A floor plan would be helpful.

While I think taking out a drywall pantry and installing a cabinet style would work, removing a pantry completely is a BAD idea. It's going to really impact your resale value. Now you could do one lower/upper cabinet with a countertop on one side and a full sized cabinet pantry on the other. But completely removing it to store stuff on a basement shelf or laundry room...most buyers will NOT be happy with that arrangement

I agree Sina, but what about not taking resale into account? We don't plan on going anywhere and bought this house specifically at a low price point so we could do exactly what we want with it. Could it be made functional for me?

Sadly I can't use that entire wall, behind the chalk board is the powder room sink.

We have the "optional sunroom" that is used as our dining room. The "dining room" is a library. We've also just added a 12'x16' porch off the sliding doors along with a grilling deck. The "nook" didn't seem like a great use of space so we're using it as a pathway.

Just so I understand correctly, you want to completely remove the door and casing, remove the pantry’s wire shelves, and add cabinets that will fit into the current space of the pantry. Can you get matching cabinets? Is the pantry deeper than a cabinet or will your new cabinet stick out into the kitchen a bit?

NancyD, this was just a random idea that came to me last night as I was looking at pictures for countertop colors. I don't know that it's a great idea or even feasible.

I believe I can get a matching cabinet, they are still building in our neighborhood and I can reach out to the builder for the manufacturer information. The pantry measures 31.5" wide and a quick search of a big box retailer shows that they have 30" wide base cabinets. The depth of the pantry flush to the drywall if you remove the casing and door is 24", which is standard base cabinet depth. With a counter on top the total depth would bring it out .25" more than the current trim piece. That doesn't bother me so much as I used to have a little table on the chalkboard wall that is 13.5"d and it didn't impede walk way for us.

Those are awesome ideas.

I think you might be right BeverlyFLADeziner. I had originally wanted to put a barn door on that wall but my husband wasn't loving the idea. I though it would be more functional than having the door open into the walkway. He simply doesn't like the whole farm house trend and didn't see how a sliding door like that could take on any other look.

From what I'm understanding, the door isn't the issue, it's the fact that the pantry is too small to be functional. Changing the door won't magically make it bigger.

Suedonim75 - I think I’d just like something that has more character and stands out vs a white door. My idea of the built-in coffee bar might have been stretching the space too far. Maybe all I need is some customized shelving in the pantry space and a different door.

I‘m not sure. I haven’t really researched how I could make the interior space of the pantry work better for me. At our old house I turned a coat closet into a pantry by following some ideas on Pinterest regarding the spacing and depth of the shelves. That closet was a bit wider than this space though.

I am all for designing the house for your needs if you will be there for a while, but I don’t think I would do something that drastic of a change, nor do I think the expense (cabinets, countertop, drywall work) would be worth it. But of course only you can be the judge of that......we all have our preferences, and what might not be worth it to one person IS worth it to another.

I do think you might use the pantry more if it is better organized and/or suits your needs better. I would consider installing a flexible closet system, which could accommodate drawers, wire shelves and solid shelves (which you can use as a countertop for coffee and such). You can design it however you want, but it can remain very flexible for both your future needs and a future owner.

something lime this:

Another thought would be turning the pantry closet into a drop zone/command center. You may not need something like that, but that is what I would do with the space. I would still do a flexible closet system like the one pictured above (so it could easily be converted back to a pantry and/or repurposed as our needs changed). But I‘d use the drawers and shelves to organize all of our “stuff” - mail, bills, all the paperwork from school, family calendars, phone charging station, ipads, etc. All of that tends to pile up on our kitchen countertop, and I would rather tuck it all away and keep things relatively organized in an easily accessible/central closet area near the kitchen (which is where these kind of things naturally seem to pile up!).

Its your house... Unless you said you were selling in a couple of years, do what you want...Here's a couple of cute ideas

It would just be small because the opening is not so big.

Good luck!

Personally, I'd think twice about putting a coffee/tea station so far away from the sink. (Unless adding a sink there is part of your plan)

OMG, I dealt with this issue. A pantry where the shelves were so shallow that stuff fell off. I took the dysfunctional pantry and made it the entry from the garage. The pantry is now in the old entry/laundry. Change your house so it functions. Nothing worse than living in dysfunctional style.

Brother's house had a similar reach in pantry with a door. (I think it was deeper than this one, though - but maybe not)

He removed the door and the casing and then bought cabinets to recess INTO the space and it because a pull out pantry, cohesive with the rest of the kitchen. The door was interfering with the new coffee station, and broke up the space.

