Regardless of whether you’re renovating a pantry or have the luxury of designing a new pantry in your home, it’s still a vital consideration in your overall kitchen design. Pantries should not just store everyday grocery items, they should suit your lifestyle needs, configure well to the available kitchen space, and be placed in a practical location to enable easy access to homewares and electrical items as well.
From walk-in butler’s pantries and drawers incorporated into your existing hardware (along with the storage that goes with it!), here are some clever pantry design ideas you should consider.
Choose A Pantry That Suits The Space And Your Needs
In terms of small pantry design ideas, if you don’t have the luxury of a separate pantry area in your home then it’s important to be clever in terms of how you use the space available. In-built pull-out pantries in the form of drawers are compact and provide easy see-and-reach access to pantry items, and they can also double up as storage solutions for all your electrical items. When designing a new pantry of this type, you should also consider your shelving carefully as when you’re working with small spaces every little bit of ‘real estate’ is valuable!
If you’re building a new pantry and have the luxury of building a separate pantry area, then consider installing a concealed pantry area near the work and cooking areas in your kitchen. These can consist of full-length or sliding doors which open to reveal storage areas and even an extra benchtop or workstation. Doors can be bi-fold or pocket (sliding doors that recess into a cavity), and this is a great way to keep your kitchen clutter-free as bulky items like kettles, toasters, mixers and coffee makers can be stored behind closed doors.
The grandest of all pantry designs, if you’re designing a new pantry and can afford the space, then a walk-in butler’s pantry is the way to go! This is much like having a secondary kitchen that’s out of sight and ultimately functional. Often used in open plan dining/living room designs, a butler’s pantry allows you to showcase a clutter-free, minimalist kitchen by hiding away the ‘engine room’ of the kitchen. This room can feature additional storage space and benchtops for prepping food and store bulky electrical items like your coffee machine and microwave. A large sink, dishwasher or dish drawer can hide dirty dishes from guests you’re entertaining and butler’s pantries can also house additional features like a wine fridge and even your oven!
Use Shelving To Its Best Advantage
If you don’t have the luxury of a lot of space when researching pantry design ideas, then it’s worth thinking carefully about what you’ve got to work with and the type of storage solutions that will work best. Open shelves are commonly used in smaller pantries and allow you to easily group similar items of the same size and type together.
If your shelving can be adjusted, it’s simply a case of measuring up the space available and grouping taller items at the back and shorter items in front. Shelf risers can also be incredibly handy as they allow you to adjust the height of items to make the best use of the space available.
If you’re able to incorporate cabinetry into your pantry, then floor-to-ceiling designs make the most of height space in order to store all of your kitchen essentials. Tall cabinets with shelves at different heights makes it easy to store various items including groceries just steps away from where you’ll be preparing meals.
Narrow shelves are also a great option, particularly for higher shelves. These alleviate the problem of items being too ‘out of sight’, although on lower shelves it’s worth considering deeper shelves that allow you to store bulkier items at the back. Vertical additions in the shelving can also create a practical storage solution for bakeware, cheese platters and serving trays that are used less frequently.
Be Clever About What And How You Store
Drawers and storage boxes can store everyday items as can stackable bins that are labelled and organised together. These will enable you to use any height that’s available and keep everything tidy. Baskets or boxes for things like onions and potatoes can also assist with maintaining freshness as well as keeping them out of view. Cereal, pasta and other dry foods can also be emptied out of the packaging and put into clear plastic bins for easy access.
When it comes to kitchen pantry organisation, one of the biggest ‘space wasters’ are electrical items. Most of us own quite a few of these – including everything from blenders, juicers, kettles, coffee machines and microwaves. And let’s not forget about the popcorn maker, deep fryer, slow cooker, food processor and bread maker! An appliance cupboard with folding or retractable doors is a great way of ensuring all of these items are neatly tucked away, but easily accessible on a daily basis.
Other pantry storage ideas include areas for oversized bowls and vases, rarely used dinnerware and cutlery, and other items that you only need to access on the odd (or special) occasion. And don’t forget the back of the door! Hooks and hung wire organizers can store pot lids, spices and any other lighter items conveniently out of sight.
Thinking about renovating or completely overhauling your kitchen pantry? Contact the experts at All Bathroom Gear today on (07) 3391 8628.
