Pantry Design Input

15 years ago

To gain room for my larger-than-builder-grade cooktop and ovens, I must give up my corner step-in pantry.

The KD suggested a pantry cab with roll out trays over on the wall with the fridge, full counter depth and 20" wide at the right end in the photo. (The fridge is currently planned to be counter depth French door, 36".) KD left a regular wall and base cab on the left of the fridge (which is what we have now, with the fridge full to the right).

This looks awkward to me, unbalanced and aesthetically unpleasing. I'd asked about the idea of giving up the conventional layout in favor of a full wall of pantry/cabs. KD feels we need to leave some counter over there for balance with the rest of the U-shaped kitchen. There's some merit to that comment, as I have dark granite with white cabs, so no dark over there probably would feel off balance.

I've proposed the arrangement shown in the photo, with 15" uppers going all the way down to the base cabs at 24" depth. I keep glasses over near the fridge and would like to continue that, so it won't all be pantry.

KD thinks this will be much less functional than the full depth pantry with pullouts he proposed. He suggests that children won't be able to use it (?) if we ever resell and that the drawers will make items hard to find. I think it might be much more usable because so many items are small and don't necessarily work well on shelves. Boxes and boxes of teas, for example. He also points to the lost space of having the top set back. Of course, I gained some of that back by extending the uppers on the other side. And I picked up some extra cab space over near the cooking appliances. DH measured and calculated, and it appears to be nearly a wash space wise.

So, for all you kitchen pantry gurus out there... comments? Is this nuts? Should I do the full height and depth pantry? Is it really more functional to have doors to open and trays to pull out than drawers to begin with? Is it possible/reasonable to do shallow drawer boxes with the full drawer fronts, which would seem pretty similar to the pullout proposed? Other ideas?

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Comments (10)

mtnrdredux_gw
15 years ago
I like the look of what you are proposing. As for functionality, I generally don't think of drawers as being particularly good for pantry duty.

That said, have you thoroughly thought through what you will be putting in these spaces? If you have a current pantry, open it up, take a photo of it, and map its contents to the new space. See if it works for you.

As for resale, I doubt someone would think about it.
beaglesdoitbetter1
15 years ago
I really like your picture. And, I think properly laid-out drawers could function as a good pantry. This is what we are planning for one of our drawers and it seems like it would work for pantry storage (caveat- we do have a walk-in pantry too):

I agree as far as looking at what you need to store to see if it would be Ok in drawers.
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VickieHallmark
Original Author
15 years ago
Great idea about the photo and mapping. I'll give that a go.

Love the drawer dividers. That's an excellent way to prevent drawer chaos. I'm adding that to my design file.

Thanks!
beaglesdoitbetter1
15 years ago
Vickie- my planned drawer boxes will lift out too, so that if I need to grab a bunch of items from the drawer and transport them elsewhere in kitchen, I can. You can't do that with your KD's suggested pull-out shelves ;)
VickieHallmark
Original Author
15 years ago
Lift out -- brilliant!

Are those commercial dividers? Do you have a source?
laughablemoments
15 years ago
Roll out trays? You mean those shallow sided things that boxes and bags flop out of when you pull them out? Those 2' deep things where you put rows and rows of canned goods and you can't tell what's in the cans b/c you're looking at the tops of them? And if you stack the cans and try to pull the trays out the cans start toppling and you start dancing trying to dodge the fallout? My mom had those in her old kitchen and I was not impressed (and this was me as a teenager living at home.)

I'd much prefer deep drawers, at least down low, where I could put boxes and have them held steady, and maybe some slanted shelves (like a spice rack?) where I could read can labels. And shallow shelves above (probably like what you have drawn) where like things could be put in rows and seen
easily.

Oh, and funny thing, I can't tell you how many times one of us absentmindedly attempted to put the milk in the pantry or a box of cereal in the fridge as the pantry and fridge lived right next to each other. (Maybe this is solely my family's ditsy-ness?)
beaglesdoitbetter1
15 years ago
My source is my custom cabinet maker so unfortunately I can't help you there. I did steal that drawer from somewhere (very likely from someone on this forum who I am not properly crediting, but it was a while ago so I don't remember who) so maybe someone will have a source?
VickieHallmark
Original Author
15 years ago
Laughable, good name! You had me LOL at your description of the roll out trays. I've never used them in real life, but they do look a bit nonfunctional to me somehow.

Good, you all are making me more confident of my idea.

Beagles, I'll inquire with the custom cabinet maker.
macybaby
15 years ago
I love my rollout trays - they are for my appliances to sit on and I don't want to have to lift them out of high sided drawers. I also don't want to lift them OVER the front of a drawer, this way when I open the door, it's well out of the way for me to be lifting what ever it is I'm using that day. Most trays have one or two appliances on them and this way I can get at the one in back without moving the one in front.

I would never use them for little things that could fall off, or where you'll have several rows and never see what's in the middle.

I know I'm the odd duck - I have lots of storage in my kichen but I keep very little food in there.
numbersjunkie
15 years ago
If the cabinet is 20" wide, how much width will you actually have in the pullout? I had pullouts that were in 21" wide cabinet and the actual storage tray had 15" of interior width. It wasn't very practical.