Pantry Design

Pantries have been around for a long time. During the Middle Ages castles had separate rooms to store supplies. Meat was stored in a larder, while breadstuff was stored in the pantry, which comes from the Old French word, paneterie. Panterie comes from the French word for bread, pain. Pantries didn't change much over the years, being made mostly of storage shelves in a small room. As the middle class grew during the Industrial Revolution, and the houses got bigger, pantries became larger and more distinct. May Victorian homes added a butler's pantry between the kitchen and the dining room. This was usually a long, narrow room which housed the silver as well as china and serving platters. The food was plated and readied for serving in this area.

There are two very important options that should be considered in every large kitchen pantry cabinet design. Although these options may initially cost a little extra, they will be well worth having and will add a particular amount of resale value to your home. Hands down, these two designs have been the most popular choices of our customers.
- Just Roll-Out Shelves. Without all of the complicated tall swing-out tiers, just adding roll-out shelves to your pantry design is an economical way of improving the functionality of this cupboard's design. The units generally get installed from the floor up to about sixty inches in height. The number of pull-out drawers will depend upon your particular needs and budget. Ideally, it's good to mix up the heights of where the slide-outs are placed. This allows for various sized grocery items like small cans, tall cans, potato chip bags, cooking oils and sugar to be kept in the pantry drawer that is best suited to the item's size. One of the most important questions to ask your cupboard manufacturer is; "will the doors swing FULLY out of the way so the drawers will not come near them at all?" Sometimes manufactures do not allow enough clearance for the drawers to sufficiently miss the doors. What happens is people get in a hurry and do not notice that the door is not open far enough when they are pulling the drawer out. Over the course of time-small nicks form in the pantry cabinet doors from where the drawers hit them. It's best to request that one hundred and twenty degree hinges be installed on the doors. This will ensure that they are completely out of the way when the drawers are being pulled out.
- Tall Slide Out Baskets Units. These types of accessories generally come with adjustable baskets. There are several different basket heights to choose from. You want to get a full-height sliding unit. The main component extends from forty eight inches (48") to about sixty inches (60") in height. The upgrades are generally available in a number of different finishes, including chrome and white. The Hafele cabinet accessories company is one of the major suppliers of these pantry slide-out units. You can also order tall pull-out units prefabricated or have them custom built out of wood. These designs will not have the fancy baskets, but would rather be designed having fixed or adjustable shelves.

What really makes an outstanding kitchen pantry design is when pull-out drawers get combined with a tall slide-out basket or shelf unit. The slide out baskets go to the right or left of the cupboard and the roll-out drawers on the other side. This is ideal for a pantry area that is larger than thirty eight inches in width.