Pantry Perfection" The Rules of Good Pantry Design
Every kitchen needs a pantry. Whatever the size of your kitchen, it should include a convenient place to store groceries, and this critical storage requires careful thought and planning. It should be large enough to hold at least a week's worth or groceries, and close enough to the food preparation area to be easily accessed. While size does matter, simplicity, organization and the right location are Bottled Food usually more important than size alone. A well-designed small pantry will usually provide better, more accessible, storage than a poorly designed large pantry.

Convenience, Accessibility, Visibility
Convenience, accessibility and visibility are the key attributes of a great pantry. A pantry is convenient if it is located at or near the area where food is prepared. It does not necessarily have to be in the kitchen, but it should be in an adjacent area. A pantry with good visibility and accessibility is one in which everything in the pantry is immediately visible and easily reached without moving anything else our of the way.

Photo: Mullet Cabinet
Batwing style reach-in kitchen pantry. The classic "bat-wing" reach-in cabinet provides convenient and flexible storage in a relative small space. Large items are stored inside the cabinet, cans, bottles and smaller items in the doors. Mullet Cabinet of Millersburg, Ohio designed and built this sterling example. Creating a great pantry requires closely adhering to the three Iron Rules of Storage. If the rules are followed, any storage is almost always convenient and easy to use.

Here are the rules:

The Iron Rules
of Storage 		(1) Items should be stored where they are first used.
(2) Size storage to the things being stored.
(3) Store items in a single layer with no item hidden behind or beneath another.

The rules apply to any storage, but particularly to kitchen storage, and even more particularly to pantries. Pantry storage should be arranged so that all of the items in the pantry are visible and easy to reach without having to move anything out of the way. Obviously, this is an ideal that few pantries actually reach, but the closer the pantry design is to the idea, the more useful and convenient the pantry will be.

The Basic Pantries
Pantries come in three basic configurations: reach-in, pull-out, and walk-in. All have advantages and drawbacks. The reach-in pantry is the usually the most convenient, the pull-out pantry the least convenient, but a boon to small kitchens with no wall space to spare. The walk-in pantry holds the most, but since it is often removed from centers of kitchen activity, it is best used as a remote, second pantry.

Photo: Shelves that Slide
Rolling shelf style reach-in kitchen pantry. Rolling-shelves in a reach-in pantry can provide accessibility, but at the cost of some convenience. Rolling shelves are not useful above eye-level. A kitchen can have two, even three pantries. We often design kitchens for large families or make-everything-from-scratch cooks to include a near pantry that holds small quantities of supplies most often used, and one of more remote pantries that hold bulk supplies and large quantities. The near pantry is re supplied from the remote pantry periodically as consumables are used up.

Reach-in Pantries
Pantry for a Small Kitchen
A plan for a small galley kitchen. Both the pantry and refrigerator are located close to the main food preparation Galley Kitchen Plan area, with adequate landing zones next to each.

Located on the edge of the kitchen, both pantry and refrigerator are easily available to snack seekers without having to cross the main food preparation or cleanup areas.

This kitchen features 14" deep upper cabinets for 17% more storage. For more infor­mation on the use of deep cabinets in kitchen design, see Off the Wall Kitchens: Living Without Upper Cabinets.

Click to Enlarge Plan
The ideal reach-in pantry is shallow. Deep pantries hold more, but all the stuff is the back is in the dark, out of sight and not easy to reach. The maximum practical depth of a pantry shelf is 16" (14" is better). If you happen to have more depth, the temptation is great to make the shelves deeper than 16" on the theory that while you may not use the back few inches for primary storage, it does not hurt to have it for stuff you don't use as often. Right?. No, abaolutely wrong! Inevitably stuff you use often gets pushed to the back as you add other stuff that gets used often, and you end up with stuff you cannot find or get to without moving around the stuff in front. This violates one of the Iron Rules of Storage, and the iron rules are not to be violated.

Anything deeper than 16" requires a roll-out tray or a pull-out pantry. For cans and bottles, even 16" is too deep. Eight inches is the more useful maximum. The ideal overall depth depth of a reach-in pantry with shelves is 24". This allows 16" storage shelves inside the pantry, and 8" of can and bottle storage in the door of the pantry. All shelves should be adjustable.

