Whether you have an existing food pantry that isn’t cutting it, or if your home is without a food pantry and you’re looking to create one, designing a food pantry is a great way to improve the functionality of your home. A well-designed and organized pantry can save you money at the grocery store, improve storage and efficiency in your home, decrease the clutter of your kitchen, and boost the value of your home if you ever look to sell it in the future.
There are few additions to your kitchen that are as practical as a food pantry. Before starting on a food pantry project, you’re going to want to step back and make sure you are designing it to be efficient. If not, you might be halfway through the project and realize you should have used a different system of storage or a different material of shelving. With proper planning, your pantry will be an easy project that you’ll be thrilled with upon completion.
To help prepare you for your food pantry project, here are some things you should consider before starting.
When starting a pantry project, homeowners can get themselves into trouble if they don’t conceptualize the size and space of their pantry beforehand. Before you start, write down all of the things you’d like your pantry to store. Be as accurate as you can. Too often, homeowners will guess on the size and end up discovering that it is either too large for their needs, or too small. Figure out what you’re going to store in the pantry, and reverse engineer the space you need to do so before breaking ground.
The organizational planning is helpful even if you’re converting an old closet into a pantry as the type of shelving you use will be essential in the amount of storage your pantry possesses.
When designing a pantry, remember that you shouldn’t just be thinking storage. If that were the case, a closet stacked with shelves would do the trick. An ideal pantry makes organizing your kitchen items easy, and makes accessing them a breeze as well. Make sure that the space you’re using for the pantry will be easy for you to retrieve an ingredient, pan, box of cereal, or whatever you might be storing there. A pantry should be seen as a short-term storage solution where items are accessed regularly.
Walk-in pantries are especially popular because of how they improve the accessibility of the pantry.
One of the biggest pantry mistakes is building a deep, narrow pantry space. These might be great storage areas, but they are unattractive and inconvenient when it comes to preparing meals and putting away groceries. The more open your pantry is the easier it will be to use the space, and access the things you need. While you may want your pantry to be out of sight, you also want to be able to get what you need, when you need it. Finding a balance between obstructing the view into your pantry and allowing for convenient access is important. Try to build the space to be open, and get creative on the entrance or door.
The type of material you use for shelving and the strategy you take deploying them is going to play a massive factor on how well your pantry can store items. Shelving is also going to dictate how your pantry looks. To make sure that your pantry ends up working for you and not against you, take a long look at the options available to you for shelving. There are endless design options for you to consider. In our years of tackling pantry projects, we’ve seen a great number of custom shelving options transform the appearance and efficiency of the pantry.
If you’re looking for some idea, each of the following can do the trick:
If you’re ready to design a new pantry or simply need more shelving for your current one, we’ve got you covered! At Harkraft, we specialize in top-of-the-line pantry organization products. We sell and install door and wall racks for spices, bottles, and small jars, as well as premium wire pantry shelving. We also sell tiered shelf organizers and see-through wire baskets that will allow you stay organized as well as see what’s in your pantry without having to pull the items out or shuffle them around.
Contact us today to hear more about how we can help your next pantry project!
