that will make a wonderful pantry! I see no down-sides to it at all!

Current house, I converted an old laundry nook into a pantry, new house, putting it in a space not too different from yours.

I like a pantry of this sort, with shelves on 3 sides. You can 'sort of' step in, without it being a true 'walk in' space. I like narrow shelves on the sides for small boxes, cans and bottles, and a deeper on on the back wall for cereal boxes, etc. I left off the bottom shelf on the back wall, used some stacking wire bins for root vegs, and a crock to hold a 25 pound sack of flour. The side shelves are quite close together-- no point in having a 12 inch tall shelf for a 5 inch tall jar of olives.

It MUST have good lighting, current house has a pull chain fixture, new house an automatic light.

I like this layout waaaay better than a typical pull-out pantry or some of the elaborate base cabinet units: you can stick your head in and see everything thats there, all at once-- simple, straight forward and quick, with nothing to come of the track or wear out.

This web site has tons of photos of people's pantries. You may find some of the photos useful to you.

Here is a link that might be useful: pantry photos

ma-bookreader - thanks for the link!

Orubis - that shelf configuration makes sense. My grandmother's (which gave me the idea) had the shallow, close-together shelves on the back wall and the deeper ones on the sides. But looking at my space, I think her coat closet was bigger ( wider) to start with (possibly also deeper). She had the "old style" automatic light, with the switch in the door. Two further questions: Are you able to use the full height of the closet? What kind of door do you have on it?

Thanks!

I turned a spare bedroom closet into a pantry 4 years ago and have never regretted it. When we renovated our kitchen in 02 we didn't change the footprint. We had this extra closet with nothing in it (I don't save clutter) so I asked DH to make it into a pantry...sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do :) Yeah, it's purple. Love the color but won't use it where it can be seen so I used it in my pantry (g) This picture was taken 4 years ago. Wish it still looked as nice :o
Monica

Here is a link that might be useful: Closet converted into Pantry

We did exactly what you are thinking of. We closed off a coat closet and opened it on the other side. Ours is about 65" wide and 27" deep. We installed a pocket door due to space limitations. I got wire shelving from Container Store for the back and one side wall. The other side wall has hooks for brooms, etc. It has worked out great for us. Lots of storage room in a relatively small space.

I did this. My kitchen is small (9x10), but I had a bonus closet just off our dining room (and probably 15 feet from my kitchen). I stuck in some shelves and made it a pantry of sorts.

I had the electrician put in a plug and I put our rarely used microwave in here. We also use it as a "charging station" for our cell phones, the laptop, etc.

I don't store food in here, but do I store soda, paper towels, some craft things for my son, his DVDs, liquor and extra wine glasses, etc.

I'm really liking the idea, the more I think about it. It will make it possible to eliminate a pantry cabinet in the current kitchen (15" x 12") and reclaim 15 inches of countertop instead.

Not really an extra space, this closet! To make it work, the coats will move to the hall closet housing the vacuum cleaner and assorted items, and the vacuum cleaner etc. will probably have to move to the current "pantry area" (bookshelves) in the garage. The utility closet will have to be reconfigured to hold coats and so forth. So it's more of a consolidation. I'd better start figuring it out, so I can tell dh if there will be any net gain of pantry storage. ;-) For him, that could be a determining factor.