If you’ve got the space, and the stuff to fill it, a walk-in pantry is a nice luxury to include in the remodel of your Portland kitchen. But there are lots of other pantry design ideas that can make your kitchen work smoothly. Here are 14 designs to consider:
Let’s start with that spacious walk-in pantry. We’re told that some luxury homes have pantries that approach the size of an entire kitchen, with shelves to contain appliances, cookware, and food stores of every kind. Keep in mind, though, that the more space you have, the more you’ll have to keep organized and clean.
If your homes footprint can't accommodate space for a walk-in pantry, think about dedicating a wall or a corner in your kitchen area to one or more tall cabinets that serve as a pantry, with either open shelving (neatly organized, of course) or cabinet doors. Free-standing cabinets can also be an alternative to built-ins. Consider a variety of height and width options. This gives you all the space you need to keep small appliances, food items and kitchen tools hidden and off your countertop.
The market is full of creative built-in pantry cabinets that combine pull-out, swing-out, and rotating shelves. Custom pantries have the advantage that they take up all the available space, without annoying gaps to trap clutter or debris. This could be a great option to combine with a bump-out. That way, you can still get the pantry of your dreams without having to decrease the walking space or countertop room in your existing kitchen layout.
If you’re looking for a way to maximize your storage options and you have several stations in your kitchen, consider a portable pantry. These are storage cabinets that will literally move, as they are generally on wheels. Keep in mind that portability depends somewhat on weight, so this probably isn’t the best choice to hold all your grains or cast iron.
Most options come about waist height with a countertop you can use for preparation. This makes it much easier to keep the tools you need on hand and place your kitchen island in exactly the right spot. You can also find options that are nearly as tall as your upper cabinetry. This gives you a ton of additional storage, but you don’t have to keep walking back to get it.
To supplement your walk-in or cabinet pantry, you could incorporate these ideas into your remodeled kitchen to keep certain items close at hand.
You don’t need a butler to enjoy the benefits of a butler’s pantry. This room or hallway off the kitchen serves as a food-prep space and storage area for dishes and small appliances.
What’s the biggest benefit, and the biggest drawback, of open-plan layouts? It’s the openness of it all. That means any clutter or mess in your open kitchen is visible from anywhere else in your kitchen-dining room-living room-family room acreage. That’s why high-end homes are now being built or remodeled with a new room called a “messy kitchen.” It’s a second, hidden kitchen where you can prepare the bulk of your meal, leave appliances out on the counters, and keep your open kitchen gloriously uncluttered when entertaining guests. The messy kitchen comes fully equipped with its own countertops, cabinets, sink, dishwasher, and refrigerator.
It is an important tool for anyone who has a variety of people in the house at any one time. Tired of the kids always messing up the kitchen and failing to clean it up? Send them to the smaller pantry kitchen, where they don’t have as much space to spread the wrappers and spills. Do you find that your kitchen just is not giving you enough workstations for your creations? Are you constantly dealing with residual heat from your oven or stove when what you need is cooling? A second kitchen makes a great place for preparing hot dishes in one, cold dishes in the other.