3 New Kitchens With a Beautiful Butler’s Pantry
Designers share the style and storage components they used to create a secondary kitchen that rivals the main kitchen
If you’ve got the space and budget, a butler’s pantry, or scullery, offers many benefits in a kitchen. These secondary kitchens can help hide messes, add storage and hold appliances — large and small — which helps keep physical and visual clutter out of the main kitchen. Here, designers share the details in three kitchens with an impressive butler’s pantry.
Butler’s pantry features. “We did a combination of open shelving at the top for ease of access, along with a functional countertop and all drawers at the bottom for deeper, more spacious storage,” Dai says. “We kept the exterior front of the drawers large for the minimal, modern look, but inside each deep drawer are inner pullout drawers to make organization a breeze. To break up all the wood in the main kitchen and also save on costs in the butler’s pantry, we went for white semi-prefab cabinets with black trims to complement the statement Euro-pop tile backsplash. We were also able to include a secondary refrigerator inside the butler’s pantry, which is ideal when you have a team of kids and want to store all the beverages and snacks for them and their friends.”
Designer tip. “Never overlook the potential of any space to bring you joy,” Dai says. “Sometimes it is the most mundane, unexpected areas such as a laundry room or pantry that deserve the most love. Here, we wanted to infuse the narrow, typically easily forgotten walk-in pantry with a dynamic pop of Euro-modern flair. It was a laborious process laying out our custom pattern for the tiles so that there would be a sense of visual balance and playfulness, but it’s always worth going the extra mile for a statement feature that will bring a smile to your face every day.”
Find a pro to help with your kitchen remodeling project
Designer tip. “Never overlook the potential of any space to bring you joy,” Dai says. “Sometimes it is the most mundane, unexpected areas such as a laundry room or pantry that deserve the most love. Here, we wanted to infuse the narrow, typically easily forgotten walk-in pantry with a dynamic pop of Euro-modern flair. It was a laborious process laying out our custom pattern for the tiles so that there would be a sense of visual balance and playfulness, but it’s always worth going the extra mile for a statement feature that will bring a smile to your face every day.”
Find a pro to help with your kitchen remodeling project
2. Furniture-Style Fashion
Designers: James McNeal and Rob Hull of James McNeal Architecture and Design
Location: Chaska, Minnesota
Homeowners’ request. “The intention of this design was to have the kitchen act as the center point of the home,” designer Rob Hull says. “Connecting to the other surrounding spaces, it is open to the great room, it’s on axis to the dining room, and it is also on axis to the screen porch, which has accordion doors to fully open to create indoor-outdoor living space. This helps with creating a gathering place for guests and entertainment, with the kitchen being the central space.”
Main kitchen features. “We used the cabinetry like pieces of furniture, defining the spaces while in reality it’s kind of all just one big, open room,” Hull says. “But the cabinetry creates privacy for the scullery kitchen.”
Designers: James McNeal and Rob Hull of James McNeal Architecture and Design
Location: Chaska, Minnesota
Homeowners’ request. “The intention of this design was to have the kitchen act as the center point of the home,” designer Rob Hull says. “Connecting to the other surrounding spaces, it is open to the great room, it’s on axis to the dining room, and it is also on axis to the screen porch, which has accordion doors to fully open to create indoor-outdoor living space. This helps with creating a gathering place for guests and entertainment, with the kitchen being the central space.”
Main kitchen features. “We used the cabinetry like pieces of furniture, defining the spaces while in reality it’s kind of all just one big, open room,” Hull says. “But the cabinetry creates privacy for the scullery kitchen.”
Butler’s pantry features. “The scullery kitchen is designed to be visually hidden while also being completely open and accessible from the main kitchen,” Hull says. “You can easily work back and forth between the two kitchens and you can also hide your messy work, and dishes can easily go to the scullery kitchen and be out of sight and out of mind when having guests over.
“The scullery kitchen is also good for baking. This one adheres to the open floor plan concept and has windows to bring in natural light. The range cabinetry and surrounding cabinets are kind of designed as a piece of furniture that delineates the main space from the scullery kitchen and is expressed uniquely with a stained wood finish, as opposed to the rest of the perimeter kitchen cabinetry, which has a dark blue finish to it.”
“Uh-oh” moment. “The clients, when we were well down the road into the design of their home, were questioning if the ceiling heights were the correct scale for the spaces,” Hull says. “Which, changing from what the design was at that point would have entailed a fair amount of work, doing new drawings, etc. But we solved the problem by walking through their home in virtual reality, and that gave them the true sense of the scale of the space and the heights of the ceilings. After walking through the space in VR, they were able to determine that they thought the scale was correct as drawn, and so we were able to keep moving forward.”