The advantages of this "bat-wing" (see illustration) style of pantry, besides being the ultimate in storage convenience, is that it is relatively inexpensive to build. With the doors fully open everything in the pantry is displayed and easily reached. It does not require extensive pull-out hardware, which, because it must be able to hold a lot of weight, must be heavy-dury and can be costly. But, it does require heavy-duty hinges to hold the weight of the door without sagging. On a full height pantry we typically use four heavy hinges on each door. These will easily hold the weight of the door and the 100 lbs. of cans and bottles stored in the door.

If the pantry shelves are deeper than 16", then it is better to convert them to trays mounted on glides so they can be pulled out. Roll-out trays have the advantage of making everything in the pantry accessible, even the stuff at the vary back of the tray. But, above eye-level, it is difficult to see what's on the tray. For this reason, roll-out trays are usually used for the bottom 2/3rds of the pantry, then lazy susans above eye-level. A lazy susan turntable brings anything at the back of the pantry to the front where it can be seen at the flick of the wrist. The trade off is, however, that a round turntable stores only about 2/3rds the amount of a rectangular shelf. A 2/3rd height pull-out pantry A pull-out pantry is a reach-in pantry turned on end and inserted into a cabinet. A door panel is attached to the front. The pantry operates like a very large drawer. If it is accessible and viewable from both sides, it can be as much as 24" wide. If accessible from just one side, the 16" depth limit applies.

Roll-out trays require full-extension, heavy duty glides, and these are fairly expensive. You always have to open both pantry doors to to get the clearance required to roll the trays out. And, typically the trays are not adjustable, although there is hardware available that provides limited height adjustment.

Pull-out Pantry Units
A pullout pantry is a reach-in pantry turned on end and inserted into a cabinet. A door panel is attached to the front. The pantry operates like a very large drawer. IF it is accessible and viewable from both sides, it can be as much as 24" wide. If accessible from just one side, the 16" depth limit applies.

A pull-out pantry is not as convenient to use as a bat-wing-style, reach-in pantry. In order to get to the items stored, you must first extend the pantry, then push it back into place when you are done. It is generally more expensive to build per square foot of storage because it requires elaborate, heavy duty hardware. But in small kitchens where space is at a premium, it may be the only pantry solution that provides anything like enough storage space.

Like roll-out trays, a pull-out unit is not practical for anything above eye level. The individual shelves inside the pull-out can be made adjustable, which greatly increases the flexibility of the pantry. It is important to use gliding hardware that prevents the pantry from being slammed. This may dislodge items in the pantry which can jam the mechanism.

Walk-in & Walk-Through Pantries
Walk-In Pantry: A walk-in pantry is usually a small room, essentially a closet for storing food, separate from but adjacent to the kitchen, called a "larder" in the old days. For many homeowners a walk-in is the dream pantry that calls up visions of canning garden vegetables and making preserves. But a it is not as useful as you might think. A walk-in is great for storing large quantities of foodstuffs, especially items in bulk packaging, Walk-in Pantry. Faced with a need for wide open access to a walk-in pantry closet without hinged doors getting in the way, designer Marie Newton of Closets Redefined used pocket doors that, when open, tuck neatly into the wall. Planned carefully, a walk-in pantry can be the ideal place to stash the coffee-maker out of the way, and off the kitchen countertop. but because it is usually remotely located, it can be inconvenient to use for daily food storage. For that reason many kitchens with walk-in pantries also include a smaller, more convenient pantry inside the kitchen that is re stocked periodically from the larder.

What is a Butler's Pantry?
Photo: Architectural Heritage Center Victorian Butler's Pantry Since the late 1940's the meaning of the word "pantry" has changed. Today it means a place where food is stored, and usually refers to one or more cabinets or a closet adjacnent to the kitchen.

In the late Victorian age the room where food was stored was the "larder". The pantry was a serving area located between the kitchen and dining room. Often it was not much more than a wide hallway equipped with ample countertop space and, commonly, a sink. Typically the butler would fetch the cooked food from the kitchen, dividing it into serving portions, arrange it on dishware invitingly, then serve it. The pantry usually had swinging doors at both ends which helped keep kitchen noise, heat and odors away from the diners.

