Is there anyway you can avoid this size? I've had one like this and it is terrible. Depending on the size and placement of the door you may only wind up with some wall mounted baskets on one side, a 2x2 square of space in which to stand and 3 ft wide by 2ft deep shelves- and the back 9 inches of those shelves will be a black hole. If the door is in one corner you can maybe do 12 in shelves on one side and 18 in shelves across the back. Still not great, but better.

Thank you so much for the reply. In your view, what width would make this not terrible? Part of the problem is that we have a 36 entry into the kitchen, which our contractor thought was important for getting things in (this is our back entrance). If we don’t use this space as a pantry, trying to figure out where we go from here!

Maybe someone who knows more than I do will chime in but my preferences would be

1st: expensive, but a two foot deep by four foot wide row of pantry cabinets with roll out shelves and drawers facing your back door.

2nd a 4x2 closet with bi-fold doors facing your back door.

Or wait!

With the narrower depth, it might be possible to have the cabinets/ closet facing into the kitchen.

Again, hoping someone who knows more will see this.

Anyway to keep the powder room from opening into the kitchen/dining area?

My knowledge only consists of wrestling with a very poorly designed home for 8 years. I know bad design. Lots of people on here know good design.

If the pantry is the little room with a 26" door in your plan I suggest using only a 24" door and have it swing out and not into the little 3' x 4' pantry space. I'll also say having a toilet in Kitchen/dining room is just plain wrong, and should be avoided like the plague. Is there no other space it can go or could the door be moved to enter from another room?

Yes, it would swing out rather than in. Sadly, this is the existing location of the powder room and there’s truly nowhere else to put it as the whole floor is compact. The realities of a small home originally from the 1940s!

understandable.

A pantry cabinet with drawers or pullout shelves using full extension slides will hold far more than a walk-in pantry of the same size, and items won’t be hidden in the back.

Pullout shelves behind cabinet doors are more flexible than drawers, because shelf position (how high each shelf is) can be adjusted to fit the height of the things you are storing.

Full-extension slides up to 60” and 500 lb capacity are available.

I would get rid of the walk-in pantry entirely. Have a cabinetmaker build a pantry cabinet for that space. Each shelf can be three feet deep, and pull all the way out so you see everything in there, even a little jar of tomato paste all the way at the back of the shelf can’t hide.

I'd skip the very costly pullout draws and shelves. Be sure and get some prices on this option. Delete the pantry and thus the wall between the pantry and the entrance. 11" shelves behind doors will give the usable storage you can see. For appliances the wall left with the powder room can be as deep as necessary.

Thank you everyone. My contractor says that we could get the pantry a bit wider, to 42 inches, or put the door on the other side, to take advantage of 4 feet in width. Does that change anyone’s opinion? If not, will stick to shelving or cabinetry

Absolutely aqccess it from the wider side, so that the back wider wall is full of shelves, and the narrow end has a full depth cabinet for appliance storage.

Do something like this, better flow from the back door, more space around the island corner and more shelf space in the pantry with two walls of shelving. two 16" double doors swinging out. Oh, and use 2"x3" studs to build the pantry wall, it will give another 2" of space and will be fine for the purpose.

Kevin’s, but skip the diagonal doors. Just do regular doors, or uppers and lowers with a bit of counterspace inbetween. That way it will also be a landing pad for that back door.

If you keep the first pantry, you could have shelves across the back wall, maybe a little deeper at the bottom, and shallow basket racks on the sides. I did that in a very small closet, IIRC it was something like 24x24, maybe less, although I could have the racks on only one side, then I had a graduated mix of 8”, 12”, and 16” shelves. It was all so much more useful than the original 12” shelves.

Kevin's but keep shifting the doors inward - more inward - there, you have cabinets. I don't see the point to enclosing a little triangle of floorspace. The extra walkway space will be useful when you're trying to get a big dining table or new couch into the house.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for the feedback. It sounds like we have two options. Attached some very rough drawings that both seem viable. Either accessing the pantry from the wider side, or doing away with it altogether and doing cabinetry rather than enclosing it.

I think it depends on

- Is Drawing A's enclosed room important (can hide big or long or messy stuff like big tubs of pet food, bags of bottles and cans to return, stick vacuum or broom or skis, etc)? How about its lower cost (studs, drywall, a door, some shelving, a switch and light bulb - it'll be pretty cheap).

- Is Drawing B's more spacious kitchen and less obstructed entry path important? How about its higher cost (you're buying and installing cabinetry, maybe custom, with hardware).

You could use tape to lay out different possible pantry/shelf and/or cabinet layouts to see what will fit without obstructing passage etc, then calculate which gives you the most shelf space. Even mock it up with cardboard boxes to get a feel for the visual mass.

For cabinets, you could do the "L" configuration, or a straight run one either wall. On the "south" wall (as picture is oriented) you have freedom to have very deep custom cabinets - easily 3 feet, maybe more. On the "east" wall the cabinets have to be more standard depth, but you could probably find stock cabinets that work.

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This takes more space, but improves the bath privacy. You could put a 30 inch wide pantry on the stove wall. Also improves space for toilet and sink.

If the bathroom can be less than the current dimension, you could have a wall of shallow pantry cabinets on the kitchen side of the bathroom wall!

Thank you everyone. We are going to do away with the pantry and instead do some custom millwork. Can hoping it’s okay for the island to stay in the spot as drawn though! Let me know if you feel otherwise.

Could you shrink the island a tiny bit to give more breathing room around the range, considering you need room around the oven door when it's open.