Shop for kitchen and dining products
“The scullery kitchen is also good for baking. This one adheres to the open floor plan concept and has windows to bring in natural light. The range cabinetry and surrounding cabinets are kind of designed as a piece of furniture that delineates the main space from the scullery kitchen and is expressed uniquely with a stained wood finish, as opposed to the rest of the perimeter kitchen cabinetry, which has a dark blue finish to it.”
“Uh-oh” moment. “The clients, when we were well down the road into the design of their home, were questioning if the ceiling heights were the correct scale for the spaces,” Hull says. “Which, changing from what the design was at that point would have entailed a fair amount of work, doing new drawings, etc. But we solved the problem by walking through their home in virtual reality, and that gave them the true sense of the scale of the space and the heights of the ceilings. After walking through the space in VR, they were able to determine that they thought the scale was correct as drawn, and so we were able to keep moving forward.”
Shop for kitchen and dining products
3. Luxurious Layout
Designer: Shelby Knoles of Willow & Co.
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Homeowners’ request. “The homeowners wanted a space that could double as a bar and also work to store pantry items and keep them off of the main countertops in the kitchen,” designer Shelby Knoles says.
Main kitchen features. Custom wood cabinets. Large island with seating.
Designer: Shelby Knoles of Willow & Co.
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Homeowners’ request. “The homeowners wanted a space that could double as a bar and also work to store pantry items and keep them off of the main countertops in the kitchen,” designer Shelby Knoles says.
Main kitchen features. Custom wood cabinets. Large island with seating.
Butler’s pantry features. Soft gray cabinets (Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore). Black granite countertops in a leathered finish. Unglazed terra-cotta tile flooring. “We wanted somewhere that could be closed off if it got messy but also open up to the space when needed,” Knoles says. “The style throughout the home was organic modern with touches of Spanish. We used natural materials like the terra-cotta floor tile and stacked brick-look tile on the backsplash to bring a touch of the modern look. This pantry serves as a bar space, with the wine fridge and bar items on the left, and also pantry storage on the right. We have a wine fridge, dishwasher, sink and storage space for the coffee bar and other pantry items.”
Designer tip. “I am a big fan of symmetry, and I think the cabinet design is very important to the overall look,” Knoles says. “By creating a symmetrical balance with the upper shelves, we are able to separate the bar space from general kitchen storage and also create a focal point over the sink with a wall sconce. We also went with dark countertops to better hide any coffee spills or stains that may come up in a working kitchen space like this one.”
“Uh-oh” moment. “It is always important to think about function when designing a space, and we knew the doors would often be open to this pantry so needed them to sit flush against the kitchen wall without hitting baseboards,” Knoles says. “We ended up having to angle the baseboards and cut them down some so the doors would lay flat. If they didn’t, they would be in the walkway of those trying to pass through the kitchen and not be functional in terms of the design.”
More on Houzz
The 10 Most Popular Kitchens of Spring 2023
Browse thousands of home design photos
Find a home professional
Shop for your home
Designer tip. “I am a big fan of symmetry, and I think the cabinet design is very important to the overall look,” Knoles says. “By creating a symmetrical balance with the upper shelves, we are able to separate the bar space from general kitchen storage and also create a focal point over the sink with a wall sconce. We also went with dark countertops to better hide any coffee spills or stains that may come up in a working kitchen space like this one.”
“Uh-oh” moment. “It is always important to think about function when designing a space, and we knew the doors would often be open to this pantry so needed them to sit flush against the kitchen wall without hitting baseboards,” Knoles says. “We ended up having to angle the baseboards and cut them down some so the doors would lay flat. If they didn’t, they would be in the walkway of those trying to pass through the kitchen and not be functional in terms of the design.”
More on Houzz
The 10 Most Popular Kitchens of Spring 2023
Browse thousands of home design photos
Find a home professional
Shop for your home
Designer: Linette Dai Design
Location: Seal Beach, California
Homeowners’ request. “As a family of six, including four kids, they really needed a lot of storage that could be tucked out of sight, because it’s easy for clutter to take over the entire home,” designer Linette Dai says. “Since this was a ground-up new build, luckily we were able to take all of their needs into consideration, as we were starting from scratch. A butler’s pantry was a must.”
Main kitchen features. Oak cabinets in a custom dark stain. Arabescato marble countertops and backsplash. Concrete sinks and flooring. “The slatted range hood and details on the island are Japanese-inspired and balance out the cool elements with warmth for a minimal yet calming earthy essence that is zen,” Dai says.
The butler’s pantry sits through the black door in an L-shaped section behind the range.