Alaric
Not the 20 minute Man
Registered: 08/03/06
Posts: 7233
Loc: Salt Lake City
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My home has a walk in pantry that is about 3' x 6' - like a short hallway. Fixed shelves run down one wall, but not across the end, leaving a skinny isle to access the pantry. The design and layout leaves a lot to be desired. The ceiling height is 7'.
LOML, as cute as she is and as much as I love her, is just plain lousy at organizing things without help and she does well with organizer systems but not so well with something like long open blank shelves. I've been thinking (procrastinating) about doing a pantry organizer system for a while but now this haystack is about to tip over.
So, I'm mapping out my spring project for as soon as the garashop warms up (last night it was -4 in there). Except I need some tips on where to start for a pantry organizer.
I know how to build a regular cabinet carcass and face frame, I've made bookcases and built in shelves, but I'm thinking that for a shelving system for this pantry closet I want to do something with vertical panels that hang on a cleat, with fixed top and bottom shelves and adjustable shelves in between, maybe a few roll out baskets or drawers. I want to wrap around the end of the pantry. I don't want the shelves to go all the way to the floor, I want room for bucket storage underneath. The system will have to be assembled inside the pantry.
I'm leaning towards melamine construction but open to other suggestions.
Any design ideas for cleat/hanging the system would be appreciated, as well as hardware suggestions.
Where is a good source for a few wire baskets on pull out slides that will fit a 32mm hole system? (or should I be thinking of something else?)
If I decide to make the melamine sides myself then what is the best way to edge them (I've never done any frameless cabinets)?
Also does anyone have a book they might recommend?
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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan
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MMDon
Member
Registered: 01/14/12
Posts: 487
Loc: S. E. Idaho
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Your pantry is to narrow for anything but adjustable shelves on an adjustable ladder system at the side where they are at as well as more at the back. Baskets and the rest will probably just add to the clutter.
I tell my clients that sometimes the architecture dictates the design. I'd simply label the shelves and adjust the height for her so things aren't put in with abandon.
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Turning big pieces of wood into small pieces of wood
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Leinie
Member
Registered: 10/22/08
Posts: 395
Loc: MN,USA
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Home depot sells melamine panels with shelf pin holes punched in them. I believe they are also edge banded.
You might be able to incorporate them into your design.
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hbmcc
Member
Registered: 10/25/12
Posts: 118
Loc: Seattle area, Washington State
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Hmmmm. 3x6? You got claustrophobia mayhem.
My experience.
Spousal storage skills are piles until something slips and spills. I recently threw out cherry pie filling dated 1998--for camping trips, originally. She thought it should still be good.
My solution is shallow shelves so nothing is hidden. It's an Outta' sight, outta' mind syndrome, first. Then winter pack rat, followed by hoarding. We are bordering on food poisoning, presently.
Hmmmm .....
Know any charities? Hmmm. My design and imagination, since we know naught outside the walls. You have an island with wide open surroundings and family portraits on those walls.
OK, bust out the door, walls. Convert the shelves to a 21-24 inch deep counter, cabs under and 16-inch deep cabs over. Shelves in doors, shelves in cabs. Base doubles up with drawers (not deep shelves). Maybe, I'd make it a solid wall of doors; no full depth counter.
Design for maximum volume use--current commercial-custom kitchen design is stupid, stupid; just plain dumb, where 50% of space is just that, space for cans to slip off perches called drawers, over and through gaps to fall to the floor.
Ok, the mop. Give it a ventilated closet and water proof floor.
Material: Melamine is attached to s**t, er, ... particle board. PB has no structural properties beyond vertical compressive loading. It and PB says: "temporary." It sucks! Use 3/4 (23/32) finish plywood, banding, and paint/Formica.
Why all this major demo? Your pantry is too small. The rooms will feel much bigger without it. 
And, you will have more storage area. 
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Ted Jay
Member
Registered: 03/27/06
Posts: 455
Loc: N. Hempstead, TX
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I would prefer to have shelves that are two to three cans deep so the canned goods don't get lost in time and boxed items would sit side by side, 11 inches deep max.
I have had friends that loved to shop on a daily basis for fresh items and kept minimum canned and boxed goods and like closets like this narrow shelf pantry...
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SLN
Member
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 449
Loc: Georgia
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What the others have said mainly.
1) Go with the deeper shelves at the back end for boxes and bulky items. 12" - 18" deep
2) Go with shallower shelves along the side for canned goods, and smaller items. 6" - 9" deep
This should open it up a bit, and though it may seem to be less storage, with better organization and visibility it will actually be more usable storage.
I tend to like adjustable shelving in some places even if not all.
Also make sure you have good lighting in there.
