Reader Suggestions — Four Pantry Ideas
Well, I’m not quite ready to share more bedroom progress at this point. That will probably have to wait until Friday. In the meantime, I took some time before I went to bed last night to play around with our floor plan and test out four different ideas for our pantry that came from reader comments on previous posts. I think all of them would work, but there are pros and cons for each.
First, let me show you actual pictures to remind you of how these areas flow together in real life. I’ll start with the music room. Obviously, this isn’t a recent picture. Once I get the bedroom suite to the point where I’m ready to load in furniture and decor, I’ll get the tools, boxes, and paint cans out of the music room and get updated pictures. But for now, this will have to do.
So in the picture above, the cased opening on the far left is now the doorway to our bedroom suite. That’s where I installed the French doors as our bedroom doors. The doors in the center of the photo lead to the sunroom. That’s the room that will be torn down, and once we build our addition, the room just beyond those doors will be the family room. And then the cased opening on the right leads to the kitchen.
The view from that cased opening between the music room and the kitchen looks like this…
Just beyond the peninsula is the dining area. In that photo above, that area was being used as a sitting room (long story). But for now, it’s being used as our temporary bedroom while I’m working on our bedroom suite. That 15-lite pocket door to the left of the shelves leads to my studio.
And then if I turn to the right just a little bit, you can see the cased opening between the kitchen and the front living room.
If I stand at the end of the kitchen peninsula looking towards the door to my studio, you can see the pantry there on the left.
So here’s a better look from the dining area (I’m standing by the windows on the front of the house) towards the pantry, the back wall of the kitchen, and then on the far left of the picture, you can see that cased opening between the kitchen and the music room.
Hopefully that helps you get your bearings a little better. So once we build the addition, then new family room will sit behind the music room and the kitchen and share a wall with the current pantry. So the first idea, which is obviously the easiest, is to leave the pantry as is and not bother with adding a doorway between it and the family room. Obviously, I like that idea a lot because it fits with my goal of getting the house done as soon as possible and allows me to keep all of that storage in there. The downside is that the only way to get to the dining area is through the kitchen. That may not actually be a big deal. It’s not like we live in a sprawling mansion, so the distance from that doorway in the family room to the dining area is really not that far.
The second idea, which was the idea that I had in mind, was to widen the opening between the dining area and the pantry as much as possible while still allowing enough wall space between the dining area and pantry to hide the upright freezer. And then I’d move the freezer to the opposite wall, which would allow room for an opening between the family room and pantry. The upside to that is that it would be a more convenient route from the family room to the dining area that eliminates traffic through the kitchen. The obvious downsides are (1) I’d lose storage in the pantry, and (2) the traffic would be through the pantry, which might seem awkward. Also, any time you add another doorway, you have to think about traffic patterns through rooms with furniture. So having a doorway there would limit furniture placement options in the family room.
The third option is to eliminate that wall altogether and leave the back wall of cabinets from the pantry. The upside to that is that the dining area would feel much more open. The downside is that there would be no place for my upright freezer, and I don’t know where else I could put the freezer.
And the final option would be to shrink the pantry to about 2/3 its current size, keeping the 2/3 of the pantry on the right side of its current footprint, add a wall on the left, and creating a kind of alcove with a doorway between the two areas. I actually really like this idea. The downside is losing storage space, but I also love that I could put a bigger window in that little alcove for a better view to the back yard. I can just imagine it with some beautiful curtains, maybe a little bookcase under the window, a table lamp for a soft glow of light at night, etc.
So those are the options that y’all have given me. I love testing out different ideas that readers give me and seeing how they might work for us. Y’all know that my brain gets stuck in ruts and I have a hard time getting myself out of those ruts. So it’s always nice to have outside ideas that help me think outside of the box.
What are your thoughts on these ideas? And if you wrote a suggestion in a previous post and I missed it here, let me know and I’ll add another floor plan with the new idea.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
![Breakfast Room & Pantry Progress [Video]](https://www.addicted2decorating.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/breakfast-room-progress-August-2016.png)
What happened to the idea about opening the kitchen wall to have transition space for serving our talking? My current kitchen is separated by a stove wall but my last house had more open kitchen. I miss that connection and ability to flow with conversations and people.
If I was going to spend the time, money and effort this is the idea that I would go with.
Back when the plan included losing the studio bathroom, you seemed pretty excited about being able to bring groceries from the van directly(ish) into the pantry. With that in mind, what is outside directly behind the pantry? Instead of a window in the proposed alcove, could you make it a door? (I know that is a lot of doors on the back of the house, but maybe it would be worth it?)
