Since we have storage room in the basement, we decided to only put pantry cupboards around the refrigerator in the kitchen. This has provided a storage place for most everything we need for cooking right at our fingertips.

The pantry around the fridge was an idea we got from our son's and daughter's homes. This gives us 2 deep "front to back" pantry cupboards with 18-20 inch depth shelves from the top of the cabinet to the bottom of it.

We do need “pull out” shelves for these shelves, in order to access things we store on the back of the shelves. Without pull-out shelves, we often waste 6 to 8 inches of space, simply because we can't see back there and consequently don't store anything that far back, or else it is often forgotten about in the back.

Since cupboards are not made 30 inches in depth, front to back, and the fridge is 30 inches from front to back, we had to do some changes in installation of the pantry around the fridge.

In this case, we had the pantry units installed with the cupboards pulled out from the wall about 6-8 inches. The cupboard over the fridge is a 12 inch in depth cupboard which is pulled out to the same frontage as the side cupboards. This cupboard is bolted to the side cabinets of the pantry. See the top of the following picture.

Since the kitchen-pantry-cabinet doesn't go clear to the wall in back, there is a 6-8 inch space that there is nothing behind the cupboard itself. That 6-8 inch gap had to be covered on the left side only because only that side was visible, the other side was against the wall.

The cabinet installers added a wooden end-skin on the visible side. It was made of a thin laminated wood sheet that matched our cupboards' wood grain and color. With a tiny trim molding put all around the edges next to the wall, people have no idea what we did, unless we tell them.

Only when you pull out the fridge, do you know that the pantry units don't go clear back to the wall.

Having so much storage for food stuffs has been a wonderful addition to our kitchen. I highly recommend this type of arrangement of your kitchen-pantry-cabinet design.

It makes for a little "custom" work, but hardly anything extra cost-wise. The pantry units do cost more than regular cupboards because so much more wood is involved. But remember you have floor to top storage capability with no cabinet top, just solid storage. Also the pull out shelves cost more, but are totally worth every penny.

SEE

• Other kitchen cabinets
  
  
• kitchen planning
  
  
• Use of kitchen cabinets
  
  
• Prefer a pantry closet?
  
  
• corner cabinets
  
  
• refacing used kitchen cabinets

Constructing your free home

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