POLL: Do you have a walk-in pantry?

[Jenise]

And if so, where is it?

This question occurred to me last night when we dined at the home of neighborhood friends whose house we hadn't been to before. Their home is new, a complete tear-down remodel built on a lot they've owned for years. The pantry is behind the kitchen so close by, but it's a door that opens to what is essentially the entry way and not really part of the kitchen. To keep guests from mistaking it for a powder room, the door is etched glass with a wheat design on it and large letters saying PANTRY. It seemed odd to me to have the pantry door there, facing away from, not into, the kitchen itself.

Until I thought about Lynette's, Faith's, Margie's and Maggi's pantries. All friends of mine up here, all with relatively new homes custom-designed for each of these homeowners with pantries that are all basically behind the kitchen (so there's a common wall) but off another room or hallway (often on the way to a laundry room) and not opening directly into the kitchen itself. And all with, come to think of it, the same style of etched glass door meaning that there is no mistaking what these rooms were built for. All had different designers, btw, so the commonality of this particular feature suggests that this is pervasively 'the way it's done' up here.

I don't get it. How on earth can a whole area have decided that it's not just okay but somehow optimum to essentially have to leave the kitchen to get to the rice and the flour and the cat food? Where does that fit into the prevailing wisdom about work triangles, etc?

Does this make sense to anybody? Certainly having a pantry is a luxury, and a pantry around the corner is better than no pantry at all, but would you have a pantry built like that if you had any other option?

That doesn't make much sense to me either. I live in an apartment and space is at a premium, so I converted an unused coat closet into a pantry. Not overly large, but it works. It sits between my dining room and kitchen, so it's pretty convenient.

I'd love a large walk-in pantry that is entered from the kitchen. Since I love to be well-stocked and have every kitchen gadget known to man, I could definitely fill it up.

Huh. That is truly odd. I would find it extremely inconvenient to have to leave the room completely to go to the pantry.

I grew up in a small village full of Victorian homes. All of the pantries of my childhood opened off the kitchen. And that's what I want.

Although, now that I am thinking about it, one of the neighbors had a great set up. The pantry opened into the kitchen, but also had a door out to the back porch. One could just deposit the shopping in there directly, then walk through to the kitchen.

[Jenise]

That doesn't make much sense to me either. I live in an apartment and space is at a premium, so I converted an unused coat closet into a pantry. Not overly large, but it works. It sits between my dining room and kitchen, so it's pretty convenient.

I'd love a large walk-in pantry that is entered from the kitchen. Since I love to be well-stocked and have every kitchen gadget known to man, I could definitely fill it up.

You're lucky to not need the coat closet and have it nearby. And you're making do--that ALWAYS works. But yeah, walk straight in from the kitchen...now none of those I described were far away, they usually shared a common wall, but basically the pantry and kitchen essentially are side by side or even have their backs to each other such that, as in Lynette's house, the food preparation counter and stove where pantry items will typically get used are fifteen or so steps away and around the corner along the hallway that leads to the laundry and garage. For me, too far and inefficient.

[Jenise]

Huh. That is truly odd. I would find it extremely inconvenient to have to leave the room completely to go to the pantry.

I grew up in a small village full of Victorian homes. All of the pantries of my childhood opened off the kitchen. And that's what I want.

Ditto. And it's what I'm going to have. Not that I had any other option, actually, but I wouldn't have considered any other option either.

Victorian...hmmm, it's possible that what I'm noting here is the direct result of great-room concept open floor planning , where the kitchen isn't a three- or four-sided room, but it doesn't get much more open than what I've got to work with and I worked it out. I just dedicated the whole east end of the entire kitchen space to pantry and built a new wall to create the enclosure.

Janet designed and built our house, and she calls ours a butler's pantry. It's an 15 by 8 room just off the kitchen, with lots of counter space, several overhead and floor level cabinets, a large closet with several shelves, and a full sink and drain board.

The room is located about six feet from the island in the middle of our kitchen, and there are three entrances: one to the dining room, one from the garage and one open wall going into the kitchen. It works great when setting up dishes for a formal dinner, great for unloading major shopping for distribution to storage, etc.

There's also a big coat closet in the area leading to the kitchen, and another door leading down to the basement.

Flow is excellent and the sink comes in very handy for washing pots and pans.

