Open up your cupboards - You don’t need to keep your mirrors on show. They can provide a little intrigue when set inside a cupboard – a kitchen version of Narnia’s wardrobe, if you will. What seems like an innocuous cabinet door when shut becomes a mini coffee workstation when open, displaying a calming view of the garden from its mirror-clad back panel.
Sliding glass. This minimalist, deconstructed approach to glass doors is a prime example of how to nail visual intrigue and functionality all at once. This is an example of a contemporary u-shaped kitchen in St Louis with stainless steel appliances, a farmhouse sink, flat-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, marble benchtops, light hardwood floors and an island. — Houzz Cool shelves, marble walls, horizontal grain on cupboards. — cherieodea
Bulkhead storage Storage, storage, storage! We all crave extra storage in every part of our home, but mostly the kitchen. If you have high ceilings, consider building an extra row of cabinets above your kitchen instead of an empty bulkhead. Sure, they will be high and not easy to access on a daily basis, however, they will add valuable storage space to your kitchen. Use them to store items that you don’t use very regularly, such as items that you only use once a year like at Christmas time. Keeping these lesser used items up high will free up more space in your lower cabinets for items that you use every day. Keep a small step ladder somewhere close by so that you can reach the cabinets when you need to. You can even use these cabinets to store other non-kitchen items that you don’t have space for in other areas of your home but don’t want to throw out.
Eat your way to happiness When the days are warm, eating light comes more naturally. But once the temperatures drop and the clothing layers are piled on, resisting kilo-inducing comfort food can seem futile. The trick is to make it as easy as possible to stay on track with your healthy eating – and that means setting up your kitchen for success. Stay stocked up on virtuous ingredients and give them the organisation they deserve. No excuses.
Slide-out shelf If you decide to store your small appliances plugged in and inside a cabinet on the benchtop, it’s best to pull them out of the cabinet when you switch them on. This is particularly important for coffee machines, kettles and toasters. It avoids a build up of heat and steam inside the cabinet, which can cause damage to both your appliances and cabinet surfaces and joinery. Pulling appliances out of the cabinet is made easier with the addition of a slide-out shelf the appliances can sit on inside the cabinet. They slide both ways, so just push them back in when you’re finished.
Slide-out shelf If you decide to store your small appliances plugged in and inside a cabinet on the benchtop, it’s best to pull them out of the cabinet when you switch them on. This is particularly important for coffee machines, kettles and toasters. It avoids a build up of heat and steam inside the cabinet, which can cause damage to both your appliances and cabinet surfaces and joinery. Pulling appliances out of the cabinet is made easier with the addition of a slide-out shelf the appliances can sit on inside the cabinet. They slide both ways, so just push them back in when you’re finished.
Appliance centre If you have enough space in your kitchen, it may be possible to create a separate, designated appliance centre (with numerous power points) where all your small gadgets can be lined up along one wall of a benchtop, yet remain hidden behind the closed doors of a cabinet. The appliance centre can be hidden behind a roller door or, if it’s a fairly wide space, then behind bi-folding doors as pictured here. This is understandably more costly than a conventional shelf, but it’s extremely neat and convenient. Just open the doors and use the appliances where they stand – a far better option, I think you’ll agree, than allowing your kitchen whizzes to gather dust at the back of a cabinet. TIP: If you regularly bake or make juices and smoothies quite often, keep your mixers and blenders plugged in and ready to use at any time.
LiB contents Save Email 6. Petite Pantry in Japan Location: Tokyo, Japan Who lives here: A couple and their two daughters Designer: LiB contents This flat was originally equipped with a built-in kitchen, which is typical in a Japanese ready-built house. However, it was too small for the family, so the owners asked a kitchen designer to widen the space. The cupboard and appliances unit took up more than half the space, so there was only a 15-centimetre strip left between the fridge and cupboard. To make optimal use of this tiny gap, it was turned into pantry drawers. The designer struggled to find the best material for the drawers, as they needed to be breathable for food storage, but there wasn’t a ready-made product available in this non-standard size. She finally found a sheet of mesh metal at a DIY store and sent it to the factory just in time.