With the simplification of house design that occurred during the Arts & Crafts period of the early 20th century, the butler's pantry was largely eliminated and replaced with built-in cabinetry inside the dining room for storing dinnerware, linens, glassware and silverware — all the things formerly stored in the pantry. Improvements in cooking technology, such as the natural gas or electric cookstove made isolation of the kitchen from the dining area much less important to dining comfort.

Today the tendency is to call any walk-through pantry a "butler's" pantry, but this term is not strictly correct unless it includes a counter-height set-up and serving area, and possibly a small sink. In a modern household, the serving area makes a convenient landing zone for loading groceries into the pantries — at least until you finally get around to hiring a butler. Walk-Through Pantry: The primary purpose of a walk-in pantry is storage. The principle purpose of a walk-through pantry, on the other hand, is getting from one place to another. It is first a hall-way or passage, and only secondarily a storage place. Typical is a pantry/mudroom that you pass through on your way from the kitchen to the garage or back door. Often in old houses, it is a converted porch. Groceries can be unloaded just as soon as you wipe your feet, which is very convenient. But it is important that the main function of a mudroom not be compromised. It needs space for stowing coats, boots and other outer wear, including a bench for putting on and taking off shoes, as well as a minimum of 42" of walking aisle — 48" is better. Any storage that incroaches on this space should be moved somewhere else.

Aisle Space: A lot of valuable space in a walk-in or walk-through pantry is used for a walking rather than storage. The temptation is great to minimize aisle space to maximize storage space. This is usually a mistake. The minimum walkway or aisle width should be 36". You'll see why the first time you truck in a bunch of groceries to unload. Narrow aisles make it a knee and elbow knocking affair. In a walk-through pantry, 42" is the minimum, and 48" is better. A 48" aisle allows two people to pass each other without someone turning sideways.

Dual Pantries Solve Complex Storage Problem
Complex Kitchen Pantry Overview
Click to View the Entire Plan

Complex Pantry Plan

This kitchen was once much larger, but a previous owner had taken some space to create a first floor powder room.

To get enough pantry, a too-small breakfast nook was converted to pantry storage and coffee-bar. A second walk-past pantry was created by building-in a tall cabinet alongside the stairs leading to the basement. Space for this pantry was gotten by sealing 16" from the back of the powder room and relocating the toilet.

This design violates one of the cardinal rules of pantry perfection: The pantry and refrigerator should be near each other. We wanted to put the refrigerator in the new pantry, but the owner preferred to keep the existing large windows. His instructions were gently but firmly put as something like: "Leave the damn windows alone!" But, the solution works; did not require major, and expensive, structural surgery; and gives the homeowners enough convenient food storage for two weeks. Not every panty design solution can be abaolutely perfect. See Rule 1, below.
Shelving in a Walk-In or Walk-Through Pantry: Deep shelves in a walk-in or walk-through pantry are no more useful than deep shelves in a reach-in pantry. The maximum depth of storage shelves is 16" no matter where they are located. If one wall of a walk-in pantry could be used for deeper shelves, resist the temptation or install roll-out baskets or bins.Shelving above eye level should be stepped back. The shelf just above eye level should be no deeper than 14" deep and the one above that just 12". The one above that 10", and so on. This step back allows you to better see what's on these upper shelves. We also like open wire shelving for high shelves for the same reason. You can look through the wire to get a better idea of what's stored on the shelves.

Location, Location, Location
The very best designed and organized pantry is of only marginal use if it is not conveniently located. This means, according to Iron Rule 1, near where the stuff in the pantry is going to be used. This is usually the food preparation area of the kitchen. Many kitchen design books make a big deal of locating the pantry right next to the prep area. But, few kitchens are so gigantic that a trip to the pantry is an overnight excursion. Locating it reasonably close to the prep area is usually enough, and being flexible about location also makes it easier to take into account some other important factors affecting placement. Pantries for a Large Kitchen
Click to View the Entire Plan
Gourmet Kitchen Plan A plan for a large gourmet kitchen. Food storage is located along one wall adjacent to the main walkway from the house to the patio and pool. Gourmet Kitchen Pantry Overview This location allows snack and beverage seekers to fetch items from the the refrigerator or pantries area without crossing the main part of the kitchen, which already has enough traffic. It is unavoidably in the pathway to the garage and basement.

