What are the measurements?

My pantry is 5' x 7'3" and fits a lot of stuff. The opening is a 36" door.

I used the ELFA system from The Container Store for the shelves and drawers, as I like that it is easily adjustable, if you want to change things around.

Mine is not angled and having angled/clipped walls is a bit of an outdated look in kitchens.

For a closet, you can do a built-in closet using cabinets, in half of the bench space.

Three thoughts:

- Instead of a second pantry, I'd look into creating a SECOND pantry in the laundry /mudroom. Use the kitchen pantry for food storage and the second pantry for large soup pots, etc.

- I'd consider a pass-through between the laundry /mudroom and the pantry, which would allow you to "set bags through" rather than walk them around the corner.

- If this is new build and you can make other changes, get your washer /dryer on an exterior wall. This'll be cheaper to build and more fire-safe, which is pretty important to me. Well, it's really just about the dryer, but the washer tends to pal around with the dryer.

It is a new build and hoping to start soon. I’m unsure of exact measurements but I’m guessing it’s less than 4’x4’. I’m not looking to add a second pantry, just expand the one we have now in the corner. Maybe even shifting some things around and moving the pantry to where the fridge is now and taking some of the mudroom for the pantry?

I really want a larger pantry that I can keep toaster, microwave and other appliances along with food storage.

I don’t love the look of a corner pantry so would love to shift this, if possible!

Thanks for the tip on putting the W/D on exterior wall!

but we’re not able to change any exterior walls.

It is a new build and hoping to start soon.

If you have not started construction, why no changes.

Just looking at this part of the plan, which needs work, I imagine the entire plan could use a review.

The first thing you would need to find out from your builder is whether or not the wall between the kitchen and mudroom is a supporting wall or a shear wall. That will determine whether or not you're able to steal space from the mudroom to enlarge your pantry.

How will you use the pantry? Me, I would rather have the counters wrap in an L with storage above and below, and continuous counterspace. This way, ”walk-in” space is not wasted on just standing room, but part of the kitchen. Stockups like paper towels/ziploks/wraps can go on a high shelf in the mudroom closet. How do you plan to use that closet, by the way?

It is not a supporting wall so we are able to steal space. We aren’t wanting to make changes to the exterior walls, just this area. I love everything else about the plan, just not the pantry :)

Bpath, good point on the standing room.
I would like to keep small appliances in the pantry with plenty of shelves for all food and extra storage. I will have a hall closet for storage for paper, products, cleaning supplies, etc. Right now I just have a pantry that I cannot walk in with shelves and I would like more space. I don’t like a lot on my countertops so would like to use the pantry for hiding things. I’d like to keep the microwave and toaster in there.

Taking "some" space from the closet will render it unusable. Better to extend the pantry all the way to the closet doors and eliminate the closet altogether. If you still need closed storage in the mudroom, steal some space from the bench area.

RappArchitecture - this is our current home’s mudroom and this closer is plenty big for how we use it. Our new home’s mudroom closet could be this size. Is there a way we could make this work!

It sounds like it is feasible to appropriate the mudroom closet to make your pantry larger. But you will still only have L-shaped pantry shelves/cabinets/counters as the pantry is not wide enough to wrap them around 3 walls with an aisle.

So consider whether or not the renovation cost is worth adding 2-3’ to the depth of your pantry.

What about removing the corner pantry, shifting the appliances around and putting the pantry door where the fridge is currently? Then the pantry could go back into the mudroom and be a L shaped walk in? Would that give more room vs the corner pantry?

Square it off and break into the mud room closet. Instead of a regular door, consider a door that looks like your cabinetry.

Take the closet space from the Mud Room for more Pantry.

Make the island smaller and extend a narrow pantry behind the cabinets.

What ever you do, don't use drywall with a door for the pantry. Use cabinet doors to face the entrance to the pantry.

Also, instead of an outswing door, the pantry door could swing into the pantry as it does here.

Food for thought

Consider:

Eliminating the bench and cubbies, they're over rated and a pantry is a better use of space.