Let's Talk Kitchens & Interiors Save Email Bright lights Depending on the floor plan of your home, chances are your butler’s pantry won’t have a window in it, so artificial lighting is really important. As well as ceiling lighting (downlights work best; a pendant dropping down from the ceiling can make the space feel small), incorporate some lighting under your overhead shelving to illuminate the bench area. Use either downlights, as pictured here, or a row of LED ribbon lighting for a more consistent casting of light. Another great addition to your butler’s pantry is having your lighting connected to a motion sensor so that the ceiling lights come on automatically when you enter the room – a useful feature when you are laden down with shopping bags.
ill Save Email Also consider running the shelves all the way to the ceiling. You can use the top shelves, which are not as easy to access, for storing items that you only use very occasionally, such as specialty ovenware or table settings only used at Christmas time. Keep a small step ladder or stool in or close to the pantry so you can safely access the higher shelves when you need to.
1. Drinks trolley With the 1970s supposedly back in vogue, now might be the time to unleash your inner Margo Leadbetter (the kaftan-sporting neighbour from 1970s sitcom The Good Life) and invest in a drinks trolley. These wheeled units for beverages and snacks can add vintage personality to living rooms and are a great excuse for an evening martini. No wonder one high street retro model is reportedly selling like hot cakes. See also vintage drinks cabinets for those Mad Men moments.
Alternatively, a scullery can be designed to function primarily as storage area with cleaning and preparation areas as a useful postscript. If you’re a collector of kitchen and dining paraphernalia, whether it’s linen, china, gadgets or appliances, capacious and well-designed storage is a blessing. It allows you to indulge your hobby without being condemned to life with a cluttered kitchen and a third drawer down that just won’t open.
The walk-in scullery is a great place to keep appliances that are in heavy use but not part of your cooking equipment, such as the coffee machine and toaster. It’s simply far less annoying when someone decides to make themselves a cuppa while you’re cooking – they won’t have to get under your feet. It’s also a sensible place to install a kind of organisational hub, somewhere for bags, notes and everyday paperwork to be stored that’s both on hand and out of sight.
stainless steel top
Key Piece Save Email 8. Expand your bench space If space is at a premium in your kitchen, don’t discount the walk-in pantry as a solution. There’s no need to lug heavy appliances out to the main kitchen from this pantry; the benchtop makes it possible to use them on the spot.
5. Convert your pantry shelving to drawers Instead of reaching into the dimly lit far corners of your pantry for that hard-to-find ingredient, pull-out drawers make everything visible.
2. Plan for uniformity Glass jars and canisters not only make it easy to find just what you need, replacing the hodgepodge of packets, boxes and bags just looks far more appealing.
Platt Architecture, PA Save Email 1. Design a space for everything Even the coffee machine has its own home in this beautiful pantry – a dream come true for any homeowner. Work closely with your cabinet maker on the pantry’s design and you’ll be grateful you did forever after.
9. What and where will larger items be stored? It’s a misconception that the walk-in pantry will only hold grocery items. Many appliances and cookware dishes and pans are kept in the pantry instead of a kitchen drawer or cabinet, mostly because it’s easier to access them. To accommodate these bulky items, create some large but uniformed pigeonholes.
8. How can free wall space be used effectively without overcrowding the pantry? Every spare bit of space can be used to solve a storage problem and a pantry wall fee of shelving is no different. Whatever you decide to do with it, keep it simple – and flat. Some ideas include hanging up some hooks for aprons and utensils; or sticking a giant planner or calendar on the wall and filling it in with events and important dates for everyone in the household to see. A chalkboard painted on a section of the wall could also serve this purpose.
. Does the pantry need some special features? It’s really only at the planning stage that you can incorporate special features that will become permanent but useful fixtures in your walk-in pantry. Some of these could include pull-out baskets for root vegetables, narrow pigeonholes for large platters and spice or wine racks.
A common error is to line the pantry with shelves from top to bottom with no break. A small and wider shelf at bench-height will not only fit larger, taller items or appliances, such as mixers, blenders, toasters or even microwaves, but also act as an extra servery when preparing food.
6. How will the shelves be arranged so that common items are easy to see? Obviously put the items you use the most on the shelves that are in front of you when you walk into the pantry. Make sure the shelves are not too deep, and that you can see everything at once by placing smaller items at the front and larger items at the back. Heavy crockery and tableware can be stored on shelves that are wider and lower down.
5. Will the position of the pantry aid or hinder kitchen traffic and, more importantly, cooking? You not only need your pantry well illuminated, you also need to get in and out of your pantry quickly when cooking. If the pantry is positioned in such a way as to hinder the flow of kitchen traffic, you’ll have to walk too far to grab essential ingredients when whipping up a meal. For that reason, it’s important your pantry is near where you are preparing food. Also consider the process of stocking your pantry and where it is in relation to benches and tables in the kitchen. A kitchen benchtop that is just outside a pantry will prove to be convenient for setting down groceries. Its close proximity also makes using it as a sorting station from which to fill pantry shelves extremely handy.
