Kitchen Pantry Designs
Create, remodel, organize and use your pantry
Pantry Designs Dos and Don’ts
Pantry designs are like most things – others have been there before you and made mistakes, and you can learn from them. Check out these do’s and don’t's before you go ahead with your pantry:
Do…
- allow for more shelf space than you will currently use. Once you have a pantry, you’ll find new uses for it and more things you need to store there!
- use simple fittings and fixtures which will improve storage access. Wire baskets running on rails under a shelf are a good example.
- critter-proof your pantry. Cover all ventilation openings with metal mesh which will keep out both insects and rodents.
- use your pantry! Don’t let the contents sit there unused, and make sure you go in there regularly.
- bulk buy when you see a great deal on something you eat normally – now you have somewhere to store it!
- transfer food from the bags or boxes it came from into better containers once you’ve opened the original container. Glass or plastic jars are often more airtight and critter or moistureproof than the original packaging.
- use overhead space for hanging items
- store heavy things where you can get at them easily: that means, on a shelf about hip level ideally. Or, don’t lift the heavy things at all – use a appliance lift, or move heavy bulk food into smaller containers.
Don’t…
- make all your shelves the same distance apart. You’ll need some shelves for large boxes with plenty of headspace, and others for very small things which can be close together.
- store newer food in front of older food. Tuck the new purchases in behind so that the older food gets used first
- keep things indefinitely. Unless something is intended for multi-year storage, like emergency food, if you haven’t used it in a year then maybe you never will, and you should get rid of it and use the space for something more yummy.
- use your pantry as catchall storage space. Once the detritus of baseball bats, old plastic shopping bags, hats and shoes builds up in front of the food, you won’t be able to use your pantry properly as a pantry.
- close off ventilation completely – stored food needs some air and heat transfer.
- waste the door space – if you have a solid door you can hang racks, shelves, clipboards, chalkboard etc on it
- waste wall space where there’s no room for shelves – pegboard with hooks, hooks in the wall, spice racks, or pot lid racks may fit.
- make all your shelves the same depth, front to back. Higher shelves should be narrower so you can see what’s on them.
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Troubleshooting Pantry Ideas: When Pantry Designs Go Wrong
Food packages are “double parked” on the shelves, with things stuffed behind or on front of other things, so you can’t see the ones in back.
How to fix:
- use shallower shelves that only take one item deep
- space shelves closer together vertically so you can fit in more shelves and have more shelf space
- use wire organizers to double-deck your shelves
- continue to double park but only put identical items behind each other
You can’t walk in to your walk in pantry because there’s so much stuff on the floor!
How to fix:
- Pull out anything that shouldn’t be in the pantry at all, and store elsewhere
- Add bins to the pantry for bulk foods which come in large sacks, if that’s what is blocking the floor
- Move small packets from large bulk boxes and store on shelves or in baskets
- Add a rolling cart, store the floor stuff on that, and move it out when you want to go in the pantry
Shelves are sticky or dusty
How to fix:
first clean them, then…
- Place drippy containers on a tray or saucer which can be easily removed or cleaned
- Screen oprnings to stop house dust getting in, and weather strip doors
- Make sure ceiling is clean and not dropping dust
- If you have wire sheves and spliis migrate downwards, line them with plastic, hardboard, wood, even cardboard.
Lighting is too dim to see what you’ve got.
How to fix:
- Install a higher wattage bulb (if your fixture supports it)
- Install a new double-bulb fixture
- Install a track fixture which allws you to direct light in several directions
Your pull-out pantry sticks and won’t pull out
How to fix:
- If food packages are jamming the operation of your pull-out, pull it out a little way and use something which will fit through the gap (coat hanger wire, chopstick, knitting needle, etc.) to reach in, find the obstruction, and un-hook it. Then de-clutter the shelves so there’s not so much stuffed into them.
- If the mechanism itself is jammed, WD40 in strategic locations may help. Once you’ve got it out, remove all the contents and check for rollers not on their tracks, obstructions in the tracks, or the cabinet or mechanism itself being out of square or not level. If something is broken, check your warranty or call the installer to get it fixed.
Food gets lost in the back of the pantry, goes out of date and has to be thrown away
How to fix:
- Rotate duplicate food packages: e.g. when you buy more jars of pasta sauce before finishing all the old ones, put the new ones in the back and pull the old ones to the front
- Use a clipboard and list to check items in and out, noting the date bought and the use-by date.
7. There isn’t enough space for all the items you want to store
How to fix:
- Pull out anything that shouldn’t be in the pantry at all, and store elsewhere
- Use the fixes listed above under “double parking” to increase the shelf space available.
- Use a rolling cart to add storage space and pull it out when you need to walk into the pantry
8. Tiny packets fall through cracks in wire shelving
How to fix:
- Store the small packets in baskets, bins or boxes
- Add a rack on the door to hold small items
- Line the wire shelves with something solid like plastic, masonite, or thin plywood.
