What do you want in a pantry?

**forHISglory** · 06-23-2012, 07:21 PM

Hey! I am so excited about our new pantry doors. In a former life, this area was a built in bookcase in the family room. But after some remodeling, it now is a pantry in the dining area. It has wonderful strong sturdy wood shelves, and is 8 foot long, by 7 foot tall, and 1 foot deep. There is enough room for two rows of my cookbooks, appliances like an electric skillet, crockpot, coffee pot, water pitches, corn popper, etc. And food..... lol.... We put 4 bifold door here, and it's very easy to reach everything in the pantry.

We just finished putting on the doors, and I think it looks so classy. Just had to share!

But heres my question: If you have a pantry (or want a pantry) what do you want it to be like? I always wanted a walk in pantry, but never had one. But this pantry works well. I wanted one that would keep food and appliances and every day use items clean and out of the dust, handy to use, and pretty. How about you?

**MyMelody** · 06-23-2012, 07:26 PM

I didn't care if my pantry was walk-in or not, I guess because neither my mom nor grandmother had one, but I did want lots of storage and pull-out drawers where I could store my small appliances. I am also picky about whether the shelf heights and depths make sense for things to be stored there - nothing worse than narrow, but deep shelves, or shallow ones that aren't tall enough to hold things like cereal boxes or oatmeal canisters. I also like for there to be racks mounted on the inside of doors to hold small things that get lost or overturned.

**heartofmine** · 06-23-2012, 07:42 PM

forHisglory that is a very nice pantry and you will be able to store a lot of stuff in there.

I actually have my very first pantry. We built a new home and I designed it with a big walk in pantry just off the kitchen. It is a 10'x11' room. I wanted it big enough for my big deep freezer to go in it plus lots of shelving. We moved into our house April 2nd and I am loving having the pantry and all the storage and convenience. I have a wall where the door comes in and I want to add a peg board with hooks so I can hang up items too for convenience sake. I'm still working things out in there. One thing I wanted is space underneath the bottom shelf all around it for picnic baskets and other baskets to store out of season kitchen items and extra dish towels etc in. I'm working on finding picnic baskets and other pretty baskets at yard sales and thrift stores. I am able to store all food in there on the shelves too. My bil is a cabinet builder so I had him to do my kitchen cabinets and build deep drawers by the stove for pots, pans, baking dishes etc. but anything to large for the drawers can go in the pantry on the top shelf. It has been wonderful having all this room after 29 years this Monday of marriage. Our last home the kitchen was small. Before that we lived in a very small trailer.

**Ceashels** · 06-23-2012, 08:00 PM

That looks beautiful! I like the look of the wood panels and no one would ever think it was a pantry.

In my pantry, I want shelf space, it needs to have deeper shelves on the bottom to hold my roaster and crock pots (I store them in the original boxes). upper shelves can be shallower but nothing less than 12 inches. If I can hang things on the inside of the door I would, either by racks or "shoe pouches" This way I can have things like small kitchen items that I don't use as often (garlic press and corn cob holders, etc.) put away and not lost in the back of a drawer. I would also have a white board on the inside of one of the doors so I can have a running grocery list or inventory... or both.

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If I had the room I would make channels so the cans can be loaded from the top and things would always be rotated. Right now I have an Ikea shelf that allows me to load form the back and pull from the front but it's place in the basement will one day be finished off and my pantry will need to find a new home.

**judembc** · 06-23-2012, 08:55 PM

Your doors are beautiful they do look very nice! Good luck with your pantry. It's so nice having one. We have a walk in one that's huge it was here when we bought the house. We have a galley kitchen tho so the pantry room helps with storage ALOT. We even keep the cat's dishes in there and that's where they eat as the kitchen is long and narrow I'm afraid someone would trip over the dishes - LOL! Our pantry has wrap around shelves built in that are pretty deep. I keen not only food, but pans, punch bowl, grandmother's real silver in a wooden box, tableclothes, etc.

**forHISglory** · 06-23-2012, 09:49 PM

I'm loving hearing about your pantries. Does anyone out there have a butler's pantry?