I really like this idea for alcove doorway for bringing in groceries as well as access directly from family room to dining room. This may not work for wheelchair because it’s on the turn at the ramp and the height difference may be a problem. However it’s a shorter access for you and you are doing all the transfers of groceries and other items.
Love option 4! You were just saying that you have more storage than you actually need. This would cover all bases!
If it were me? I would leave the pantry as is and continue on with more pressing issues such as getting that master suite, kitchen and family room completed. The pantry is done done done. I mean just how often do you truly need to worry about foot traffic through your kitchen to the point of it being an issue? Daily, weekly, monthly? If it’s a daily issue where you are busy cooking and you have others in your work path…then that may be a consideration to ponder. But then again, I guess I’m just truly partial to that super gorgeous pantry and tile as-is! Honestly, it’s one of my favorite rooms in your beautiful home! I always look forward to your projects … so inspiring & creative! As always, thank you for sharing 🙂
I completely agree! Why does every room need to be reconstructed?
I AGREE….!!!!
Alcove!!!!
I like the third plan with the alcove and window.
Option one. Let the living room and dining room be separate destinations for paths of travel. You would be giving up a lot of space in both your new living room and your pantry to create a comfortably wide enough path. Option 4 creates a dead end at the window while cutting your storage by a third. Options 2 & 3 force a path of travel through a storage/work space. In Option 3, the pantry becomes an extension of your dining space and is no longer a “pantry.” Based on the drawing, it looks disproportionate to the rest of the room because of the placement of the table and the need for the path of travel to the studio. The only way it makes sense is if you plan on turning the wall in option 3 into a buffet serving space during gatherings, but you already have that in your kitchen space, so it seems redundant
I agree with all this. Also if you put a doorway between the new living room and pantry you lose the option to “steal” space from the living room to make the back wall of the kitchen deeper if you decide to put your fridge and/or deep cabinets there.
I like the idea of leaving the pantry alone and accessing the dining room through the kitchen. You would access the living room through the kitchen so there wouldn’t be a big reason to go to all that work and expense. Leave the pantry alone.
I’m team alcove all the way!
I think it’s seldom a good idea to force people to walk through the working area of a kitchen to get to an important room. The alcove idea is cute but chops up the space. I really like the just the back wall of the pantry staying, and then styled more like a dining room, with the counter used as a kind of buffet with platters, etc. Could you buy a smaller freezer and put it under the counter? Or move the freezer into an area off the studio or car port? Or disguise it somehow, with a panel door and a matching cabinet on the other side?
Of all three, I like the alcove the best, but my personal opinion would be to leave it alone completely. I don’t think the foot traffic would be a serious enough issue to go to the trouble and expense of renovating there and potentially limiting furniture arrangement when there are other things that you want to accomplish first.
It’s amazing how many ways there are to configure an interior space! It doesn’t appear that there would be enough space to easily walk between the chair and sofa into the dining room regardless of the pantry set up so I would leave the pantry as it is. Perhaps you could do a floor plan with the furniture lay out on graph paper to see how much space there would be. I find mock ups help me to see how things will look so I’d move the sofa and chairs in your living room as they would be in the new family room to see how it feels to walk between them. My question is, do you really use the music room and do you need two living rooms? I might consider closing off the doorway between the living room and kitchen so the piano could be placed there because it’s not good to have a piano on an outside wall and use that space as a music room. Then you could incorporate the music room space into kitchen/dining room space. Just a wild thought for you to consider.
Laura,
I was thinking along the same lines as you. I didn’t know how important the music room is, but was thinking of moving the piano either into the living room or even the dining room. The only problem I see, is depending on how the music room was incorporated for kitchen/dining space, then everyone would be entering the family room through that space. I too would leave the pantry alone. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entrance to another area through a pantry.
Another option would like option #2 but create a smaller alcove by removing the small area of wall to the left of the pantry and creating the alcove area which would be walled in so that a wall would be ahead of you and to the right of you as you walk into living area. (Hard to explain and I can’t add a drawing.) The pantry door may need to be moved to the right a little.
You have great ideas, and I know you will come to a solution that is best for you.
I agree with everyone who says leave it alone. Walking through the kitchen to get to the dining room isn’t as big a deal as adding a doorway to your potential family room and creating issues with furniture placement.
I was wondering why you were wanting a door from the family room to the dining area. Maybe I am missing something in the whole layout and it’s very necessary. Just curious. Love how the bedroom suite is looking.
