I think that a BP is an anti-thesis to the current Great Room school of thought, where host(ess) is often the cook. In the old days where butlers were serving families sitting down for a formal dinner, BP's served well, since the person who was serving had that as dedicated job and was not eating/cooking at the same time. In the modern setup, the hosts are typically in the kitchen and guests gather in Great Room. For the lifestyles where open kitchens make a lot of sense, BP's do not make much for exact same reasons. While it is essential to have storage for all your fine china/silverware etc. it need not be in BP. A corner in an open kitchen could work. The key here is accessibility. I definitely think that a BP makes the kitchen all the more inaccessible from the dining area, since it usually lies between the kitchen and formal dining. However, it might actually be a better idea to allocate room for storing dirty pots/pans and dishes, since typically people linger for a bit after food and an open kitchen very soon begins to look like a junkyard. Maybe an extra dishwasher, an extra sink etc. that is away from the site.

There will be shelves and/or cabinets along the wall opposite the pantry sink and on the wall to the right that is out of view and along the wall opposite the w/d wall. The oversized hutch that will go on the bare wall is mostly storage. It’s actually a large antique pantry cabinet. And another pantry cabinet to the right of the frig which will be mostly drawers. I put a pocket door in on purpose to kind of make the pantry an extension of the kitchen. It will be open most of the time I’m sure. Presently, we have our drop in range in our island. We hate the range itself, but we really like it there, but I didn’t want the stove in the island this time. I wanted to keep the island top clear of obstruction. So the oven in it will be what we’re used to. The oven in the pantry idea came up because a lot of our cook ware can be stored in the pantry and I started to see others doing it. One of my favorite kitchens on Houzz has the oven in the pantry. As far as shrinking the pantry and utility, not really if you are referring to the bare “hutch” wall. It’s a modular and that wall cannot be moved. I could move the wall opposite the pantry sink, but we want a large utility room. Ours is big now and I wouldn’t want it any smaller. We have a lot of pets. Our utility/laundry room is packed with pet supplies and litter pans. We’re hoping to put the litter pans in the basement in the new house however, hoping the old gang will catch on.

This is just bad. Starting with having to walk through the work area of the kitchen to get to two of the bedrooms. From there it goes downhill. Sorry to be so blunt. Here's my list that hopefully helps you rethink what you have: The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling The best houses are L, U, T, H, or I shaped. The best houses are only one to two rooms deep. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case. The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light, meaning windows so one doesn't have to have lighting 24/7 to use the kitchen. (And no, dining areas with windows 10' or more from the kitchen will not allow for natural light.) The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls. The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls The best houses keep public and private spaces separate. The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room. The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen. The best houses do not use the kitchen as a hallway to any other rooms. The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or dining areas. The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside. The best houses have an organizing “spine” so it’s easy to determine how to get from room to room in the house and what makes sense. So how many of these best practices does your house have?

This is where personal preference becomes a significant decision-maker. If you want a very neutral backdrop for your home, opt for matching mudroom and butler pantry cabinetry. However, we are seeing more and more color and contrast in recent design trends, so if you have any inclination towards a bolder pallet, mudrooms and butler pantries are great places to try that out. Because they are relatively out of site, you can play around with color or boldness in a way you may not want to in your kitchen. We’ve designed mudrooms and butler pantries that stand out as their own spaces because they have a complimentary (but not the exact same) color palette as the rest of the home. Here are some examples: