You're trying to squeeze quite a bit into a relatively small space - and by making the pantry long and skinny, you've basically created two long parallel hallways which take up a huge percentage of your square footage. (i.e., the one in the pantry and the main hallway beside the cubbies)

Before trying rearranging the space, think about what you are trying to accomplish and what your priorities are:

Is it important to you that the pantry be a separately enclosed area AND that it be a walk-in pantry as opposed to "reach-in" storage space? Given the storage available in your kitchen, how much additional pantry space do you really want/need? Would you be just as happy with some open shelves (bookcase style) for storing extra canned goods and maybe a small closet for tucking away brooms/mops/recylables? How would you feel about combining your pantry with your laundry room? Or, would a combined pantry/mudroom area work for you? (i.e, cubbies on one side, pantry shelves on the other?)

How important is the desk area to you? Do you visualize this space as a pristine "office area" well separated - both visually and actually - from muddy boots and coats? Or, do you half expect and not mind that kids may drop off their bookbags and junk on your desk rather than in their cubbies?

How much "cubbie" space do you really want/need? You're showing about 10 linear feet which is probably length enough for about 6 or 7 individual cubbies? Would space for 4 or 5 cubbies be adequate? Do you want to move the cubbies away from the hallway so that, when folks are using the cubbies they are not simultaneously blocking the hallway?

There are probably a few alternatives to what you currently have but you're really down to the nitty-gritty of designing here so the more one knows about what you need and how you want the space to work, the better we can help you revamp it. Meanwhile, soon as I get a break from work, I'll try to sketch out some possibilities.

Bev:

I know what you're saying. This nitty gritty of designing is hard!

We originally had a smaller walk in pantry (about 3.5 x 5) and the cubbies backed up to that area. I felt like the pantry was too small.....we will be living about 20 minutes from a grocery store, so being able to store food items in mass quantity is important to me. Also, with the original design, we were only able to have 4 cubbies, whereas with this new design, I can have 5-6. There are five of us, so ideally I thought it a good idea for each of us to have our own space for shoes, backpacks, purses, briefcases, etc. I have concerns, too, about blocking the hallway when accessing the cubbies.

The desk area is really for the kids to use when I'm in the kitchen. You know how that goes.....kids follow momma around wherever she goes! I like the open space for computer use.....no guessing what my child is looking at online! Also, I'm a night owl, so I like being able to use the computer area in the mudroom without waking up DH.

I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for your steadfast widsom! (I have another post in the kitchens forum regarding my newly-hated kitchen layout. Any chance you offer kitchen layout help, too???)

what if you switched the pantry area to the current desk area? then you could have more depth of storage for the shoes/coat/etc, plus a desk area on the entrance from garage door wall (behind storage). Then you don't have your eyeballs on the kids while on computer (which may be a concern, I know). I was just trying to come up with a way to open the space up a bit. I know when the kids come in the door, they don't stay in a nice, straight, hallway line, and their stuff and ways of putting on/taking off clothing and shoes can get WIDE (if you know what i mean!!!)

I would totally agree with Mairin. The hallway seems like space you could use for 'bodies' to be coming and going. The pantry could be more square if you put it in the desk area and then you could have shelves on all sides and walk straight in rather than a long pantry that would possibly have one whole wall with nothing on it.

What would you think of something like this? I'm not working with dimensions so I'm guessing but I think the doorways and hallway and cubbies are all sized about right. It give you a few less linear feet pantry storage but a lot more "space" around your cubbies and down the hallway.

Also, I have a similar U shaped staircase and while the landing is too low to walk under comfortably, you could still use all that space for storage of bulk items by putting in some heavy duty pull out drawers.

.

Bev:

You are amazing! Wow! I am excited to show this layout to our designer.....

He's going to wonder where I got such inspiration.

Thank you. I would NEVER have thought of this layout, and I love it!

I just looked on the kitchen forum and saw where Buehl suggested moving the pantry door into the kitchen. I LOVE her first layout for your kitchen and think it sets up the best possible solution for your mudroom as well. All you have to do is square off the pantry room and then move the mudroom cubbies up to the space near the desk and wrap them around the corner - plenty of room for five cubbies.

I won't attempt to resketch Buehl's kitchen plan suggestion but this is what I would then do with the pantry/mudroom area. Since you could wrap shelves around 3 walls in your pantry, you would only lose the tiniest amount of useable storage space in the pantry. But you would get rid of the long dark hallway effect.

I'm doing a happy dance.....

Bev and Buehl.....YOU NAILED IT!!

Thank you doesn't seem like enough.

Happy to be of assistance. Going to bed now with a smile on my face.

:-)

I'm not going to mess with lay-out or dimensions, but I highly recommend pocket doors if at all possible. We put in walk-through pantry (access from both mudroom and kitchen). In order to utilize the space as much as possible we used pocket doors at both points of entry.

Jenn

Hey Aggie9597, if you wind up going with something like the last thing I posted (where the pantry door is moved per Buehl's redesign of the kitchen), I just had another brainstorm.

Put cabinet doors on the hallway side of the pantry - the wall nearest the stairs. Then, when you're bringing groceries in, you could open the cabinet door by the stairs to unload things into the pantry instead of having to make multiple trips lugging bags into the kitchen. You'll want strong latches on the cabinet door so they aren't accidentally pushed open from inside the pantry but you would actually GAIN a little extra storage space by using what would otherwise be the interior of that wall. And, if you're the neat-nick type who always lines up all the cans of corn separately from all the cans of peas, etc., putting supplies away from the BACKSIDE automatically pushes previously purchased stuff to the front where it will get used up first.