Frosted glass pantry door will be nice. Not sure why the architect would show a door swing outwards, typically doors swing inward so they don't swing and hit things as you mentioned. You might also look into a pocket door too which is great for saving space and not having to put up with a swinging door but looks like your layout is already defined. Hope this helps, I'm not a designer but someone who has built a house and in the middle of a master math remodel as well!

Maybe but pantry walls are good for wall mounted hanging stuff. Most larger than this have inward swinging, smaller have outward.

I would eliminate the island.

Examine the refer space for door clearance.

OK so kinda in between big enough or not big enough for inward opening - could go either way... It just fits - doesn't interfere w/ fridge (unless opening when fridge is already which is unlikely. Could be left open w/o interfering w/ kitchen traffic/activity.

Yep, we do plan on some hanging things on wall inside pantry - broom, dog leash, maybe rechargeable vac... and it would be hidden behind door when open and that would be OK for this kind of stuff...

[FYI our architect also strongly recommended no 2nd (food prep) island. One of us wanted it and we agreed to go that direction ultimately]

I avoid angles in kitchens because of the inherent inefficiencies. I avoid corner pantries partially because the door swing usually disrupts flow no matter where it swings. I avoid storing pet supplies and cleaning supplies in confined spaces with food items.

I would swing that inward and I would also completely rework the island and bar.

Saloon doors may be fitting??

(an example of a good solution and bad solution all in one)

Swings in.

If you were to remove the fridge from the pantry you could remove the angle from the pantry. That would add more counterspace to the stove wall. If you can't put an extra fridge anywhere else I think a full fridge/fridge side by side would fit. The stove would move down the wall to accomidate.

On a side note my sister is buying a house with 2 islands like this. She negotiated a lower price because it's one of the first things she wants to rip out.

Swing in for sure.

Is there a reason for the angled island? It’s quite a dated style

Swing in. Not that you asked, but I agree with everyone else that the entire design should be reconsidered. And your architect is right about the center island. You might want to rethink pantry shelves in front of your window.

I would straighten out the wall to allow for a regular door or a pocket door without the awkwardness of the angle. Bonus: you could get that "fridge freezer on either side of the range look" that seems popular. And, not to get too intrusive if you're happy with the rest, but if you made a single island rather than two islands, your sink would be closer *and* you'd have the landing space I imagine the small middle island is intended to provide.

Very roughly...

Not what you asked, but putting the main refrigerator inside an enclosed pantry seems not ideal as far as everyday access and cooking is concerned. And relative to the sink placement, it is really far away. My guess is that the pantry door swings outward so there's no conflict with the swing of the refrigerator doors, or that the designer is making the pantry wheelchair accessible?

At any rate, I agree with the others that an angled kitchen is fraught with space planning issues. I think I'd go back to the drawing board on this kitchen and take the fridge out of the pantry and be more mindful of the work triangle.

Angled islands with wings and a raised bar are no longer being done in our area. With the little island in the middle you will be playing pinball. Do it if you love it, but a DW at an angle to the sink is awkward. Had that before we remodeled. We eliminated all of the angles from our kitchen and were able to get a more functional layout. It is difficult to see your dimensions but it looks like your sink is far from the refrigerator. You then have to trek back to the range. I'd put a clean up zone under the window with a sink and DW(s). A rectangular island with a prep sink parallel to the cooking zone would add functionality especially if you have multiple workers in the kitchen. I would then extend the range wall and square off the pantry per @jslazart's drawing. A pocket door would be a space saver.

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A solution might be two narrow french doors that open in the middle and swing inward to the pantry. They will take up less space inside.

Just piling on to say get rid of the angles. You can get a much more functional design than this - tell the architect to keep trying.

OK - definitely changing the door to open inward. Will look at some of the other door options presented - they look very interesting!

Somewhat off topic but worth considering - thanks for all the feedback. I've updated the picture to clarify some fuzzy areas...

Some clarifications:

a) the main fridge is IN the kitchen - just to the left of the cooktop. Overflow fridge in panty.

b) the pantry shelves will NOT block the pantry window - only the lower shelves span this - but it's not clear in the blueprint

c) not shown: the dining area is at the top and the LR is to the left - their back walls are are mostly windows looking over a small valley

d) Our 2nd option was a single T-shaped island similar to the suggested sketch jslazart suggested

Below is T-shaped bar/table arrangement like we considered and an updated image of the blueprint...

