Pantry Designs and Ideas

As kitchens have evolved over time, the humble kitchen pantry has now become an almost indispensable addition and turned into a Walk-in or Butler’s pantry. There are several types of kitchen pantries available and the right one for you will largely depend on your floorplan and the available space you have in the kitchen, plus what you need, how you cook and what you need to store.

Here are a few types of pantries to help you figure out which one will suit you best;

Butler’s Pantry

According to Apartment Therapy, traditionally a butler’s pantry was used to store silver pieces and kitchen related items. Usually, a butler would sleep in the pantry to guard these precious items!

Today, it acts as a secondary kitchen that functions not only to store food but also serve as your food preparation area. Most butler’s pantries today will have a sink, and sometimes a dishwasher and oven. Sometimes we have clients who want to keep strong cooking smells out of the main part of their home, so having a secondary kitchen works really well in these circumstances. It all comes down to your own needs.

Walk-in-Pantry

A walk-in pantry is a place to store non-perishable food items along with small appliances such as a coffee machine, mix masters, blenders, and microwaves. Incorporating a breakfast bar in a Walk in Pantry is also a consideration for many.

Unlike the butler’s pantry, a walk-in- pantry doesn’t have a sink, but you may add a secondary fridge in it.

Traditional Pantry

This can be configured in many different ways, but is ultimately a space that is not walk-in. It could be a pull-out system, a drawer system, corner pantry, or a large cupboard. When space is tight in smaller kitchens, the design is even more critical to ensure you’re able to maximise space as much as possible.

Appliance Cupboard

An appliance cupboard can be used instead of a walk-in pantry to store appliances when space is tight. It sits on a bench and is designed at bench height. It can be combined with your overall pantry space so you have food storage and an area for appliances in one. An appliance cupboard can be designed behind a roller door, bi-fold doors, retractable doors or normal hinged doors.

Step-in Pantry

To make good use of corners, we often design what we call a Step-in pantry. It creates the illusion of a walk-in pantry and gives a bit of bench space where you can place your appliances, and also stores your food. It maximises space and makes good use of tricky corners.

Pull out Pantries

Pull out pantries were popular in the 90’s. The downside with pull out pantries is the lack of access to items that are hidden at the back, and the sides are not always high enough to store tall bottles and items tend to fall over.