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DaveR1
Member
Registered: 04/05/02
Posts: 2716
Loc: Rochester, MN
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What's on the opposite side of the wall on the bottom of the drawing? Is there any chance of removing it? I know that probably gets into a bigger project than you have in mind but I'm thinking that you could really gain a lot of useful storage space if you did. Here's a quick sketch. You could use a couple of sliding shelf units in the middle and build the doors to house some shallow shelves.
With the doors closed as in the background, it would all look neat and tidy.
There are a lot of wire racks and shelves that might be appropriate for this small space, too. LV and Rockler have some nice options.
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Alaric
Not the 20 minute Man
Registered: 08/03/06
Posts: 7233
Loc: Salt Lake City
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The kitchen counter (stove wall) meets the wall at the bottom of the sketch. The left wall is also an exterior wall. The kitchen is a U shaped kitchen.
I like the idea of sliding shelf units. Maybe one section could could have 7" or 8" shelves in the rear with a 6" sliding section in front for cans. The would help with cans/small boxes and keeping them from getting buried. I was wanting to include a spice section for the less common spices that aren't kept in the kitchen and a sliding section would work really well for that.
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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan
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Dane
Member
Registered: 12/30/02
Posts: 440
Loc: Gainesville GA
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My suggestion is, deep (not deeper than one cereal box) shelves on the left wall, shallow shelves on the top, bottom, and right wall like the picture in post 5. Bottom, left, top and right oriented like your sketch.
Or build one cabinet carcase to fit in the doorway and do some pullout pantry units. That would "waste" a lot of space, but would be the easiest way to get to everything.
My $.02
Edited by Dane (01/17/13 01:55 PM)
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daveferg
member
Registered: 02/19/02
Posts: 39666
Loc: Cloverdale, CA, USA
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First off----if you do any amount of warehouse store shopping, consider where bulk goods will be stored. I'd opt for full-sized shelving on the end wall (adjacent to the existing shelves) and on the opposite wall, I'd figure out a system of shallow shelves with a lip in the front to prevent stuff from getting knocked off----maybe the depth of one or two cans of soup or the like. Nothing worse than buried caned goods. That would give you good space for storage but not crowd walking in. Also set aside a space to hang brooms/mops, cords for appliances, etc.
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Dave
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PaulJohnstone
Member
Registered: 04/18/07
Posts: 1670
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Fantasy plan..
REmove the bottom wall by stove. Put base cabs and uppers in that space. You should have enough room to put a corner base cabinet on the far left, since you said the dimension is 3'.. Now you have counterspace to the right of the stove. Kitchen is more open.
Downside is you are going to have to replace the floor, find a way to repair/camo the ceiling, maybe new countertops too.
Hey, I said it was a fantasy, but that would be much better use of space. IF the right wall is not a structural wall, remove it too 
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MsNomer
Wood Recycler
Registered: 05/20/05
Posts: 9179
Loc: NorthCentral OK
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Take Sheetrock off the pantry walls. Frame out the studs if you need to for looks, otherwise just paint them. For safety, frame out any electrical, etc. The space gains 4" usable shelf depth on each wall. Deep shelves on the end for big stuff. 3.5" shelves within stud space on one side will hold one layer of most canned goods. 11" shelves on the other side will protrude only 7.5" into the walk area.
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Carolyn
"It's good to know, but it's better to understand." Auze Jackson
www.carriesmission.com
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Alaric
Not the 20 minute Man
Registered: 08/03/06
Posts: 7233
Loc: Salt Lake City
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There is actually about 40" of counter between the bottom wall and the stove, then more counter. The kitchen sink is down at the bottom of the U counter opposite the pantry with a peninsula that extends back up towards the pantry. The refrigerator sits just on the other side of the right pantry wall. None of the walls are load bearing except the left which is an exterior wall. The ceiling is vaulted and the walls do not go to the ceiling. The back pantry wall is part of a partition between the living room and cooking/dining areas. The pantry is is a free standing structure with a drywall roof, forming a big flat horizontal surface for dust to settle on for you to see when you are coming downstairs. We have fake plants sitting on top to make dusting up there harder. 
I've considered your suggestion before, just remove the pantry and replace it with cabinets. If I did that however I would take out the range in favor of a cooktop and put an oven where the pantry is and have a pantry cabinet. The current design wastes space for the narrow access aisle without adding any working space to the kitchen or storage space to the pantry. One of the owners of the same floorplan in the neighborhood did that to his house and it turned out nice - his kitchen feels a lot bigger.
Right now the main reason for not doing that is expense and time. Plus I really don't want this home to be the one that I retire in (side split - too many stairs) - which means that in less than five years I'll be looking for a new home so I can have a decade to get it paid off by retirement. So I'm mainly looking for ideas that organize the existing pantry.
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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan
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