I’m thinking something as open as possible, especially with wheelchair access needed, would be best. I don’t exactly know how you use your pantry, but if you don’t really use or need the counter space then maybe the whole thing could just be storage cabinets along one wall and the freezer could have one of those panels on it to integrate it and make it look like another cabinet. Maybe even cabinets flanking a large window in the middle and a window seat below. If they are deep cabinets on one side they can have slide out drawers and also just shelves for storing large appliances.
I personally vote to note touch the pantry. It’s beautiful and seems really functional, and I agree with others that you’ll lose a lot of space in the pantry and family room just making a usable walkway through there. The “alcove” and “back wall pantry only” options also feel like they’ll create a lot of dead, mostly non-functional space.
Based on the current layout you’re planning for the kitchen, it doesn’t really seem like a big deal to have people walking through to get from one room to the next. If moving between the family room and dining room, they’ll only walk in front of the cabinets and fridge, without being in the way of the more pressing sink and stove areas. Ultimately I think it should be what YOU are most comfortable with. Guests can deal with all sorts of layouts, but whichever one you’re happy living with is best!
No matter which option you choose though, I’m sure it’ll end up looking fantastic!
I like the first, for now, and sometime in the future do the last, once all the dust has settled and you’ve had a chance to finish the other projects.
Hi Kristi: i really like the 4th option. With the other options, it would be awkward to have guests to have to walk through your working pantry to access the dining room and family room. You still could have some storage in the back portion of the passthrough. Some lower storage with a countertop could provide you with a buffet area for gatherings. Kind of like a butler’s pantry but better. The window light makes it inviting for you, Matt and guests. I love to follow your planning process almost as much as your final results!
The question would ask is, how many people would you want to seat at your dining table? Will you instead use it as a buffet for guests to bring into the family room, to eat around the coffee table, sitting on your sofas and chairs?
Have you ever considered flipping your pantry and dining areas, so that you can come from the family room directly into the dining room? You could use your pantry cabinets under the front-facing windows. Also, an upright freezer can be replaced with one or two under counter freezers, depending on your actual needs.
Which option would best allow you to use that mural that you bought recently? The one you had planned for the dining room back when you were going to make the kitchen the dining room?
Option 4.
Under the window a cabinet for storage. Wall facing the dining room table put narrow pantry cabinets and I don’t think you will loose much storage
What would be easiest for Matt and the wheel chair? If option one works for him, then leave it as is, so you can be done and have a good space for your freezer. besides you just finished that pantry not too long ago. And walking through your pantry would be similar to having your guests walk through your bedroom to get to the bathroom. Seems weird.
Hear me out… I seem stuck on a doorway in the kitchen where the fridge is to go. …Even though you are trying to use a hidden framed doorway already. Structurally, it’ll be ok because you had a window there. You get the extra path, it’ll be straight and keep people out of the pantry half with less re-work of a finished space.
Modify/remove the tall pantry cabinetry. Re-do the backsplash if needed, keep the electrical cabinetry and shelves roughly where it is. Place the fridge in the freezer’s spot shift the freezer. Do widen or remove the wall/doorway for the door swings. It is a funky triangle, but you keep the sightlines, and counterspace functioning as intended. Also doesn’t destroy the pantry’s infrastructure.
This keeps a lot of the symmetry instead of adding corners around things. The rework of the pantry wall in the last option for a window and a seat means the work to re-do the entire pantry’s infrastructure, including flooring and drywall. Unless you are aiming to redo it, to match the updated kitchen. 🤣
Leave it as is. It’s beautiful and functional. It’s literally footsteps from the music room to the kitchen. Don’t redo just to redo. It’s perfection.
I agree with Julia!
I vote option 1 or option 4. I think walking through a pantry is a a bit weird. And I recognize that you, and all homeowners, can do whatever you want. But since you have options here, I think you should avoid that one. I don’t think it’s at all weird to go through a kitchen to get to a dining room. But aesthetically, the option to shrink the pantry is best. So it’s about whether you’re okay with less storage.
With the new family room, the current living room will organically morph into a room with a different purpose. With that in mind, closing up the cased opening between the current living room and the kitchen will provide a U-shaped layout in the kitchen and also reduce the kitchen access points from three to two. In the post from September 18th, the sink was positioned on the far wall with a cased opening above it looking into the new family room. A U-shaped kitchen would give one extra wall of kitchen awesomeness without the kitchen feeling like it’s closed in as you would have two cased openings into “family” rooms.
I cook for 10 to 15 people on many occasions. I have two openings into my L-shaped kitchen with one pathway between the fridge/pantry wall and the island. Having anyone in that pathways is always frustrating and can be dangerous when there are cords hanging, ovens and burners going. I would love a U-shaped kitchen!
