We have had them in our pantry for abt 5 years. Haven't had any problems and easy to clean up. They are showing little, if any, wear and tear.

Music to my ears! Have you adjusted the shelf heights as your needs change?

I have melamine shelves from the big box in my new pantry also. Our carpenter installed them on metal "standards" that hold up the shelves from underneath at the ends and in a few spots towards the middle of the shelves. The standards have many holes so you can adjust the shelves. Never having had a pantry before, it took a few times of loading food, moving food, adding shelves, loading and moving food, adjusting shelves, loading food and moving it to get it right. I don't forsee adjusting the shelves in the future, but my carpenter said it would be cheaper to build it this way than with permanent shelf placement.

Cons: I wanted the pantry interior to be prettier and more custom-looking, but the price was right at this moment. Adjusting won't be easy if you have the shelves fairly close together because of the way you have to tip and lift a shelf to move it.

Pros: Priced right. Depth isn't too deep so food is easy to reach. And my pantry holds a boatload of food!

Hi Breezygirl, hope you had a great holiday. Must be fun to be using your new kitchen!

I had never heard of "standards" before. Sounds like the kind that hook up from the back. The ones we saw were a lot like what I see IKEA has for their interior cabinets. The sides of the pantry would have peg holes every inch, so the items would need to be removed from the shelf, pegs taken out, and then just put back in. Not super easy but better then what you explained. I realize you still can't load up pics yet (still anxious to see your kitchen) to show me your pantry. There are some of course with a spectacular chandelier or pantry glass door, but far and few in between.

You've got such wonderful taste so it makes me wonder what you consider would make a prettier pantry. My DH and I are DIY and are finding most of this remodel is cheap when you're only buying building supplies. We're just about done with the framing, so not too late to pretty up the interiors.

We decided to put our pantry in our utility room which is adjacent to our kitchen. It will be the same distance as it would have been in the kitchen from my main prep zone except you have to open one additional door (assuming the door actually get shut).

Even though our kitchen has not technically started, it feels like we are sooooo close. We are borrowing 6" from the utility room corner to recess the frig into a 30" spot in the kitchen. Remodeling the utility room hasn't disturbed the kitchen at all (except for the wallboard dust we keep tracking in). We feel like we're "practicing" for the main event. It's gone amazing well!

Since you mention IKEA, have you taken a look at their "storage" solutions shelves? We used the Broder system using the wood shelves (instead of metal) in our pantry and really liked them. Also, can't beat the price. When attached to studs, these hold quite the load.

Here is a link that might be useful: Broder at IKEA

We have the metal standards like Breezy. They are basically a track system w brackets. Like what the container store sells, but way cheaper. We can easily adjust our shelves bc we didn't screw the brackets into the boards. Between the weight of the boards and the food on the boards, we have never had a problem w the boards tilting. We have also never had the need to adjust the boards. Since we were replacing wire shelving, we already knew where we wanted the shelves. Plus our storage space was easily doubled bc the boards were slightly deeper than the wire shelves , we added another row of shelves, and we don't have any little gaps for food to fall through.

As for the install, I say it was fairly easily. I did it w some help from my dad. We bought the longest boards sold by Loews and had them cut the boards to size. The hardest part was painting the pantry bc I kept changing my mind abt the color.

Hi Aloha! I meant to try to get back to your thread weeks ago. It's probably too late to have my answers help with your project, but I'll give them anyway.

I'm having a blast in my new kitchen! The pantry is one of my favorite things, despite it not being as I envisioned. I've never had a pantry before, but am so enjoying being able to walk into the little room, turn on the light, and stare at all my yummies.

I wasn't going for the Sharb pantry with a chandy, but something more elegant, built-in looking with less big box, utilitarian, hardware store vibe. Someday in the distant future when I have the time to really think it out, I may change it. Thicker and painted wood shelves, wood brackets, pretty wall color, ...

(Excuse the mess. DH had just gone in and "made more space in there" by shoving my neatly arranged goods together to make room for all the holiday junk/food gifts. Grrrr.)

I hope your progess is continuing on as well as it was at the start of the year. I'd enjoy hearing about what you've done since then! Apologies again for the delay.