The best pantry designs in the world won’t help much if you don’t use the pantry in an organized way, or if you have more to store in there than can fit.
Pantry Shelving
Pantry shelving doesn’t need to be as pretty as that in the main kitchen, but it does need to be strong, durable, easy to clean, and safe to use. It also needs to be reachable by everyone who will use it, even if that means access by ladder or step-stool.
There are a number of different options to consider for the shelves themselves and the support brackets. You can also use free-standing shelf units if your space lends itself to that, althouigh any kind of odd-shaped pantry will do better with built-in shelves to make the most of the space.
Shelves
Solid wood or plywood, painted or varnished. Thickness requirement depends on how far apart your brackets will be: this information is readily available for bookshelves, which carry a lot of weight, so unless you are planning to store huge heavy cases or glass carboys on your shelves you can probably use those figures. Edge banding may be needed for plywood to cover voids and pretty it up: you may also choose to edge shelves with a strip which does double duty as extra support and an edge finish.
Here’s a tool for calculating the amount of sag in wood shelves given the type of wood, thickness, span, and load. You can use it to decide how thick your shelves need to be to carry the required load.
Melamine-coated MDF or particleboard. This is the white plastic coated shelving available at most home centres or lumberyards, and while it is crisp looking and easy to clean it’s neither strong nor hardwearing in the long term. The commonly-available kind is only 1/2″ thick: if you can find a thicker type, that would be a good thing. You’ll need closer bracket spacing than for solid wood of the same thickness.
Wire, chrome plated or plastic coated. These shelves are similar to (or even the same as) those used in closet systems, so you’ll have a variety of shapes and accessories to pick from. Chrome plated wire can come as restaurant-style shelves or racks, and be very stylish.
The plastic coated wire types are often not made to carry heavy loads – sweaters are a lot lighter than cans of food! – so increase the number of supports or plan to store light items only. Supports are made to fit a specific shelf system. There are pantry-specific wire shelf systems which have closer wire spacing than closet shelves, which reduces the problem of small items falling over (or even right through the gaps!). Spills can also pass through the gaps and a spill on the top shelf may extend itself all the way to the floor, making a mess on every shelf on the way down. This can be solved by using shelf liners or clear sheets of plexiglass, which has the advantage that you can still see through the shelf from underneath to find high items. Plexiglass liners are expensive, though.
Occasionally you will see people recommend glass shelves in the pantry. While the occasional decorative glass shelf may be OK, for regular food storage you would need very thick, well supported glass shelves which would be much more expensive than wood.
Supports and Brackets
All supports and brackets require very solid fixings into the wall structure – that means framing studs, posts or beans, never drywall or other weak paneling. Drywall anchors are not strong enough to do this job!
Some support systems come with a horizontal bar which is attached to multiple studs, then the vertical tracks which hold the brackets are hung from the horizontal bar. This makes it easy to screw into studs. Vertical support tracks alone, and individual brackets, need to land right on studs to take the weight of food-laden shelves.
Metal track and bracket systems are very good for creating adjustable shelf systems and are available everywhere in several different grades of strength and sizes. Realistically though, adjustable shelf systems seldom get adjusted after they are first set up! You can use these systems with wood or particleboard shelves.
Wood brackets are much larger than metal but this can be a plus point as they can also be decoratively shaped and look very charming. Once they are attached to the wall you aren’t going to want to move them, so they are not very adjustable.
Single metal brackets come as basic utility brackets (which blend with the wall if you paint over them) or decorative brackets in curly, swoopy or streamlined shapes. They all need to be attached direct to studs.
Alternatives to brackets
If you don’t want to or can’t attach things directly to the wall, or there’s no framing to screw into, what can you do? You can hang things from the ceiling or support them off the floor.
Ceiling support involves hanging ropes, chains, or metal rods from a very strong ceiling attachment point (preferably THROUGH a beam or joist, not just screwed into it), and then supporting the shelves from them using nuts and washers or crossbars. Rope and chain systems tend to be rather flexible, but rods can be quite rigid.
Floor support can involve rods or posts which extend from floor to ceiling. Better systems attach directly to the floor and ceiling using screws, but expansion rods which hold in place by spring pressure also exist. I would not want to rely on these for holding heavy food items.
Freestanding shelf units
If your room or pantry space is fairly straighforward and regular in shape, simple shelf units in wood, metal or plastic can work very well. There are many utility systems intended for basements and garages which can also do sterling service in the pantry.
Movable shelves
Rolling carts in metal, wood or plastic can be used as storage in the pantry which can move out to the kitchen or dining room at a moment’s notice. These can even be used to entirely fill the floor space in a step-in or closet pantry if you are really short on space: you’ll have to move the cart every time you want to get at the other shelves, but this may be an acceptable trade-off to get the extra storage space.
Your options in pantry shelving are quite wide, and your decision depends on what you need from your pantry in the way of looks and function, and also on your budget.