Reduce the size of the mud room closet to give more space to the laundry tub.

Eliminate the corner pantry, they disrupt the flow of a kitchen and things that need immediate access can be stored in the cabinets that replace it and the laundry room is close enough for the other items.

Provide a coat closet at the main entry, that way guest coats do not have be stored in the dishwasher.

Beverly, I love the idea of putting the pantry between the kitchen and mudroom wall! I didn’t even think of that. I think if we take a bit from the kitchen and the mudroom, we can make this work.

Mark, We have young children so we really like the cubby/ bench in the mudroom. But love the idea of making the closet smaller in the for a bigger laundry tub area.

Regarding the entry coat closet, we do not currently have one and just use a coat rack on the wall for guests that come over. But your drawing does have me thinking that it might be nice to close off the entry and kitchen opening.

Is there a way to close off the entry and kitchen and still keep an island for four stools?

Agree with Beverly of putting the pantry behind the cabinetry and shrinking the island.

Young children is only a short phase of raising responsible adults. Consider a temporary bench and cubbies in the space of one of the pantry closets.

Flip the layout sketches foyer as shown. This provides a closet for adults and space for a hall tree for those that remain young children.

Variation on foods for thought:

The opening between the kitchen and the foyer gives opportunity for future saloon doors that will soon come back into fashion; be a trend setter.

A pantry behind the cooking wall could work but would have to be at minimum 36” wide with 12” or smaller shelves. And smaller works for a lot of things, cans and small boxes don’t disappear behind each other. I had a very narrow closet with four deep shelvees, and I replaced them with mostly 8” shelves, a couple deeper shelves at the bottom, and a full-height basket rack on a side wall. It held everything!

However, I would move Beverly’s pantry door to the other end, and move the range and refrigerator down, so that there is no interruption in the sink-prep-cook-cleanup flow.

Good call on moving the pantry door to where the fridge is now. I could maybe put the stove on the sink wall and push the fridge down a bit.

The foyer opens into your kitchen. Why not use that wall for a pantry.

I'm sure there would be another space to hang coats.

All of you are going to get me in trouble ;) Here’s the rest of the main living space. Is there a way to rework the entry and kitchen? As recommended above, I am going to take space from the kitchen and the mudroom to have the pantry in between the two. I will make the island shorter as we only need four stools.

I see you have a vaulted ceiling that spans the entire space.

Have you seen 3D views of this?

We often have people here after drywall is up saying they did not realize what things would look like. Consider the two areas circled, especially if you have an exposed beam.

The arrow points to what I'm guessing is a bathroom. Might be better if was more private.

I agree with bpath that I much prefer counters to the corner to a corner pantry. Mark’s options give you much needed landing space next to your cooktop and better separation between the entry and the kitchen. I like PPF’s idea to put the kitchen on the back wall (closer to the patio for grilling and the backyard for watching the kids), if you can work out the other design details of that like where to put the sliders and how to get rid of the corner pantry.

That really makes good use of the space. plus you can do a large pantry next to the laundry and do a larger window with sink under the window with the fridge and stove on the wall to the right

The risk when more of the layout is posted is that people like me will comment thusly:

The primary bedroom is not a sanctuary, but in the working area of the house. The vibe, the aura, will not be restrul. You walk out of your bedroom to see the laundry room, the jackets and backpacks, and everything that settles overnight in that room till the kids get off to school. You could put a door across, probably a pocket door, because it will rarely get closed anyway.

Back to the pantry and a front closet. Does that office need a closet? Move it to the foyer. Or, will the office be a bedroom? It would make a nice ”away room”.

And, placement of kitchen: I loved all my front-facing kitchens. Seeing if the kids made the bus or has it already gone by, who’s coming up the driveway, did the mail come.

Front facing kitchen is fine ... but main foyer that walks right into that kitchen not so much.

Have you figured out where the TV is going? Hopefully you did that math when the plans were being drawn.

Vaulted ceilings look best when the plan of the space is an uninterrupted rectangle. Your original plan is interupted by the office, which will most likely be considered a bedroom. I my layout I ignored the ceiling.

