square foot as any other square foot in the house. If you are concerned about cost, you are spending hundreds of dollar for space that is of very little benefit if any. I assume there are other void spaces in the house's layout.

I know your question is about the pantry door, but I think a better layout would contribute to a better door solution. The pantry has a lot of open floor space for the amount of shelf space it provides, and I assume the pantry's size is a product of the angled walls.

Pocket door here - non visible space.

Found out after we moved in that our cats were willing to jump pretty high to rip open a bag of snacks. Thankfully they tired of it after a few months. Especially since they could nudge open the pocket door.

It sounds like you are in a tough place. What would be ideal is a self-closing door. Pockets can be made to be self closing with a little slope during install....

I can't tell the decor style of your interior, but have you considered an outer mounted sliding door in your preferred door style (like barn style with a cool sliding track above the opening)? Would add some whimsy outside the room since there's a blank space wall on left of the doorway, and can be closed only when necessary.

We have an out swing pantry door and love it. Ours opens into the kitchen and as another poster mentioned, easy to close w your foot when hands are full.

@mark Bischak, architect
yes, there are inefficiencies in our layout but they mostly happen in the garage and mud room (and pantry, as you mention) since that's where the angle is. the rest of the house has square corners. that triangular void is the utility run. we have a basement (northern climate) and a second story (best value for money). So while we have extra space in the garage due to the angle, we can use it for storage and the space above it has a bedroom anyway, so it's needed. basically we're trying to get the garage off the front of the home on a tract builder lot size and budget (build costs in my neck of the woods are a lot higher than some parts of the country, I've realized). I'm willing to pay for some inefficiency to have my garage not dominate the facade. maybe we'll fail miserably and realize this costs too much but hey, it's been fun trying.

@jackowskib I'm kind of not a fan at all of barn doors, actually! while I think it might work in most cases, the door would end up over the stairs from the mudroom in my case, which makes it kind of awkward looking, I think.

“it's been fun trying.”

A VERY important part of the process.

@mark my husband might not think so but I'm having a ball. lol. never thought this would even be possible for us so even if it doesn't happen I won't regret it! We go to bid in a few weeks. crossing fingers.

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/new-build-gabe-phvw-vp~126220094

here is our pantry, angled with 2 small doors that open into it,( back right hand corner)

https://www.houzz.com/user/angela-priley, the pantry is a bit smaller than yours but it works for us.

Barn doors belong in barns, IMO. I echo somebody above about a saloon-swing door. We had one in a former house. It was very nice. If your hands are full, just back into the door and push it with your fanny. Doesn’t matter if you are inside or outside the pantry. Bingo! The door is always shut.

Patricia sure would hate my 6'8" x 14ish' walk-in pantry in our new house...lol. I'm going to love it, though, because it will also house an extra refrigerator and upright freezer :)

What does your kitchen layout look like? Is there any way to incorporate a "hidden pantry" door approx. where the refrigerator is or to the right of the fridge? We had one at our last house and LOVED it!

sounds good shead!

Who was it that said you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too big of a pantry, lol?

This is behind the fridge in my kitchen... kind of around the corner. so it's out of sight but still convenient. I thought about double swing doors (saloon type) as well but thought a single swinging door would be better... fewer doors to deal with!

What I'm talking about wouldn't even look like a pantry door from the kitchen. It would look like kitchen cabinetry. You might not have room for the "hidden" doors in the kitchen area but it might help increase your storage if configured well.

Ok, for future reference (so you don't have to vote) - if this thread ever reappears when someone searches - the double acting swinging door overwhelmingly takes the prize by a 3:2 margin over a pocket door. The inswing door wasn't much of a favorite with only 3 votes, surprisingly! Thanks, all, for your help!

My previous home had a small pantry with the door opening out. I liked that door because we had racks installed on the back of the door for small items which increased our easily visible storage space. That house also had a dual swing door between the kitchen and dining room which would work well as a pantry door. If you just pushed it partially open it would close automatically but if you opened it completely it would stay whichever direction you chose.

Our previous home had a double swinging door into the laundry room. That laundry room was located off a hallway between the garage and kitchen. I have to say that door stayed open 90% of the time in the 13 years we lived there. I have no idea why I did not use it as planned. But you got to have a door to close off when guest come over!

Door just past the Butler's Pantry

I am planning on having another in our new home for the laundry room that will be located in a hallway between the family room and our bedroom. I will also have one from kitchen to Dining Room (mainly to keep the dog out, but I would also like to have a little separation from the dining guest when entertaining. Kitchen noise!) My last dining room was opened to the kitchen.

I recently toured a home that had a hidden pantry. Love it, and may try to mimic in new house.

Here it is

On another note, I am so glad that I saw this thread!!! My new pantry will be 8' x 10'. I had planned to have 2 small sliding doors to enter from our back hallway. Like shown. I am not a trendy person, but wanted to have one trendy item (even though they are on the way out.)

After all the discussion on this thread, I now realize that I would probably not use the doors...especially if my hands are full of pantry items. A double swinging door will make much more sense. Not to mention being less expensive. I intend on using it this time! Can you guess how I voted for you?

And so you know, an outer swing door also works. Had one in another previous home. The pantry was directly off of our kitchen, and in the path of the kitchen entrance, so it had to remained closed. Worked perfectly!

Out-swing door to walk-in pantry

If it's open 99.9% of the time then use a pocket door so nothing is in the way. The .1% of the time you want it closed, for company or whatever, is not a big deal to close it.

@calidesign I actually hate that it's open all the time. no one ever closes it and the mess is always on display. even if your pantry is super organized, it still is a bunch of boxes and cans. nothing i want to see all the time. so that's why I was thinking a double acting door.

@nhb22 Thanks for all of that info! Our pantry will be behind the kitchen/around the corner so the hidden pantry idea wouldn't work that well in our new kitchen. It would be AWESOME in my current home, though! My pantry now is right next to the fridge, in plain sight, and the extra depth I'd get from doing that (plus the hidden aspect) would make it 100x better.

I'm glad you love the double acting doors! I had read so much about people hating them that I got nervous about using one. I don't close my swing door now (and even if I did someone else would open it up 5 minutes later anyway - I just tried closing it earlier tonight and guess what? It's wide open again) so a sliding barn/pocket would probably be a lot worse. I appreciate your insights on it! Never thought about using it for a laundry room, but that also makes a lot of sense! I might need to consider one there, too.

Who wouldn't love a double swing door! :)

I now remember why we didn't keep the door closed. It's because of the dog. when we built the house, we had a JRT...very strong. We kept her food and water in the laundry room. She could push the door open to get in and out (in fact, that's why I chose that door!) Our JRT died and we got a new puppy. She could not, and would not, try to open the door. So we had to leave it open all the time.

In our new home, the dog food goes near the pantry. It's off of a service hall between garage and kitchen. No door there at all!

We have an inswing door. If you also have a beagle that will destroy anything food-like that she can reach...everyone learns to shut the door!

We have an out swing door that I thought may be a problem, but we love it. Yea, sometimes people leave the door open, but it never ever gets in the way.

We are doing the double swing for our pantry as it seems easiest when you have your hands full going in or out of the pantry.

Several DIY designs ago, lol, I decided that I wanted a double-acting hinge door for the pantry, precisely because -- just like you -- I can't stand the door being left open all the time. ;-)

The question for me would be, single door or double...? I'd also make sure that the direction it swings (if it's a single door) doesn't impede you on the way out, on your way to the kitchen (it might have to be hinged on the opposite side shown in the original post). Or go with a pair of double-acting hinge/full length saloon doors, and forget about it. :-D