Butler Armsden Architects Save Email A brilliant idea for knowing what is on the upper shelves of your pantry without clambering up a step-ladder is to install glass shelving or wire racks on the upper levels. Immediately you can check what is up high by casting your gaze to the ceiling. Contemporary Kitchen by ArchiBlox ArchiBlox Save Email 4. What budget materials can be used to get a designer look? A walk-in pantry doesn’t need to be fancy (it is, afterall, behind a door and not on view), but nonetheless the shelves and cabinets should be made of a sturdy material with a finish that complements the rest of the kitchen. Solid, polished timber shelves or powder-coated metal racks are attractive options, however a cheaper alternative is engineered wood. Ply is one of the best low-cost engineered woods available. It is extremely strong and looks very contemporary, especially when it is left in its raw state or given a light stain.
Murphy & Co. Design Save Email 3. How can top shelves be accessed? There is no point in planning a pantry with floor-to-ceiling storage if you can’t access the items on the top shelf. If your walk-in pantry is large enough, park a ladder on a sliding rail to access the homewares you rarely need, storing the trays and dishes you regularly use further down. If your pantry is small, store a step ladder in a handy spot for easy access. There are also inexpensive plastic single steps that can be purchased at discount stores, and these can be folded flat and hung up on a hook.
2. Will there be enough light? Another typical mistake made when people are building their pantries is to have either poor lighting in the pantry or none at all. Your pantry will more than likely be built without a window, or if it does have a window, it may only be small. One way to make sure that you have enough light in there is to install quality LED lighting, or if your home is a single floor dwelling, put in a skylight. Also, the light switch should be reachable and in an accessible spot by the pantry door
1. Which way will the door open? A common mistake when planning a pantry is fitting a door that gets in the way. When space is at a premium, the best options are sliding doors or concertina doors. An outward opening door gives more room for pantry shelves and is the next best option – but only if there is plenty of space outside the pantry to swing the door wide. A door that opens inwards can work but be aware it might make an already small space smaller. It can also compromise the space behind the door of your pantry, limiting the amount of stuff you can store there.
DILEMMA 9: Your kitchen looked great when it was first renovated, but now the benches are cluttered with appliances and mess. SOLVED: Real life can tarnish the most stylish of kitchens and this is where it pays to think through how you really live (not how you like to think you live). When some people leave the house in the morning, they leave behind a disaster zone – the blender has been used to make a green smoothie, the chopping board and frying pan that were used to make a vegie-filled omelette are sitting in the sink, and the remnants from school lunch-making are littered all over the bench (yes, I’m speaking from experience). For others, mornings mean stacking the spoon and bowl they used for their cereal in the dishwasher and they’re done. Think about how you use your kitchen and design your kitchen from there. If you only use the toaster once a day, for example, does it really need to take up valuable space on the benchtop or should you plan an appliance cupboard or more spacious pantry for such items to make the kitchen feel less cluttered? Also, can you dedicate a space for the family to fling the remnants of the breakfast rush? Leaving the washing up bowl out for dirty...
Internal drawers Having lots of pantry space is very important for most families – the more space, the better. But usually the bigger the pantry, the more stuff you will put in it. Accessing items on deep pantry shelves can be tricky, and can sometimes mean that you forget about food items you have bought – resulting in lots of throwaway from expired use-by dates. One of the best solutions for creating a more user-friendly pantry is using internal pull-out drawers instead of shelves. By using pull-out drawers, you can easily access items stored at the very back, and it saves you from bending down and trying to reach into an awkward space. Look for drawer runners that have a high weight carrying capacity so you can really load them up without having to worry about them breaking.
5. Powerpoints in the cupboards Gone are the days of storing your toaster and kettle on the kitchen bench. The trend these days is to hide your appliances away in a cupboard. To this end, you need to ensure you plan for electric sockets to be installed inside your cupboards, so your appliances can actually be plugged in. I would suggest installing more than one double socket, as we are using more and more appliances these days. The humble toaster and kettle don’t cut it anymore – we have coffee machines, mix-masters and food processors. So install two double sockets so you can have all your appliances on the go!
Can these doors be used for a bathtub enclosure? I need 2 sliding doors, and I only have support on the top and right side. Left side has a pony wall with glass panel on top.
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