**Ramona** · 06-24-2012, 12:20 AM

When I was just a squirt, my folks had a butler's pantry in our apartment. I was so impressed! It looked like this and led from the dining room into the kitchen:

**bookwormpeg** · 06-24-2012, 12:56 AM

Wow....that is beautiful....and I would kill for that butler's pantry! I have a very small pantry...when you open the door, it is right against the wall...I have those rolling cans things but cuz the pantry is small and they don't really fit correctly...suppose to be four cans wide but all I can fit is three cans and tuna cans on the last row....I am hoping to remodel the kitchen but not sure where I can get a pantry into the space....enjoy your new pantry.....

**Contrary Housewife** · 06-24-2012, 11:19 AM

Mine is a built-in cupboard, two feet deep, three feet wide and it holds a lot. The doors open and have shelves on them like a refrigerator, where I keep my spices. The things I would change would be to make the shelves adjustable, and to have them in wire to make cleaning easier. Also, it's pretty dark in the back and on the bottom and wire shelves would let light through.

**WV_mom_of2** · 06-24-2012, 11:24 AM

My pantry right now consists of a big metal shelf dh got free from work that is in our spare bedroom LOL. At some point I'd love to have more shelves there for things like my canner, big kettles, etc. And a darned shelf for all of my baking/cookie sheets! I have several of them and they are forever falling off the shelf in the pots and pans cabinet! I have thought several times of moving the washer and dryer to another room of the house and turning that corner of the kitchen into a pantry but it would be much simpler to just turn that spare bedroom in a big ole pantry!

**Sara Noel** · 06-24-2012, 12:03 PM

In the years 11 and under, I grew up in an old home with a beautiful butler's pantry. I wish I had one now. It was beautiful. Glass door upper cabinets, drawers, counters, window, etc. It was quite big, too.
I absolutely love what you did to your built-in bookcase. It's awesome!

**shoiji** · 06-24-2012, 12:58 PM

The doors look great! What a great way to use the space.

My pantry is in two closets. One is a small walk-in closet. Really like the idea you have since all the shelves are easy to access. Being short with t-rex arms it just gets cumbersome to have to reach up high and over something to get what you want while standing on a stool. The most important thing for me is to be able to close the door sometimes I wonder if I should get a lock for that door handle.

**forHISglory** · 06-24-2012, 02:21 PM

The butler's pantry is to drool over! I have always admired them. In our former home, we had a pantry cabinet, about 3 foot wide, and as deep as regular cabinets, and about 7 foot tall. It had two doors that opened out, with adjustable shallow shelves on each door interior. Then there were swing out shelves on piano style hinges, and then behind those were even more shelves going across the back. The top of the cabinet were deeper and larger shelves to hold large boxes of cereal, etc. I loved that cabinet and hated to leave it behind. But it was what sold the kitchen to the buyers.

**oheoh's momma** · 06-24-2012, 02:26 PM

that is a beautiful functional pnatry 4 his glory..the butlers pantry is beautiful...my pantry is in the laundry room and there are plenty of cabinets it is unfunctional....no space for extra cookers, cutting boards, roasters or crockpots.

it is 1 cabinet with 3 double sets on the bottom..2 sets of of cabinets on top 3 double sets..sounds wonderful but I am too short to reach them. a sink with a large cabinet, and a cabinet for cleaning supplies... also 1 large walk in closet for coats and Christmas decorations. sounds great but really not functional at all..it needs help...or I am just too darn short....

**Ramona** · 06-24-2012, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by oheoh's momma

that is a beautiful functional pnatry 4 his glory..the butlers pantry is beautiful...my pantry is in the laundry room and there are plenty of cabinets it is unfunctional....no space for extra cookers, cutting boards, roasters or crockpots.

it is 1 cabinet with 3 double sets on the bottom..2 sets of of cabinets on top 3 double sets..sounds wonderful but I am too short to reach them. a sink with a large cabinet, and a cabinet for cleaning supplies... also 1 large walk in closet for coats and Christmas decorations. sounds great but really not functional at all..it needs help...or I am just too darn short....

I know exactly what you mean, I'm only 4'10" and need a "grabber" like this to reach items on the second shelf.

The name is Handi-Grip and we have the longest one.
I'm forever asking tall people to reach for stuff for me at the grocery store. I'd bring the Handi-Grip to the grocery but I'm afraid I'd leave it on the carriage.