Kitchen & Bathroom Design Blog

Food is at the heart of any kitchen design. You may cook daily for a busy family or only turn on the oven to cook for friends on Saturday night. Perhaps you rely on takeout most nights but spend days baking special treats for birthdays or holidays. Whatever way your family approaches mealtimes and snacks, it’s important to make sure your kitchen design can accommodate your family’s needs.

This includes creating an efficient layout that incorporates all the ways you use your kitchen, from food storage to cooking, clean up, dining, relaxing, homework, and more. Food storage is an integral part of kitchen storage, but what does this look like in practice? An organized kitchen pantry is key to storing all your essentials plus holiday food items, party snacks, and your secret stash of chocolate. It can also be a central location for kitchen tools and countertop appliances, serve ware, seasonal tableware, and much more.

Designing the ideal pantry for your home can be critical to maintaining a clutter-free space, where countertops are available for food prep and serving rather than taken up by flour canisters and coffee grinders. It can also mean that your key ingredients are easy to find, saving you time and hassle when it comes to preparing food or even when checking your supplies to write a grocery shopping list. What is the best pantry for your home? Read on to learn about the types of pantries and which one is best suited to your needs!

Examine Your Needs

First, take stock of your home, your family, and how you use your kitchen. If you are embarking on a full kitchen remodel, you will be doing this anyway as you examine how you plan to use your new kitchen and what layout and style best fits your needs. There are several key questions to consider when examining your requirements:

1.       What do you need to store?

The answer to this question may depend in large part on who lives in your household and what type of cooking or food preparation you do in your kitchen design. If you are a young, growing family, you will probably cook daily, plus prepare breakfast, lunch, and snacks. You may need special storage for the kids’ favorite healthy snacks or out-of-the-way storage for treat items. Lunch boxes, water bottles, and often-used lunch food items probably factor into your daily needs.

If you are a couple on your own, you may not cook every day. Perhaps you go out to eat once a week or get takeout. Do you like to host dinner parties or wine and cheese events for friends? Are you the house everyone goes to for Sunday football viewing or the annual Oscars party? Or, if you are designing for aging in place think about where you will place food staples or heavier items, so they are easily accessible.

Once you have answered these questions, you can think about what you need to store in your kitchen pantry. What essential food items do you use daily, and what do you need to store but don’t use regularly?  What do you have in terms of table linens, serving platters, and seasonal items? Do you want to store these in or near the kitchen, or would you prefer to keep seldom-used items in the attic, basement, or another storage area?

2.       How much space do you have? What other spaces can you use?

Next, examine your available space in your kitchen layout, and consider alternate spaces that could be converted into a pantry. For example, an underutilized closet, alcove, or even under-stairs space near the kitchen can be converted into a pantry with the right planning, cabinetry, and storage accessories.

If you are embarking on a complete kitchen remodel, take a fresh look at your kitchen layout and think about where you would ideally like to have your pantry storage and how much of your kitchen’s square footage you would like to dedicate to pantry space.

The more you take up for a pantry, for example, if you decide to add a walk-in pantry, the less you have for your main kitchen cabinets and countertop space.  On the other hand, adding pantry storage helps to keep the rest of your kitchen organized and clutter-free!

3.       How do you plan to use your pantry?

Finally, consider how you plan to use your pantry. This will be influenced by your answers to all of the questions we asked above. Beyond that, think about whether you want your pantry to act as a mini kitchen design, with its own prep space, sink for clean up, and room for countertop appliances. Some larger pantries even have a second dishwasher and refrigerator. This can be ideal if you entertain frequently and want a separate space to stage food and clear dirty dishes during a party. Or, would you prefer your pantry storage to be within arms’ reach of your cooking and baking zones, so you pull out cans of beans or containers of sugar without having to take more than a step or two? Think about the role your pantry will play in how you use your kitchen design when planning which options are best for you.

What style pantry best fits your needs?

There are a number of different pantry styles, and which one fits your home best depends on your individual needs and tastes. Let’s explore the different pantry styles!