The old living room would become more private and visually restricted for when you open the front door to a stranger or consult/entertain with non-family. I don’t like strangers seeing my home layout. It could also be a place for some family members to “escape” to when they may feel overwhelmed from family activity.
I agree there should be two access points from the new family room into the dining room so your guests are not filing through your kitchen to get a seat at the dining table. I don’t have an opinion of how much of the pantry should be sacrificed. But I love your pantry!!
I vote leave it as it is so that you aren’t adding another doorway into the family room, otherwise you’ll have a door in every wall. I grew up in a home where we walked through the dining room and kitchen to actually eat at a dining table in the sunroom as it was a far nicer and lighter space. Guests have never had any issues with it.
If it was me, I’d leave it. Your pantry is already a beautifully completed and functional room. I don’t think having a direct path from the family room to the dining area is necessary and to me it would be an awkward transition. I’d rather have a full family room with less doorways to allow me to play with furniture placement without having to worry about a clear pathway. My house is a pretty open floor plan and I hate having floating furniture everywhere and nowhere to hang pictures. A more closed room will keep things quieter in the surrounding rooms too.
Crazy thought…not sure if this is too much change/work. What about flipping the pantry and the dining room? Closing off most of the kitchen wall with the peninsula with a door to the pantry (could be a hidden door so it looks like cabinetry), then opening up the wall of cabinetry to the family room with only lower cabinets and countertop. That way all three rooms are accessible to each other and the pantry is closer to the kitchen.
Don’t add another doorway into the family room. It is great right now – a comfy cozy spot with one pathway through it that is outside of the sitting area. Adding another entrance will break up the coziness/stay a while setup, and eat a lot of the space that would be better used for seating spots and floor lamps. I vote for plan 1. Plan 4 superficially seems nice, but the longer I think about it, the less I like it.
Didn’t you just say you want the interior DONE? The alcove adds nothing but wasted space. You could achieve the same ambiance by putting a small lamp on the pantry counter since you leave the pantry doors open.
Do you want to see the xtra refrigerator from the family room? Or the first thing your guests see going from the family rm to the dining room. If you do open the wall why not remove the small wall on the left for easier flow and more space to extend a dining table. I know it would not be symmetrical but function sometimes can be more important
I think the decision comes down to the number of people that will eat at your home. If it will only ever be 4 to 6, you have your options open. If you’ll have bigger groups and want space to add leaves to a round table, get rid of the pantry as a separate room.
The freezer is already beautiful, but could be made to look just like cabinetry. I think adding another opening to the future family room will severely limit furniture placement.
In option 4, could that window be a door? One of your beefs was the trek to get groceries from the carport to the kitchen. I think there was reason you couldn’t but I don’t remember. This wouldn’t be a door suitable for Matt, just for you to have a more direct path in from the carport to the kitchen.
If it was mine, I would leave it as is. It is beautiful and functional and other than the master bath it is my favorite.
I don’t believe you have or will have enough foot traffic to worry about a more direct access.
I would continue on with the master bedroom reno and leave my fabulous pantry alone.
Modify Option 1: Remove the useless/shallow cabinets, add a walkway from the family room to the dining room through that wall closest to the freezer (basically a shortcut through only the plan NE corner of the kitchen) and call it good. You won’t loose storage that’s useful, and will allow for a circular path between the dining, kitchen, and family room for overall flow. It also allows guests easy access to the dining room without possibly feeling like they’re bothering you in the kitchen, they’d be cutting through near the end of the island/open countertop only.
Option 1. 2 and 3 make NO sense
It makes sense to expand your kitchen to encompass the current sitting room and turn the pantry space into the dining room. You may have to recess a beam into the ceiling if it’s load bearing
My 2 cents … Just leave it alone. It’s really not a big deal to go through the kitchen to get to your dining room. Adding another doorway just complicates things and adds a lot of expense for very minimal value. I’d be surprised if you could make that change for under $3k and a month’s worth of time. All of the options would require significant rework in your pantry which is effectively a mini kitchen with all of its cabinets. Right now it’s finished. Done. Usable. Let it stay that way.
My idea was similar to the last one, except I left the back wall of the pantry as it was. the wall on the left of the pantry would go away, so you would pass through the opening at the family room and exit into the dining room. That little bit of wall would be gone. You would still have most of your storage space with this idea.
tThe first idea, no entry in the pantry—seems like it’s the more natural route and the difference in distance is not a deal breaker. I can’t remember what you are doing with the kitchen layout, currently, that walk through zone is not in the area of the working triangle. However, the option with the cupboards only along the back wall gives you an opportunity to enlarge your table when extra guests are there for a meal, or the ability to add a second table for overflow seating. The “L” pantry would be an option for walk through—I would just make the bottom left corner of the pantry look like the corner of the one with the cabinets running along the back—no little corner piece. That would probably make it my favorite option to keep people out of the kitchen if that’s your driving force.