If there are beams on the vaulted ceiling it looks best when there is a straight continuum in the load path from the highest point all the way down to the foundation.

Yes, we have planned vaulted ceilings in this main area, knowing it’s not ideal but we’ll make it work. We don’t think we’ll do beams even though I love the look of them. With the shape of our space, I just don’t think beams would look right.

We will definitely have a door on the mudroom door. I don’t want to see the mess every day :)

The office will be my home office and I’ll need the closet in there for storage so I can’t replace for an entry closet. But I wonder if I could make the office closet smaller and add an entry closet to that wall?

Do you really want to combine maintaining your family’s clothes and sheets and towels alonside the detritus of daily comings and goings, jackets and shoes, backpacks and groceries?

"But I wonder if I could make the office closet smaller and add an entry closet to that wall?"

Normally it is best for the person that designed the house to find solutions for this and pantry issues. Who designed this house? Architect? House Designer? Draftsman? Builder? Relative? Student? Brother's girlfriend's coworker's hairstylist?

Personally (and maybe professionally too) with the originally posted floor plan I would have the vaulted ceiling only over the living room and dining, and a flat ceiling over the kitchen and foyer.

Ah, Mark, ”compress and release”, right?

Kind of yes. But it would create a rectangular space for the vaulted ceiling to cover and a bit more intimate space for the main entry into the house and the kitchen.

Funny you should mention that. I first experienced that in Frank Lloyd Wright's Howard E Anthony Residence. The entry ceiling was only about seven feet high (eight inches above my head) but the adjacent living room ceiling vaulted (an adjective) up to about 15 feet.

Not to be confused with "catch and release" on the AuSable River about six blocks from me.

Thanks for clarifying adjective, not verb. Now explain the laboratory, with fireplace. I suppose he means study, since the kitchen is maybe "workspace"?

I can understand wanting a large pantry. But it seems like you are trying to squeeze too much into your living space. The primary bedroom’s WIC is only 5’4” wide so you can’t utilize all 4 interior walls for storage. Trying to put a pantry behind the refrigerator/stove wall that is only 3-4’ wide is too tight. 7’ wide would be better so you can utilize both sides (cabinets/counter/shelves) with a 3’ aisle. But you don’t have the space for a 7’ wide pantry unless you reduce the mudroom size or increase the length of the house or eliminate the office so you can move the entry and kitchen over to the left.

I think it is now used as a bedroom and if my memory serves me right, Howard E Anthony bought the Heath company, makers of Heathkit, and the laboratory was his workshop where he worked in electronics.

Tne LOCATION of the kitchen, what bpath said....and all below

Even with kitchen /dining locale.See below?!

Show it all, You can do a LOT better. Note dimensions legibly/ all interior framing.

But it seems at this point we are just playing Tetris, because OP said outer walls can not be moved.

Some overlooked things that makes for oddities and detail conundrums:

• The (existing) proposed plan has a cathedral ceiling extending over the Kitchen. Do you see the dashed line in front of the stove and crossing through the corner Pantry? That is the line of the cathedral side wall, so right now it is detailed with a little angled platform/shelf above the corner Pantry. The height of exterior wall will make or break that platform. If instead you extend the walls of the Pantry up to ceiling, people often sour on first seeing all the angled walls with nothing that aligns, that were unexpected because they couldn't visualize it in 3-D.
• You last stated you decided to add a long sliver of a Pantry behind the stove wall (a la Bev's scheme). You have about 2'-2" wide to make that Pantry flush with the side wall of the cathedral. Otherwise, by making it wider you are going to either have a platform/shelf along the entire wall of the Kitchen, or, step the high wall out which would not be a simple cathedral. Along with the Office walls and offset Master Hallway opening, there are a lot of different heights and angles with nothing lining up.
• No one has asked about the stair in the Mudroom/Laundry. I assume it is going to a bonus space above the Garage. If it is an important and well-circulated stair, it is strange to tuck it in back behind the Mudroom and open Laundry.