1.       Walk-in Pantry

Just like the name says, this pantry style is a larger space that you can walk into and view your stored items. It is typically outfitted with shelves, often in a U-shape, though this can vary depending on the size and shape of your pantry room. Shelves can be adjustable, and this is ideal so you can alter the configuration to fit what you need to store (which could change over time). You could also install cabinetry instead of shelves, with customized storage like pull-outs, roll-out shelves, and drawers. Think of this pantry style as a walk-in closet, but for food items. In this pantry, you will go in to find ingredients and gadgets and take them to the main kitchen to use them.

2.       Butler’s Pantry

The butler’s pantry takes this one step further, creating a mini kitchen that typically incorporates space for small appliances and gadgets, countertops for preparing food or stashing dirty dishes, and a sink to assist in cleaning up. The traditional butler’s pantry was situated between the kitchen and dining room and included shelves for storing dishes and glassware. Today’s butler’s pantry can be located wherever you have space, but it serves the same purpose, providing space away from the main kitchen to store anything you need and offer extra workspace. This pantry style is another room in your home where you may spend time prepping food or cleaning up.

3.       Reach-in Pantry

With this pantry style, you open doors to reveal a shallower space with shelves ideal for stacking canned goods, containers of flour and sugar, and other non-perishable food staples. This pantry style can also include space for gadgets and small appliances, but space may be more limited than a walk-in pantry. Think of this pantry as a closet space, where shelves can be configured to meet your needs. Use containers, baskets, or crates to organize items, and label them to make it easier to unpack groceries and find what you need.

4.       Pantry Cabinets

Today’s kitchen cabinet designs can be equipped with customized accessories and inserts to accommodate a wide variety of items. They can also be custom designed to fit awkward spaces like a narrow, tall pull-out between the refrigerator and the wall. With that in mind, pantry storage can be incorporated into your main kitchen cabinet design. This is ideal where you don’t have a suitable space to create a separate pantry, or simply where you prefer to have your pantry storage within arms’ reach.

Dedicate a section of cabinetry (or more than one section if you want to split it into a cooking zone and baking zone, for example) and include drawers, pull-outs, and cabinets with roll-out shelves for everything you need. Deep drawers and rollouts are ideal for storing larger or heavier items such as an ice cream maker or extra-large bags of dried goods. This approach to pantry storage may take up precious real estate in your kitchen design, but it can be a space saver as you can fit more into a customized section of cabinetry than you can in a walk-in pantry.

5.       Other Options

If you still aren’t sure where to place your pantry, especially if your kitchen is small, consider keeping only the most essential items in the kitchen itself and get creative by looking outside the kitchen for alternatives. An underutilized hall coat closet, understairs space, or even a basement (if it is typically dry) can be equipped with shelves and other storage accessories to create handy storage for extra food items, small appliances, and seasonal tableware.

What Else Do You Need to Consider?

Once you know what you need and which style pantry best meets your needs, what else do you need to decide? Your pantry requires sufficient lighting to be able to see everything, so be sure to plan lighting that is catered to the size and style of your pantry design. In a butler’s pantry, which is a room where you may spend time prepping food, consider adding accent or decorative light fixtures that give your room a personal flair.

Any size pantry can also benefit from stylish accents. In a pantry that includes cabinetry, you could give it a unified look by installing the same cabinets as your main kitchen or go for something different to let the pantry stand out. You could give your pantry a bold look with eye-catching tiles, wallpaper, or paint color. For open storage, consider using containers that fit your design aesthetic. You could go for glass or ceramic jars to hold flour and sugar, baskets or crates to keep small items organized, and decorative labels to easily identify everything. Add hanging storage where you can keep pots and other items accessible while also defining your room’s style.

Find Your Ideal Pantry

A carefully planned pantry is essential to any kitchen design, and a game changer when it comes to kitchen organization. First, think about your family’s needs, your kitchen’s layout, and how much space you want to commit to a pantry. Then consider where you want to position your pantry, which is based on your space and how you plan to use your pantry. Select a pantry style that best fits your needs, ranging from a walk-in to a butler’s pantry, reach-in pantry, or pantry cabinets.

Your kitchen design expert can help you assess your needs and find the perfect solution to your pantry needs. Contact our team today to discuss your kitchen remodeling plans!