Pantry - worth it?

[Greenleaves20]

We’re in the process of having a kitchen-dining- living area extension done which will measure 7.7 x 5.8m. We have the option of adding a pantry as an additional area to the side of this which would measure 1.3 x 3m. We’ve just got the quote from the builder who is doing our main project and it’s looks like it’s going to cost around £13k to do it including shelving etc. We feel we probably could do with the storage space but it’s a lot to spend. Is it worth it? And if we decided to move in 5-10 years would it add any value to the house?

I got very invested in the idea before the quote came back and now I’ll be disappointed if we don’t go ahead but I also don’t want to make a mistake because of this!

[ElspethFlashman]

Not for that money.

Put a load of shelves in your utility room for dried food goods instead. You absolutely do not need an actual room.

[ItsJustTheOneSwanActually]

All of our food is in the pantry- it leaves all your kitchen cupboards empty for everything else. Awesome.
I live abroad and we all have them here

[minipie]

I decided against a walk in pantry because they use up a lot of floor space (as you need the space where you stand as well as the shelves). Also I’m short so lots of tall shelves is not great for me. And I didn’t want to have to go into a pantry every time I needed an ingredient in the middle of cooking.

Instead I have a larder cupboard. The bottom half is pan drawers and the top half is a cupboard with worktop in it. Pan drawers store all my dry food, potatoes onions etc - much easier for shorty me than tall shelves, and right near the hob/prep area.

[LittleOverWhelmed]

That is a lot for a pantry, but depends on:

• total cost of the build.
  
• what else you would spend the money on (or save it).
  
• size, value, spec of house.
  
• how it will be added on (is it taking space from something else?)
  
• how much storage you need.
  
• how you want to design your kitchen.
  

We have just had an extension and remodel done. Expensive house, high spec large kitchen and large utility room. Didn’t have a pantry put in. It crossed my mind, but would rather have the “space”. Plus we now have lots of kitchen and utility room storage: don’t miss it. I have a whole row of extra tall full height cupboards in my kitchen. They include a “butlers pantry” (or breakfast cupboard), a 300mm pull out larder, a single larder cupboard (with drawers and spice racks) and a single dresser top (for breadmaker and magimix). In this house, we didn’t do it. Maybe in another house it might have worked…

Although, at the end of the day, it is personal choice.

[Saz12]

That’s a lot of £££ for a small space. Also narrow by the time you add shelves in. How much food / kitchen storage will you ever need? Even if you bulk buy obscure ingredients, would you not struggle to fill that much space? Even a spendy kitchen isn’t going to cost £13k for 3metres of storage, surely?
Honestly, I’d not manage to stomach paying £13k for a long narrow cupboard.

[trickyex]

Way too pricey IMO.
I would get a decent cupboard floor to ceiling.
I have a walk in pantry but its just a messy muddle, I would prefer a decent cupboard where I could shut the doors on it all tbh.

[LittleOverWhelmed]

I have posted on another thread recently, but these are the cupboards that I have:

[Kite22]

A pantry can be useful, but that sounds like a LOT of money for what is essentially a walk in cupboard.

[butterfly990]

I bought bathroom shelving from Ikea and put them up one on top of each other in my utility room. They are only the width of a can of soup but perfect for my noodles, trimmed tomatoes, sauces, soups, and my bathroom stocks of shower gels etc.

[Retrievemysanity]

We did a kitchen extension and renovation earlier this year and changed the walk in pantry to a larder cupboard. Best thing ever! All my friends comment on it. Thoroughly recommend it.

[ElspethFlashman]

Agree you absolutely do not need as much room as you think.

In out utility, we have basically one end of it (the end behind the door) completely shelved. At the top are various household tools like screwdrivers etc that it'd be tiresome to have to go out to the shed for. (We have a wee plastic fold up footstool folded into one corner to reach stuff)

Under the bottom shelf are several IKEA boxes (the ones that fit in the Kallax) for shopping bags and tupperware and stuff that's too awkward to fit neatly on a shelf.

The middle rows are for cereal, baking, stuff, booze, snacks, tins, all sorts.

You can use various dividers or shallow baskets to separate things.

But unless you are a bit of a bulk buyer, you don't need more room than that tbh. We don't tend to buy multiples of jars of coffee etc.

Americans seem to go for pantry rooms more but you do wonder about the best before dates on all that stuff.

[minipie]

My larder cupboard is similar to LittleOverWhelmed’s first picture, except a bit wider and a lot messier!!

Also the drawers are on the outside if that makes sense rather than hidden behind the doors. My doors only go to worktop level. Less pretty but a bit easier to access the food.

Anyway I would highly recommend this set up rather than a walk in pantry. Unless you have an awkward corner/alcove in your floorplan which you can’t do anything else with.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

We had one built in the awkward space under the stairs . There's 3 shelves in an 'L' shape . I don't need to stand in it , I can reach from the door .
We put a rack for keys on the back of the door and it can lock.