The refrigerator is flanked by two base cabinets that form the "landing zones" for both patries and refrigerator. Landing zones provide a convenient place to set bags of grocerties while they are unloaded. Each landing zone has its own light, and overhead recessed lighting illuminates the entire area. The cabinets in the rest of the kitchen are natural hickory. The cabinets in the pantry area were painted eggshell to make a visual distinction between pantry area and main kitchen. Pantries are floor to ceiling pull-outs with adjustable trays that hold a two week's worth of provisions for this family of five.

Many kitchen designs locate a tall pantry and refrigerator at opposite ends of the room. From a purely aesthetic point of view this is good design because the height and bulk of these two large features balance each other. But, from a practical point of view it is better to place cold storage (refrigerator) fairly close to dry storage (pantry) so that multiple trips are not required to gather the ingredients for a meal.

Snack and Beverage Centers: In addition to being storage places, both the refrigerator and pantry are snack and beverage centers in households with children. Access to between-meal knacks without entering the main part of the kitchen reduces kitchen traffic and possible interference with the meal preparation and clean-up processes. If at all possible, the pantry and refrigerator should be located on an edge of the kitchen that can be reached without traversing the kitchen proper.

Landing Zones: Every pantry should include or be adjacent to a countertop-height landing zone. The landing zone is a place to set bags of groceries while they are being loaded into the pantry. The National Kitchen and Bath Association, which has developed guidelines for just about everything in a kitchen, does not have a guideline for the size of a pantry landing zone, but for refrigerators it recommends a landing zone 15" wide on the handle side of the refrigerator or across from the refrigerator, but not more than 48" away. For more on the basic kitchen design guidelines, see The Thirty-One Kitchen Design Rules.

Pantry Lighting
LED light strip Very often overlooked, but extremely important, is lighting. Especially for reach-in pantries, which tend to be dark holes in the wall, the ability to see what's in the pantry depends to a great extents on how well it is lit.

Adequately lighting a pantry can be a problem. The usual solution is the install a recessed light in the ceiling in front of the pantry and call it good. The usual solution doesn't work. The top few shelves are well lit, but the illumination decreases toward the floor until the bottom shelves require a spelunker's helmet or flashlight to find anything.

The ideal lighting illuminates the contents of every shelf evenly. This is hard to do effectively. What we do, that works fairly well, is to install an LED light strip down the two front corners of the pantry cabinet. In this location they are out of sight, and, at 2.9 lumens per linear foot, the strips illuminate each shelf quite well. So the shelves don't pinch the lights, the front corners of the shelves are nipped. If more light is wanted, install them in the back corners as well — we have never found this to be necessary, however.

The "Can't Go Wrong" Rules for the Perfect Pantry
So, after considerable discussion we arrive at some specific rules for pantry design to supplement the "Iron Rules of Storage", that, if followed, will almost certainly result in the perfect pantry.
  1. If it's unavoidable, any of these rules can be bent or broken, but the further you stray from the rules, the less servicable your pantry is likely to be.
  2. Locate the pantry within 48" of the food preparation area of the kitchen. If you have more than one pantry, locate at least one of them (the "near" pantry) within 48" of the food prep area. This is a very elastic rule. Locate the pantry as close as you can, but if you need to go over the 48" rule so the rest of the kitchen works better, do it.
  3. The maximum depth of a storage shelf is 16" (14" is better). Any pantry more than 16" deep needs pullout trays. drawers or turntables so the stuff at the back can be seen and reached.
  4. Shelves higher the eye level should be stepped back so contents can be viewed easily without a step stool.
  5. The minimum walk aisle in a walk-in pantry is 36", 42" is better. The minimum aisle in a wal-through pantry is 42", 48" is better.
  6. Locate the refrigerator (cold storage) and pantries (dry storage) together.
  7. Locate the refrigerator and pantries at the edge of the kitchen so that snack and beverage seekers can get what they need without tramping across the working parts of the kitchen.
  8. Both the refrigerator and pantries should be adjacent to a countertop-height landing zone at least 15" wide and 24" deep to facilitate unloading groceries.
  9. Install adequate lighting so every shelf of a reach-in pantry is illuminated.


Are you ready for your own dream kitchen?

We can build one just right for your house, your style and your budget. Contact usE-mail us at design@starcraftcustombuilders.com and let's get started.





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