Ideal pantry depth?

16 years ago

Does anyone have any thoughts on what the best depth for a pantry is, at least in your experience?

We have an 18" pantry cabinet in our kitchen layout, and need to decide whether to make it 24" deep or 18" deep. It is next to a 24" refrigerator panel, but also next to an 18" deep bench and broom closet, so my thinking was that it might make sense for it to be 18" deep for symmetry's sake. (Broom closet must stay 18" deep for door clearance.) DH thinks we would be sacrificing storage space. Wondering if he's right---is the deeper space just as useful? The cabinet will have a door and then pullout shelves.

Layout looks like this:

It's the cabinet below the fridge, though it's not labeled. Doors on that wall are all 18" wide.

Would love any thoughts/experiences---thanks!

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Comments (3)

bmorepanic
16 years ago
Well, he's right. Because you'll lose the same amount of "overhead" to fit in the pull out from front to back no matter what depth the cabinet is, you lose 6 linear inches of the pullout depth per pullout with the shallower cabinet.

If you're thinking that's not much, tape off about 6" x 14" space on your counter and see what you can fit inside. Or, in sales speech, it's one third more!

PS: The door on the pantry may need to open in the other direction to open wide enough to allow the pullouts to be used. And you won't be able to open some pullouts and ref at the same time.
artemis78
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks---yes, was thinking of switching the swing on the pantry anyway, since it was mainly in that direction to mirror the broom closet. Is the conflict there because the door would need to swing further than 90 degrees to let the pullouts open fully? (Still getting the hang of all the measurements...)

We're thinking of putting two high cabinets over the bench, and it was just really bugging me to have a 24" deep cab on one side and only 18" on the other...but DH doesn't want to lose the storage there, since we're already losing a lot of storage in the remodel. I was arguing that the space in the back of a deeper cabinet might not be as useful (a problem we have with deep cabinets now, but they don't have pullouts). Sounds like he's right, and I need to get over my symmetry hangups and move on. :) Thanks!
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bmorepanic
16 years ago
I believe pullouts aren't exactly the same in their requirements and the framed v. frameless thing plays into too.

That location, right next to the ref, is a little scary - because the door can hit the ref without even thinking about the pullouts or the depth of the pantry. Some of those euro-style hinges pick the door up and outwards while opening (the door side near the hinge actually gets further from the cabinet face as the door opens).

It would be something I'd check for sure.