It means shopping goes in there ( pantry food ) instead of into the kitchen so quicker to put away .
I buy Costco bulk buys and like to stock up with coffee on offer

[TuftyMarmoset]

£13k is far too much. I agree a larder cupboard is a better option.

[madisonbridges]

I have an old house with a pantry. It ends up being a dumping ground. I really wouldn't spend 13,000 on one.

[Daisydoesnt]

OP that is a huge amount of money for even a top end house/ kitchen. I’m a very keen cook and had a walk in larder at our house before last and it was a godsend - space for all tins, jars of pickles & jams (if that’s your thing) dry goods, plus all those large items that I personally don’t want out on the kitchen worktop but are heavy and I don’t want to be bending down to take out of a cupboard eg Kenwood processor; ice cream maker etc. It was brilliant for keeping things cool but out of the way of flies etc eg baking straight out of the oven.

I can’t see that you’d get that extra money back when you come to sell- I’d love another walk in larder but not sure I’d pay £13k for it. That sort of money would be better spent on fabulous worktops or flooring where you can really “see” the £££

In your OP you say that the quote is for it to be additional and to the side - surely it would make much more sense to just carve your pantry/ larder out of the kitchen floor plan? They really, really do not need to be very big - floor to ceiling shelving and a worktop space is all you really need if function is your priority. You can still make that look very stylish.

[Simonutti72]

We had a pantry added when we did our extension/remodel but it has a window & we use it for the dog’s massive crate. I use it for storing veg/Tupperware/appliances we don’t use very often & I have two big pull out recycling drawers - it’s not really used for food storage other than stuff I’m keeping for longer or snacks I’m hiding from the family. I find it really useful but it’s not a pantry as such - more a crossover between the utility & the kitchen. Think about if you’d really use it - if not spend the money of something better.

[LittleOverWhelmed]

Have a look at handmadekitchenschristchurch on Instagram. They have so many ideas for storage, pantries and larders.

We didn’t use them for our kitchen and I have no connection to them. I love the idea of a pantry (or breakfast cupboard like we have) one side of the fridge freezer and a larder the other side. We didn’t quite have space for this in our kitchen (we have breakfast pantry, American fridge freezer with wine rack in cupboard over, pull out 300mm premium larder, two side by side ovens and single larder with drawers and spice racks).

But these are good examples.

[LittleOverWhelmed]

Also check out seedwardianterracw on Instagram. They have a “built-in” pantry cupboard. Post on 31st March shows the internals. I am positive that was built a lot more cheaply than £13k (stud walls etc, cupboard doors etc on outside), but it looks amazing.

[LittleOverWhelmed]

Sorry, make that se9edwardianterrace

[Greenleaves20]

Thanks for all the responses, very helpful and loads to think about. It’s a lot to spend and sounds like majority vote is a no. The reason we thought of it was that we really like our current pantry under the stairs but it’s being turned into a costs and shoes cupboard as we have loads and with the extension we have nowhere for them to go.

Thinking about the space we have in wondering if we should try and reorganise the kitchen design to incorporate a larder within the units instead. I’d wanted an open feel to the room so we have no cupboards over the surfaces but if we rethink that then we’ll save a lot of money!

[BlueMongoose]

I've had pantries, and not had them. I'm a confirmed fan, and I think they're great, I dearly wish I could have one here. But that does seem an awful lot of money for one, even to me.
If you have the space, I'd build a big cupboard instead. I;m putting my money where my mouth is on this one, because that's what we're planning here for our kitchen/diner. It will have to go in the dining area, but we can put it in against an outside wall if we do, so may even put a vent in.
One thing, though- I'm working out exactly what will go in it, so I make it the right size. It'll need to be at least 20 cms deep for my dry goods barrels at floor level and the first shelf or two, but I'm planning shallower shelves further up for things like sugar jars and general tins etc., as deeper ones are not very useful for small items. In the upper part, I'll then put things like tinfoil rolls on the backs of the doors which will make good use of the upper space.

[SpeckledlyHen]

When I had my new kitchen 5 years ago I got the company to build me a panty cupboard. It has spice racks on the inside of the doors, have gallons of space and shelving for all dried food, tins etc, I can even store appliances in there. The shelves are adjustable height wise. It has four big baskets at the bottom for more storage (veg but they are massive so I keep towels, dog leads etc in them). If the kitchen is big enough I would rather an extra free standing unit like this. I reckon a carpenter could do you one for much much cheaper than £13k on a "pantry".

[SpeckledlyHen]

Pantry cupboard even.... (not panty!!)

[madisonbridges]

That's a lot of underwear you've got going on there @SpeckledlyHen. 😄