I think jslazart showed you an island that was square/rectangular. The protrusion was just what was already on your blueprint that they copied and pasted over. I hope you can come up with something that will work better for you.

The swinging door suggested above is worth considering. You don't need a free hand to get into it (or out of it). If you push it far enough it'll stay open, on either side. Doors you can open with your butt should not be discounted!

You could even get the little round porthole in it. :)

Forget the swinging door. I lived with one between the dining room and kitchen and didn't care for it, because it was always in the way when moving from room to room. For that reason, I kept the door open almost all the time, so not worth the expense to have it swing IMO. I've noticed that my daughter's standard pantry door stays open almost all the time too. Her's swings out into the room and it is always in the way, so I think your thinking is right about the door swinging inward.

If you keep this layout I would move the DW to the other side of the sink so that it isn't in your prep path.

My present pantry and my last pantry have outswing doors. I prefer this and asked my architect to design the pantries this way. I prefer to use all of the wall space in the pantry without the door protruding into the room and covering part of the pantry. Where your door swings in..I would have it swing out and put up pegboard in that wall area.

I have a jamb light that is left on when the door is left ajar which trains everyone to shut the door. My pantry door is never left open.

just my personal preference.

I also would go with an outward swing. If it swings in, you have to close the door to get to anything that is behind the door. It's awkward. We also have a jamb light, I really like this feature.

Leave the door off or redesign the kitchen with no dog-leg, chamfered or multilevel counters or long distances or pantires between work surfaces.

I thought these ideas didn't survive the 60's.

Since your pantry has a window, you need to pay close attention how light comes through that window. If there is actual SUN that comes into the pantry, you need to make sure that the shelving that gets hit with sun has no clear bottles or canisters which will expose the contents to the sun. I have a french door and a floor to ceiling window in the pantry, and had to rearrange my shelves so that all the clear bottles and glass containers were out of direct sun. This definitely limits where you can store things. Just something to think about.

I would definitely have the pantry door swing IN. With an out swinging door and doing food prep and going in and out of the pantry, you will constantly have to deal with the pantry door being open and in your way. It’s nice to be able to keep it open without having it intrude into the kitchen. I lived with that....big pain. The wall behind the door in the pantry is a great place to hang things that don’t take up too much space (depth).

I would definitely get rid of all those angles on the island. Don’t know if you're willing to redesign the entire kitchen, but the angled dishwasher is also a negative IMO (lived with that one as well.... traps you into a corner when your at the sink and the dishwasher is open).

You will be in/out, in/out, in/out of that pantry all of the time and a door will just get in the way regardless of its direction. I completely, completely agree with the previous posts on not including a swinging door. My husband convinced me to do pocket doors throughout our (rather small) house years ago, and I'll never go back. Particularly on a pantry... 99% of the time you'll want to keep the door open particularly because of the window/light you'll gain. Good luck!

I hate to say this. You will never get a refrigerator into the pantry as drawn. Cut out a little piece of paper the size of a refrigerator and see if you can "drive" it into place. Remember that fridges are awkward and don't negotiate turns well at all.

I think your kitchen would be much more functional with a rectangular island. You might run it parallel to the fridge/range wall. And I’d square off the pantry door As suggested above.

actually your range doesn’t seem to be on an outside wall. Can it be vented properly? You may want it on the exterior wall in which case you might want the island running the other way.

you have a huge kitchen and so much space to work with. You could do almost anything. But the current design seems very inefficient to me.

I’ve seen some neat ”hidden” pantries that have cabinet doors or pocket doors. We planned for a pantry door but I forgot to order it while we were building so we just had the builder put in a cased opening. My family loves it. The pantry seems to be the most used room in this house. Everyone is in and out all of the time. I have three kids: 4, 8 & 16.

Here is that hidden pantry with cabinet doors.

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Good luck!

Here is our pantry no door:

We can add a door if we ever want one but you can’t see into the pantry unless you are standing in the working part of the kitchen. (real life after Christmas mess in our kitchen right now!) So I guess my vote it no door because if we had one I doubt anyone would close it anyway...

I’m so glad I didn’t use a pocket door on our pantry. When I cook a meal I’ll open the pantry door and everything is accessible. I believe you could also achieve this by looking at your plan. Please excuse the breaker boxes. I opted to have them in the pantry instead of anywhere else. For me it was a no brainer.

