Designing a Pantry Cabinet

It is no secret that one of the best ways to store all kinds of kitchen and other items is in a pantry cabinet.  While regular kitchen cabinets work for some things, a kitchen pantry cabinet can be a real godsend for when you need to put bulky items out of sight.  They are great for foods items like cereal boxes, cans, and cases of beverages.  In addition, they are also great locations for tucking away household cleaners, brooms, and mops – ugly things you don’t exactly want lying around in plain sight.  There are a surprisingly large number of ways that you can design pantry cabinets, so let’s take a look at some of the best layouts.

First, it should be noted that most people who are thinking about a pantry

kitchen pantry

cabinet are in the phase of either designing a new kitchen for a new home, or are planning a kitchen remodel.  If you do it this way, you can have a pantry storage cabinet that is framed right into your kitchen, going from floor to ceiling.  Doing it this way definitely looks the best, but it is also costly and a bit difficult.  But then again, if you are building a new home, carpenters can easily add a space like this into your kitchen. It might not even cost any extra to add this extra on as well.

If you are renovating your kitchen or have the space for a closet in the kitchen, an easy way to do it is to purchase one of the many kitchen pantry cabinets that are pre-made and available. You can take a look at them online here.  You can get one for as little as a hundred bucks, and better ones can be had for just a bit more.  Buying one of these ready-to-install pantries is by far the easiest option.  All you need to do is bring it home, assemble it (usually requires only a screwdriver), and you are good to go.

Pantry Layouts

There are a few different ways that you can lay out your kitchen pantry.  Due to the fact that the shelves on most units can be spaced wherever you choose, you have total control over the inside layout. The most common way to do it is to have shelves on the upper two thirds of the pantry for food items, and then keep the lower third empty for storing bulky things like cases of soft drinks or beer, cleaning spray bottles, and other things like that.  With so many people shopping at warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club these days, many people find themselves coming home with a car full of large boxes and cases.  It is hard to find somewhere to store these boxes of food that won’t be used right away, and pantry storage cabinets are a great solution.

Although most people just put shelves in their pantries and leave it at that, a pantry cabinetgreat way to organize your kitchen pantry is by getting a lazy susan for it.  A company called Rev-A-Shelf makes a 5 shelf lazy susan that fits right into a tall pantry cabinet which you can see right here.  It can work in most cabinets with a diameter greater than 20 inches.  The height is adjustable from 56 to 62 inches in height, and each shelf can be moved up or down to the desired location.  Although you probably won’t be able to fit as many items in the pantry this way, the advantage is that everything is easily accessible – no more digging and removing things to get to the back of the shelf.

One of the most common places that people put their pantries is in the corner.  The reason is because the corner of the kitchen is an awkward place where things like kitchen cabinets and large appliances waste valuable space.  Placing pantry cabinet furniture there, on the other hand, provides full use of the corner space for storage.  Another great idea that I’ve seen in use are additional shelves that get attached to the inside of the pantry doors.  Doing this creates lots of additional storage space for smaller items in what is normally wasted space. Take a look at the shelves here.

Whether you want to install a custom-installed kitchen pantry or just buy one that is already assembled, if your kitchen has the space, you should definitely get one.