Hafele is another respected name in pull-out pantries. Hafele images.

My trash pull-out is a rev-a-shelf--love it. I have pantry/canned goods storage between studs on a narrow wall in the kitchen. It's hard to lose something when the shelf is only 6" deep. ;)

I know you said no pullouts...but my neighbor has a 36 inch x 60 inch high pantry closet with different spaced pullouts with a 36x30 regular 2 door cabinet above it. It is so organized and amazing. It holds ALL the food for the whole kitchen. She organized the drawers with some for baking, breakfast, savory etc. Tall cereals and less used things go in the cabinet above.

A pull all the way out closet would be heavy and limited to certain sizes.

Fori - Right now I actually have 18" in my plan but was not sure if it would be too wide. It will be against the wall so if I keep that size we also might have to go tho the other side :).

Cleo - I can see your point about it being heavy. I guess my thought was not to open the door and than roll-out the shelves. I will give it some more thought.

Thank you.

12”is the sweet spot to be able to see most everything from one side. Much wider, and you need access from both sides. The hardware itself is limited on height. And it is expensive. While 2 12” flanking a fridge is the most functional design, it’s double the cost. And you will need to account for proper fillers to clear moldings and other obstacles. Wide pantries are best done with roll out trays. That is the most efficient approach for them.

I've looked at some of your suggested lay-outs and if the fridge is on the end of a cabinet run, can you put a full-width shallow pantry along the fridge with doors that open into the dining room? I love that look and find them to be a better storage option than a pull-out. You can put a lot in a 9" shallow pantry that is the depth of a fridge.

I have a 10 1/2" pullout with 8" shelves. They installed a Rev-a-Shelf unit (shown) but it wouldn't close properly so they replaced it with a custom pull-out with Blum glides. The height of the pull-out is ~60". The narrow cabinet above it limits my storage options to cookie sheets, cutting boards, and pizza pans.

I don't put bottles on my pull-out because they slide, so I have one shelf in an upper cabinet for bottles and baking supplies. To the left of the fridge I have a deep drawer for large cereal boxes, bread, and snacks and much prefer a drawer for bags of snacks. The top drawer in that three-drawer stack is a spice drawer.

Mayflower, I did not think of putting the cabinet to open to DR because I was not sure if I will be putting a wall between the kitchen and DR. Technically the wall is not needed, it would be more for look to have the same doorway type between kitchen and DR as everywhere else. But I might consider now NOT putting a wall and just treat Kitchen and DR as one space. That's why this group is so fabulous.

I was thinking of putting a full depth pullout as in your picture either by the fridge by the DR or at the end of the run by the wall next to the LR. I was playing with some dimensions for the pull out and the location. We like things to be symmetrical and it gets a little tricky if I want the cabs on each side of the stove and on each side of the window to be symmetrical. :)

I will play with it some more on my lunch break.

I had 2 different cabinet builders tell me not to do the pullout pantry that you've described. They both told me that their clients that went that route ended up disliking them. I think the weight was part of the reason and maybe the access issue that Fori described. I ended up with 18" pullouts behind a door and am very happy with that decision. I particularly like the fact that because each shelf comes out individually, it is easy to lift anything up and off the shelf rather than maneuver it out the side (if that makes sense).

My favourite solution is the shallow pantry that Mayflowers described. I think you'll get the best (and most) storage space in that set-up since you won't be losing anything on the sides due to railings or glides or rollouts that don't extend all the way to the back of the cabinet.

The nice thing about individual rollout shelves is that your view of whichever shelf you have pulled out is not blocked by the the shelves above it, and you have easy access to reach down and grab whatever you are looking for. ... We have a 36 wide by 72 high pantry with five rollout sheves (and one fixed at top) that holds an amazing amount of food while still making any individual item easy to find. (There’s also a 36x18 regular cabinet above it)

I have a ~30" wide pantry with double doors and rollouts. The rollouts always bang the doors because they don't get open or shut all the way (kids/spouse--I am perfect). My cabinet guy put nice walnut fronts on them so I feel bad seeing them scuffed. If things are put where they should be put, and I know where that is, I can find them without pulling out each rollout. I usually have to pull out at least 2 of the 3.

The narrow pullout is easy to find things in and I can (usually) see everything in it at once. I only need to hunt on the other side when things are loaded incorrectly (kids/spouse--I am perfect). I checked and the actual inside storage is only 12" on mine--less than I thought! The shelves are adjustable. I don't think my rollouts are. And of course my pullout is 30" deep while my rollouts are only 24" deep.

My setup is very much like Mayflowers (I might have copied it!) with a rollout on the cabinet above the pullout (and over the fridge). It's way over my head but great for paper towels.

Fori, we have at least one thing in common - my kids/spouse are not good at closing stuff and putting things away where they belong but I am PERFECT!

Wonder if you can put self-close mechanism on the rollout shelves. I can see the same thing happening in my house. I started to “train” my family. I reorganized the shelves in my current pantry can and labeled the shelves. So far it’s sort of organized. They complained that I organized and they don’t know where anything is but I am able to tell them without even looking inside.

After Mayflower’s post I was leaning toward rollout shelves. Than I thought pullouts. Than after you said your pullout is only 12” In storage space I am leaning again towards rollouts.

I think I will put either at least 18” by 24” deep against the wall with doors or if I don’t put the wall by the side of the fridge maybe shallow double door on side of fridge. I assume that is also a cheaper solution?

Our Rev-a-Shelf 8" wide pull-out was $1000 six years ago. I have no issue pulling it out even when it's full.

Can you post which layout you're thinking of using so we can see what the symmetry issues are and how a fridge cabinet would work out instead of a wall?

Mayflower, I am going later to a kitchen designer so I should have more definite option(s) to post later today or this weekend.

The thing is, even if your rollouts are self close (should be doable--they are just drawer slides), that doesn't mean the door(s) to the cabinet will be completely open when the rollouts are deployed. :P

Anyway, I have both systems. I find neither is bad. What you SHOULD be doing to decide is deciding what space you have for pantry--whether it's based on needing a filler or making symmetry or whatever-- and picking whichever type is best for that shaped spot. Rollouts would be stupid annoying in a tall skinny spot, but a pullout for a 30" wide would make anyone bonkers.

My vote is no, no, no. I had a 36”W x 72H x 30” D pull out pantry with two doors. It was hell getting anything from the back and storage sucked in what it can store. I couldn’t wait to trash it the day my kitchen was demolished.

I converted to a much smaller pantry with 30”x 72x24 and I still haven’t filled it yet despite having more stuff in there than my old pantry and two other cabinets combined.

I used drawers.