2 fridges = twice the mechanical failures. More energy use. Fridges create heat (I know - not really "create" but from a practical standpoint). That in a confined space where food is stored is a bad idea. You want pantries to be cool generally.

I get that large fridges are expensive but separation will hurt you time and time again. Maybe because I stress drinking only water regularly but I find the second fridge wasteful.

Hope you aren't planning on selling this house for a long time - maybe the angles will come back in style?

My pantry door swings in. Anything that is hung on the wall behind would be things not needed every day. I could have had it swing out, but I like the inward functionality better.

I don't have angles in my kitchen - maybe you can make them work, but I'd try to avoid them.

I have a small freezer in my pantry. Due to heat concerns I keep the pantry open all the time except when entertaining. If you can do that with your second fridge being there, you shouldn't have to worry about pantry storage and extra heat.

There's a window in my pantry, too. The space in front of the window I use as a landing zone. Anywhere that would get direct sunlight - I store things like paper towels. I also have a shade.

Thanks for the constructive comments. FWIW here's an early (non-blueprint) rough sketch with what I call a table/bar arrangement & optional food prep island...

Work triangles show a cook's general path, they do not go through islands or other obstacles.

Ask your architect to recommend a kitchen designer.

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I'm sorry but this kitchen design is about as inefficient as any I've seen and adding an island between the dog leg sink island and cooktop only makes it a heck of a lot worse because that middle island is a barrier between the sink and fridge and sink and cooktop. Why are you stuck on this poorly laid out and very dated layout?

If you ever go to sell, trust me, most people will be trying to figure out what to lower the value of your house so they can create a kitchen that works and is not dated.

I would suggest if someone can find it, reading through the kitchen thread that explains good design and good kitchen practices. Especially the Ice, Water, Stone, Fire thread.

Additionally it appears this kitchen is on interior walls which means you'll get no natural light. Why is it people want to spend all that time in a dark kitchen where every single light needs to be turned on even in the middle of the day?

I'm guessing there are other deficiencies in the layout of this house if this is what you're starting with. Sorry to be so blunt but the best thing you can do is get it right on paper, before you spend 6 figures of your hard earned money. Changes on paper are cheap.

CP..agreed. my last house had no windows in the kitchen other than adjoining breakfast room. I said never again. My number one priority in new house was a kitchen with windows.

Aren't those windows behind the plant shelf?

"Additionally it appears this kitchen is on interior walls which means you'll get no natural light."

There are two(2) 2040 windows shown on the bottom exterior walls with two high mount fixed glass windows above. There's a 2040 in the pantry with a frosted door to the kitchen. The dining area above (not show) is a wall of glass and the living room to the left continues that wall of glass.

"I hate to say this. You will never get a refrigerator into the pantry as drawn."

It actually fits pretty easily. The only tight spot is getting it thru the 32 in wide pantry which it does, albeit snugly, without even removing either the pantry door or the refrigerator doors. I suppose there are some extremely deep units which might necessitate door removal.

These are always good things to check. Likewise I've checked a new HVAC unit can fit thru the opening it will go in for future service.

"2 fridges = twice the mechanical failures. More energy use. Fridges create heat (I know - not really "create" but from a practical standpoint). That in a confined space where food is stored is a bad idea. You want pantries to be cool generally."

2 fridges also equals twice the redundancy which. 2nd unit is for storage of venison and drinks. Wattage spec can help with heat generation in j calcs with a target of same temp as rest of house for HVAC design.

I missed the windows and they will brighten the space somewhat, but still best to have windows directly in your work zone. Your window in the pantry with frosted glass will not bring light into kitchen and windows in dining room and living room won’t either. Ask me how i know.

As for my other comments about the layout, i stand by my comments

Please seriously consider jslazart's layout. It solves the original pantry door issue by making a pocket door possible. Beyond that, the layout solves what you may not have seen as problems in your layout - awkward angles and "pinball"-like navigation around a tiny 2nd island (as someone put it). The jslazart layout gives you plenty of prep space on the spacious island (two sides can be used!) and lots of counter space on either side of the range. You can put a clean-up sink on the window wall, with dishwasher(s), and thus further separate prep from cleanup. In all ways it's superior to your existing layout. Is there anything about it you don't like?