This lady is a wonderful designer -- I can always tell how much she likes a house by how many walls she plans to take down.

In our first house, a remodel, she tore down and replaced seven; in this one she tore down all of them except one basement wall that helped make this a remodel rather than entirely new house for real estate tax purposes.

As always, she's full of surprises: she only tore down one wall in our new house in Santa Fe.

We have an open plan kitchen with a large floor to ceiling cabinet with pull-out drawers for all kinds of stuff needed on a daily basis, and a separate pantry (sorry, no etched glass door!) out of the kitchen that's stocked with whatever pantries are supposed to be stocked with. We like the separation and it's no problem to walk a few steps to the pantry.

I'd love to have a large walk in pantry. Since we did not have the space for it, we took a wall space at the end of the granite counter that had a twelve inch deep cupboard facing to the west and toward a refer, blocking the entrance to the dinning room when open, and designed for canned goods and redesigned it. The new pantry opens from the south end now, faces out to the middle of the kitchen, goes floor to ceiling with pull out shelving. I love it. My laundry room has tons of storage space, and I have two large pantry cupboards out there, as well.

Where we live, all the new homes that are custom built have that same silly door marked "pantry" with a wheat design or some other silly etching. It drives me nuts to see the same floor plan, flipped, but there is the pantry in the same place. I think the contractors are all paying dues to "the standardization of America Club" One lady did something clever. She had one of her cupboards inside the pantry made to roll open to a secret, tiny room behind it. The room was large enough for her family to fit into, with a phone, cell phone, concealed weapon, and some blankets. She said it was a room that any family member, or all of them could gather into, in case of a home invasion of some sort.

I rather like the pantry that Ina Garten has on her show. It appears to be an extension of the room at the end of her kitchen and as far as I can tell, it is open and without a door. If I had that space, I'd put a nice looking pocket door with a frosted glass, that I could close off when I wanted.

You'd all hate my house.

We bought an old Federation house, and made everything fit into the existing space. There is a big revolving pantry in the kitchen Pete built, but there's also a walk-in pantry off the hallway (an old walkthrough space to a part of the house we didn't need to walk through to any more). I don't have a freezer in the kitchen, only a fridge, and there's a stand alone freezer in the walk-in pantry, as well as a spare fridge in my office and a spare old freezer for flour on the back deck. Pete's talking about converting a room we have outside into a coolroom. I guess basically our whole house is an extended kitchen!

Small pantry in kitchen

2nd pantry area is laundry room just off the kitchen.

[quote="Bob Ross"]Janet designed and built our house, and she calls ours a butler's pantry. It's an 15 by 8 room just off the kitchen, with lots of counter space, several overhead and floor level cabinets, a large closet with several shelves, and a full sink and drain board.

The room is located about six feet from the island in the middle of our kitchen, and there are three entrances: one to the dining room, one from the garage and one open wall going into the kitchen. It works great when setting up dishes for a formal dinner, great for unloading major shopping for distribution to storage, etc.

There's also a big coat closet in the area leading to the kitchen, and another door leading down to the basement.

Flow is excellent and the sink comes in very handy for washing pots and pans.

quote]

Wow, what a wonderful idea, having an entrance from the garage. And what a swell fella you are to encourage her to take charge and get it the way she wants.!

Only for cockroaches.

I'd love to have one, but I don't remember anyone in my family (parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles - sort of like "Pinafore") who had one. Grandma (my mother's mother) had a "cooler" cabinet in her kitchen in Oakland. It was screened with perforated metal. I don't know if it had an outside vent, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Grandpa built that house about 1920, and it's still there.

John

Karen!

How do you keep your shelves so neat and tidy? My "cans and stuff" cupboard looks like we just had an earthquake.

John

Yes we do (in the kitchen) and I love having one, but miss my last walk-in that was larger and the light automatically came on when you opened the door. Incidentally, even though it's walk in, it's still not large enough to hold all of my stuff, so the laundry room is an overflow for the infrequently used items: crock pot, KitchenAid mixer, chafing dishes, etc.

Karen!

How do you keep your shelves so neat and tidy? My "cans and stuff" cupboard looks like we just had an earthquake.

