Oh but that is so charming as is! Can you not keep it!

I have 12 x 14 pantry/scullery (everyone’s favorite room in the house). Consider an extra small dishwasher or single dishwasher drawer, garbage pullout, small built in microwave or microwave shelf, deeper counters, garbage disposal if you do any prep in there, and lots of dedicated outlets if you plan on having small countertop appliances set up. If you have upper cabs or even open shelving, under counter lighting is a tremendous help.

Do a search for “Scullery”. There will be lots of great inspiration pics that pop up.

I would not give up all the light you get from that atrium for a butlers pantry and why 2 coffee makers and this would not seem to me to be the place to store towels , table linens yes. As fior lighting this would be a perfect place for cable lighting check out TECH. We had an atrium in our first house and I always loved the feel of the light coming in from there.

If it was mine I would have a water feature in it !

If the upper windows can be left, there would still be light entering the adjoining rooms from the skylight in the new butler's pantry.

Thank you all for your help. We have lived in the house for 30 years and the atrium used to be a home to silk plants. We never used the space and the sliding glass door was always closed. Although it was very attractive we never felt the space was practical so we decided it would be better utilized as a Butler’s Pantry or Scullery. Love the pictures Nidnay sent me of her scullery. We thought about a water feature in the room years ago, but we want something that is low maintenance. We plan to leave the upper windows in place to bring light into the kitchen and entrance way. We checked out the TECH lighting and that is a wonderful solution to our lighting dilemma. Again, thanks for all your help.

Oh wow very cool! I would totally try and keep that! So much light and I love the fact that you can all dine in and enjoy it anytime (rain, shine, day, night) Have you ever set it up as an atrium? I would certainly try and it would less $ than converting to a butlers pantry. I love the idea of a water feature, some place to sit, a fire pit, even night lighting. I want that!

Well I for one would love a Butler’s pantry for the extra storage and functional value. Just keep transom windows as you’ve mentioned to provide better lighting.

It would be a good idea to have an architect or kitchen designer do a site visit. There are cost, architectural and logistic considerations to take into account in advising you on plumbing line location, design, lighting, etc. Some other things you might want to consider for a butler's pantry are whether you would like a built in ice maker, a dishwasher for glassware (perhaps an 18"), adjustable shelves (in both upper and lower cabinets) and extra depth upper cabinets for larger items you might want to store outside of the kitchen (large trays, bowls, seasonal items, etc), a beverage/wine refrigerator, under cabinet lighting and inner cabinet lighting, pet food storage, espresso machine, and whether you want the coffee makers plumbed in or not. I would not hesitate to store table linens in a butler's pantry. Two coffee makers are ideal for both decaf and regular coffee.

Like the others here, I think it's a really cool space. If it isn't useful to you, def gotta do what will make you feel good in your home.

Do the atrium windows face outside or are they all interior? It is completely roofed?

Living there for 30 years means you really know how you use your house's space.

Completely roofed, all interior walls one wall is off entrance way, on Erin kitchen and one wall in the hallway to bedroom and lat wall is a bedroom wall.

It looks like the atrium has light from the outside. Where does the light come from? Do you have photos of the second story windows from inside the atrium?

There are 2 large skylights on top

Barbara, is there anyway to post a floor plan so we can see this room in relation to the kitchen and other spots. I think what I am hearing from the other OP’s is that a room full of light is a godsend and perhaps with some tweaks you can finally get that room to be functional AND have your dream pantry. This is a great forum to pick a lot of great designers brains. I had a similar issue and a designer convinced me to use my old pantry as the new entrance from the garage and then to use the old laundry as my new pantry. Now that the project is finished I love it. I’m wondering if you couldn’t take down the walls around this atrium, get a proper floor in there and use that as your breakfast room and then use the breakfast area as your beautiful pantry. Joanna Gaines had a similar issue and if I knew the episode you could watch what she did. It turned out beautiful.

Nidnay

Have you finished your Butler's Pantry. Would love to see final pictures

@Barbara....you would think it would have been finished already :) It’s been a long and painful building process. The floor has been put in (no stain yet) and a lighting fixture installed, but not much more than that. Here’s a link to my New Build in Process album. There are photos in there of my pantry as well as the rest of the house. I update the pics as progress takes place (which doesn’t seem to be happening all too often these days).

Your home is going to be beautiful!!!!! Where are you located? Have you thought appliances yet? Are the cabinets int he kitchen and pantry a shaker design?

Thanks Barbara.

Most of the cabinets in the house are shaker except for a few bathroom vanities which are raised panel. I chose to do inset cabs in the kitchen as well as some other areas in the house, but didn’t want the added expense of inset in the scullery, so they are overlay. I had the cabinet guy put flat wood “shelves” on top of the cabinet crown in the scullery so I can easily slide things on and off. Normally there’d be a deep recess on top of the cabinets and I wanted to avoid that.

My biggest issue with the scullery is to firmly keep to my decision to go for super functionality. I love to make things pretty, but I have lots of small appliances that I use all the time (vitamix, rice cooker, pressure cooker, food processor, etc. etc. etc.). I don’t like digging for things and want to keep everything out and ready to use, but unfortunately, they are not all that attractive. The area is also a pantry, so there will be lots of boxes and cans and pantry goods. I chose to have a maple (oiled only) counter....and I will see if I have the guts to slice and chop on it. Sink is an undermount 24” stainless with some nice inserts (strainer, cutting board, drain grate) and faucet and soap dispenser are the automatic sensor kind. I already have a fridge for that area (Samsung french door with seltzer dispenser) and there’ll be a Fisher Paykel single dishwasher drawer. I have a nice Breville microwave that will go on the shelf you see in the pics. I also wanted to make sure I had a door to the garden so I can access fresh herbs and veggies.

All the upper cabs have under-counter lighting and I have recessed cans in the room as well. Need lots of light in there.

Yes, all the appliances have been chosen.

Kitchen:

• 48” Duel fuel Wolf Range

• Sub Zero 30” all fridge (panel ready)

• Sub Zero 24” all freezer (panel ready)

• GE Monogram French Door oven (super excited about this one)

• Bosh Dishwasher (panel ready)

• Fisher Paykal Single dishwasher drawer (panel ready)

• Sharp Microwave drawer

And some day, this house will finally be finished and we will get to enjoy it!

I love the suggestion someone gave you for cable lighting....that would look awesome in your space.