I vote leave the pantry as is. That’s a lot of work to go through for your doorway to open into the side of a couch. I don’t think the end result is worth the amount of effort. Your pantry is great as is.
Leave the pantry as is, you can always change things later. You’re said several times that you want your home completed, remember, finished is better than perfect! Or if you must make changes, do option 4, and then open up the wall all the way into the family room. That wider entry will make it easier to get around furniture
I was wondering just how many guests you might have over and how often? Is a formal dining room really needed? I’m thinking of your trial of turning your living room into a dining room, and how that didn’t work out for various reasons. And now the current bedroom used to be the sitting room and a breakfast room before that. All of those changes to your home with no formal dining room needed for quite a long time. Perhaps just returning to the breakfast room idea and preserving the pantry as it is is all you need. If you need to host a lot of people, just set up tables in the new living room or in your studio, or even in the music room. If you only have a few guests like family, perhaps a leaf in the breakfast room table might be sufficient plus you wouldn’t have a lot of non-family people traipsing through the kitchen in that case. Just a thought.
Question: Do you really need a formal living room after the family room is built? If you want to do the least amount of remodel, turn the formal living room into a dining room, use the other area as an informal dining area for the kitchen (the table could also be used if you were doing a buffet), and leave the pantry as is after the new family room is built. This might even be better if you later decide you want to enlarge your kitchen and open it to the family room. You wouldn’t need to do anything until the family room is built and could go about your other projects outside.
Honestly, I’d just leave the pantry as is. People are already walking through the kitchen to get to the current sitting room (when it is not being used as a bedroom) and eventually the bathroom off of the studio. People congregate in the kitchen anyway so the dining room is right there. I do think it stranger to walk through the pantry than the kitchen. Just my opinion, it will be interesting to see what you do.
I would just leave it. You have a lovely, spacious, and well-functioning pantry. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.
The last option is my preference with still having a pantry but can’t there be a cabinet along the Edge by the table like option one so that you’re not losing storage? I only skimmed some of the comments but I do like the idea of maybe having a door as they suggested, instead of a window?
Leave the pantry as is. You have a new family room to build & a kitchen to remodel. Personally, I see no problem walking through the kitchen as it is now or after the remodel. It’s beautiful now & will be afterwards. Besides, don’t you walk through the kitchen from other rooms to access the dining room? And don’t you see the kitchen from the dining room now & will after the kitchen remodel?
I vote to leave the pantry as is. I think putting another door in your new family room will make it smaller and less comfortable. You will be tempted to move the couch away from the wall to allow for traffic, and now your living area is too small. I would hate for you to not love your family room. Plus, as many others have said, your pantry is a jewel!
Leave pantry as it. The kitchen is open to the dining room, so it seems natural to walk through there to get to the dining room. Also if you opened the pantry to walk through it would leave no continuous wall in the family room for furniture placement. Every wall in there would either have a doorway or windows.
I really like the last floor plan idea with the little alcove. I wouldn’t want everyone to have to traipse through my pantry to get to the dining room. And having that alternate route to the dining room and your studio might come in handy. I also like the idea from one of the other comments about making the window in the alcove a door instead. In my opinion, you can’t have to many exits when you might have to quickly get Matt out of the house for an emergency. If you kept the pantry doorway facing the dining room, you could make the alcove a little mud room of sorts with a place to hang coats or shopping bags so they are easy to grab on the way out and have a small bench there to take your shoes off if they are wet or mudding when coming in from the back yard. I know whatever you decide will be perfect for you and Matt and I can’t wait to see what you pick. I can’t wait to see your grand master suite finished and I am so envious of your gorgeous closet. You have been such an inspiration to me in remodeling and decorating my house and not being afraid to surround myself with the colors I love.
I’m a fan of option three. It’s so open and would allow you to have a big table. I would take out one of the cabinets to make room for the freezer. I think it would look just fine in the room.
I think option four is the way to go. I don’t think you will be happy having the pantry as such a public place. The fourth option opens everything up and gives a good flow. And you can, if you need more storage, put it on either side of the door from the music room to the new living room as you discussed.
I like the last option. Seems a little silly to have to walk through a pantry to get to the dining room. Also seems odd to have to walk through the kitchen also. I like the smaller pantry. You might have to get rid of some of the stuff you have been keeping but never using. I have so much of that kind of stuff. I am a “keeper” by nature, so it is hard to let stuff go.