John

John, I am a lazy person in the respect that I detest looking for things. I keep my stuff organized and try to keep a mental inventory of what I have so that I don't run out. When I want to make something, I want to make it and not have to run to the store. Generally, I keep two of everything, when I use one, it goes on my grocery list. When I pack the pantry, the newest product goes in back of the old. It takes very little time and saves me the hassle of looking/finding.
The kitchen pantry is mainly for things we use every morning and the rest is for occasional use, like canned soups, crackers, tea, etc. The one in the laundry room houses pastas that are not open, condiments, canned products such as beans, tomato, and certain specialty items like Hearts of Palm, artichoke, cooking sauces, etc. It is a good system for me and works.

We're like your pictures, Karen - small pantry in the kitchen for 90% of what we need and large one on the ground floor across from the wine cellar for the rest and for large items.

My California cooking style didn't need a pantry. No reason to mess up the fresh ingredients with too many add-ons.

Unfortunately my new life in New England will probably turn me into a die-hard Pantry Person.

We have the long, skinny pantry off of the kitchen that leads to the back yard. There's a lot of room there but it also contains the washer/dryer, a sink, the fridge, and the door to the basement. One of these days, we'll likely put in some counters, move the laundry stuff out, and make it more of a cooking area than a storage area. But we'll still keep the canned goods and such there.

We made two starts at building our home almost 20 years ago. There was a 5 year span between when we started and when we finally did so. By that time, we needed to either downsize the house or upsize the mortgage, significantly. We lost 400 sf to bring the house into budget. BIG MISTAKE! It wasn't until the house was in the building stage that I realized how much of the room had been lost in the kitchen/family areas of the home. As a result, my pantry, book/computer/office, and brick oven got axed. I absolutely hate it. I've often thought about remodeling to increase the size of my kitchen/family room. But, it's just much more than I want to spend. So, I live with it. Sometimes it's no big deal. Other times, I absolutely hate it! UGGHHHHH!!!

By that time, we needed to either downsize the house or upsize the mortgage, significantly...

I've often thought about remodeling to increase the size of my kitchen/family room. But, it's just much more than I want to spend.

Jo Ann,

You should be commended for your sensible and restrained fiscal attitude. When some other goofs in this country are spending far beyond their means, it is refreshing to hear about people such as yourself that adhere to reasonable budgets and not spending money like there is no tomorrow combined with zero regard for fiscal consequences.

My upstairs pantry is, technically from an architect’s point of view, just outside of the kitchen. One would have to walk across a hallway to get to it from the kitchen but I consider that a positive thing because any heat from the kitchen is away from the main pantry. The other pantry is in the basement. It is cool throughout the year and a fine place to stock items that we do not need access to every day.

Karen,

I would move out of a neighborhood where people had to stock guns and blankets in a secret room behind the pantry because they expected a break in.

Wow, what a wonderful idea, having an entrance from the garage. And what a swell fella you are to encourage her to take charge and get it the way she wants.!

What a nice compliment, Karen, thanks.

But, in fairness, if you knew Janet, you'ld know it took no encouragement from me. My role was solely gofering -- and redrawing all of the plans that were screwed up by the architect.

Had I only known -- the inspector "read" them by simply running his hand over the seal to be sure it was embossed and thus legal under New Jersey law. Then the foundation guy and the framer built what Janet told them to build.

Except for one little mistake that no one caught -- a four by four incursion into the ceiling of the main entrance hall -- everything came out great.

Karen,

I would move out of a neighborhood where people had to stock guns and blankets in a secret room behind the pantry because they expected a break in.

I've been retired from the Redding Police Department now for 12 years. Even then, during our personal safety courses, we were advising people to have rooms they called a "safe room" where you could go. It should have a phone and the ability to keep you safe for up to one hour.
We have lived in an upscale neighborhood in a small town for over 30 years. It is a quiet area with mostly retired folks and hard working families. No neighborhood is exempt from crime - none! This neighborhood has had its share and it has been dealt with. Even the gated communities get hit. Most folks don't know what goes on in their communities, next door or down the street. Go on a ride along sometime with your local police force. Better yet, volunteer there....you will be amazed.

What I did not tell you about the homeowners in my post about the secret room behind the pantry is that they were from So. CA, a small bedroom community. Mrs. was home with small children, when someone broke in, tied her and the children up and took many valuable items. They moved to Redding, had the home built with the special room. She had been to one of our personal safety meetings.