Kitchen Pantry

An efficiently designed kitchen helps to place and locate things easily. These days, kitchen pantry can range from a large wall cupboard to walk-in kitchen pantry or even a small room for storage. A well-planned kitchen pantry can eliminate the need for plenty of kitchen cabinets and storage needs within the kitchen itself.

Kitchen pantry

Derived form the French word paneterie, a kitchen pantry is a place where food is stored. The practice of storing food in a separate room started from olden days when medieval halls had separate rooms to store food items such as bread. Food was stored and prepared in the kitchen pantries. A kitchen pantry can also be defined as a serving and storing room between the kitchen and the dining room.

Kitchen pantries are no longer just shelves and draws; there are various options available in the market such as pull out options, spinning options, hanging bins and pantries on wheels etc. Designing a kitchen pantry is the same as designing any other storage place in the house. The basic concept is to properly use the space available so as to accommodate everything that need to be stored. Volume and size of items to be stored and the space available to create a pantry has to be proportionate so that both storage items and space do not go unutilized. After deciding on the available space and food items to be stored the following designing and storing options will help out

• Stackable bins: They come handy in storing items that are purchased in bulk such as potatoes, dry beans etc. These bins are the best solution to exploiting the floor space of the pantry. Stackable shelving units can also be used in place of stackable bins; they can also be placed on the unutilized floor space of the kitchen pantry.
  
  
• Basket drawers: This is a best solution to save space while designing a kitchen, sliding basket drawers are available in the market and they fit in perfectly into any kitchen pantry. They can hold a number of items and can be used to store bulky and bagged items such as pasta and chips. It is advisable that the bottom of these baskets be lined with either cardboard or wood so the bottom surface is made even. Small drawers can be used to store condiments and spices etc.
  
  
• Shelves: The best and ideal place to place shelves are in the corner of the kitchen pantry. The corner space will get used well and at the same time the shelves can be neatly placed in the corner. The on hand shelving space can also be separated into two to provide more space for storing more number of items.
  
  
• Racks: Racks can be fit into the side walls of the pantry to store heavy items. Racks can also be made in the wall corners so that space can be aptly utilized. Pantry is the final resting place for all unused items such as kitchenware and any other excess supply of items, racks can be appropriately used to store all these items safely and neatly.
  
  
• Steps and adjustable shelves can be used to utilize the vertical space in the storage areas to its fullest.
  
  
• In case of houses where there is no separate provision for pantry, readymade units such as the floor model units can be used. In cases where cabinets are available, these can be remodeled and utilized as kitchen pantry.
  

Planning a kitchen pantry

• Kitchen pantry has to be designed in a manner that all items stored are easily reachable.
  
  
• You are the best judge in determining the size of the kitchen pantry required, depending on the number of items to be stored and available space.
  
  
• Classify items into those of prime use and non-prime use. Categorize items according to type of use - baking, canned food, herbs, spices etc.
  
  
• Plan your pantry in a cool part of your house so that the shelf life of food items can be made best use of. Do not install the kitchen cabinet close to heat sources such as dishwashers as this tends to destroy the food stored.
  
  
• The kitchen pantry has to have space exclusively for small items such as canned food, spices, pasta, flour, pasta etc.
• All food items have to be categorized and stored separately to avoid confusion.
  
  
• Arrange the food items in manner so that the labels are visible and can be easily identified.
  
  
• Kitchen pantry can be designed in a manner such that all food items are stored alphabetically beginning from appetizers and ending with vegetables.
  
  
• Choose the right size and shape of containers for storage purpose to make maximum utilization of the existing space.
  
  
• If you have a large pantry, plan for storing silverware and china.
  
  
• Make the pantry shelves shallow so that items stored will not be hidden behind each other.
  
  
• Ensure that your kitchen pantry is fully serviceable.