Not sure that would work here, as it won't match the existing cabinets - but there is something glaring about the white door against the chalkboard wall.

CLC - Thank you for the ideas. I will look into the closet systems to see how I could better use the space. I saw wooden roll out shelves on Amazon and while I like the look and function of them, I might be better off having something more flexible. Do you know the brand of the shelving unit in the photo you posted?

I also think for many families the drop zone/command center would be a huge bonus to the space. I really liked that the larger floor-plan offered by the builder had a desk area in the kitchen. I set up an area that works for us, so far. In the hallway by the laundry room I have our calendar and cork boards and in the laundry room I’ve added a counter where I have a file box for paperwork, mail, and bills. We homeschool so I don’t have all the extra stuff that comes with children going to school, I do have everything though that teaching children of various ages requires! My storage needs tend to be a little different than most ;)

I still need to paint and decorate the room but this is what I’ve done so far. There is also a small closet in this room. I’d also like to add cabinets up to the ceiling and then have a shelf below them for the laundry items and paper towels.

Debbi Washburn - those photos are exactly what I was thinking/looking for. I couldn't for the life of me find one that showed a cabinet built-in between two supports. I wonder how wide the space is in that first photo?

Anita - I counted my steps today and it's four steps from the sink to my fridge and current coffee/tea corner. It's four steps from the fridge and current coffee/tea corner to the pantry. And it's four steps from the pantry to the kitchen sink. So no added steps.

That's some creative thinking bellburgmaggie! I would love it if I could really think out of the box and change my spaces to function better. I don't have too much space inside or out to be able to really move things around though. I've thought about moving the laundry up to the master bedroom closet so I could use that space for a powder room but with 3 boys that love to play in the woods I think first floor laundry is a necessity right now.

just_janni - that is exactly what I'm talking about doing. Do you have a photo of your brothers space? And yes, the white is glaring on that wall. No matter what I'll be changing that door. Which will be another design dilemma; do I do a pop of color or stained wood?

VaLady- the photo I posted is an Elfa closet system (container store). They have wood frame and wood front drawers, too. Very flexible system.....I am kind of addicted to elfa now, haha. We are assembling our 4th elfa closet this weekend.

On a side note, we will be homeschooling next year, and I am very much looking forward to less paperwork from school. ;-) I need to find a good organziational system for all of our books and workbooks, though.....I don’t want everything taking over the kitchen island and/or dining room table.

CLC - I‘m going to look into those for sure!

Congrats on starting your homeschool journey! We‘ve homeschooled for 6yrs now. I never planned on it but it has been a wonderful experience.

As far as storage/organization goes, how much stuff you have depends on how you homeschool. We take a literature based approach so we turned our dining room into a library (please ignore the wall colors, our whole house needs new paint). My older son will also work at the desk in there if he needs a quiet space. Otherwise, we work at the large table in our morning room. We can spread out there and it has the best natural lighting in the house. In there I have a cabinet where I store our stationary items and I have the boys daily work in document boxes. The cabinet is tucked in a corner and the only way to see it and it’s contents is if you are sitting in that room facing it. This set-up works the best for us. Each days paperwork is in their box. They can take it wherever they’d like, bedroom, morning room, library, deck, yard, public library, and then everything goes back in there for me to check at the end of the night. I have all of our games and art supplies in the basement.

I have a preschooler too and would like to have those cabinets in the laundry room so I can store his art supplies and activities.

VaLady - That is so helpful; thank you! So do you have a routine to load the daily work in their boxes the night before? I really like the idea of having a central space/office/library to store everything, but with a portable system (box) for daily work. We have an office I could easily turn into a “school room,” which sounds wonderful in theory, but I know the reality is my girls won‘t do all their work in there. I was trying to think of ways to make it more flexible without having books and materials all over the house. Where did you find your document box containers? They look like a great size.

Sorry to sidetrack your thread, LOL :)

If I was to guess I would say that the first photo I posted is a 15" wine ref and an 18" or 21" wide cabinet, plus some fillers...

CLC - Sometimes I load them the night before and sometimes I load them in the morning while they're eating breakfast. We also combine lessons as much as we can so really all they have in their bins are things like their journals, math, logic, spelling, etc. And then I have a woven basket by the fireplace where I keep all of our read alouds. That also allows me to easily pick it up and take it to where ever we are working. I think having a dedicated space can be helpful for some families, especially those that like to spread out and work on projects and leave them out for the next day.

The boxes are from the home office aisle at Target, where the fire safes and files are. Sterlite makes a latching box that is sized for papers as well, it is in the regular organization section.

Thank you!!