A coffee bar was one of the homeowner requests for this walk-in pantry designed by Sarah Robertson. The space also features a sink, small refrigerator, a kids’ snack and lunch area, and storage for tea, coffee and cups. Robertson solved the problem of 11' ceilings in a walk-In pantry with a ladder system that wraps around the room. — Photo: Adam Kane Macchia
Reacting to the changes in consumer attitudes since the early lockdowns from COVID-19, think tanks and trade associations have been researching and forecasting how the post-pandemic homeowner wants to live. With people spending so much time at home, needs and desires have undergone a metamorphosis, and kitchen and bath designers are taking notice.
One of the trends that has emerged out of the pandemic is the increasing interest in large walk-in pantries. Home cooking and storage of extra food became all-important during the pandemic, and that trend remains.
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But kitchen designers say that, while Instagram-worthy pantries with rows of cork-topped spice containers and apothecary jars of dog treats have gone mainstream, the pantry as accessory kitchen predates COVID. And that type of pantry promises to be the real trend ahead.
At a recent kitchen design summit, the National Kitchen & Bath Association defined the majority of luxury pantries as either a walk-in space for dry goods and kitchen items or an outsized, floor-to-ceiling space just for dry goods. But experienced kitchen designers like Sarah Robertson and Heather Hungeling say that prep or “mess” kitchens are on their way to replace the conventional pantry.
“Main Street is catching on to the convenience of the prep kitchen concept, ” says Hungeling, an Atlanta, GA-based kitchen designer and influential blogger. “Savvy builders are already offering home designs with these supplemental workspaces.”
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She finds it ironic how it has gotten to a point where there is a need for an ancillary kitchen. “We’ve been craving open floor plans for so long, ” she explains. “Every home improvement show on television has had the designer knocking down the walls in the main living space to create those open floor plans. In addition, homeowners wanted to increase the number of windows in their kitchen, inevitably leading to a lack of storage and convenience.”
Hungeling continues, “We’ve gladly accepted these trade-offs as part of getting a kitchen that we can live in, until we realized that we had nowhere to put the toaster. Also, we’ve found ourselves feeling burdened by the need to have our kitchen be pristinely displayed at all times. The solution to this pickle is the prep kitchen. It allows us to have the openness and beauty in our main kitchen while giving us an extra work/storage area that’s a bit out of sight.”
“Be it a coffee bar, a home bar or a secondary prep/cooking area, people love it because it allows the main kitchen to be designed more as a luxury living space, ” she observes.
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PB Kitchen Design and Haven Design Group fit a home bar into a narrow hallway behind the kitchen of a historic home. The door was mirrored to reflect the light back into the space and make the room feel wider. — Photo: Michael Kaskel
The design that Robertson created for one client is a good example of the way the pantry is evolving. The client wanted a storage space off the main kitchen for overflow of small appliances; a coffee bar that included a small refrigerator, sink and cold brew tap; a kids’ snack bar and room for kids’ art supplies, and, of course, food storage. The overriding goal was a pantry where a mess can live, but be open and accessible.
The design accomplished all of this, but she had to get very creative. For example, 11′ ceilings required a ladder that could wrap around the room, and the coffee bar needed a cold brew tap because the client loves a special brand of cold brew and has it delivered to the house in a small keg. Robertson used insight from a New York City coffee bar on how to run a cold brew tap from the basement up into an unused corner of the pantry. The kids’ area was designed with shallow drawers for granola bars, nuts and other snack items. Open shelves and baskets are used to corral things like chips and popcorn. The “external” part of the pantry stores kids’ art supplies.
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“This is what true luxury is all about, ” comments Robertson. ”It’s not just anticipating a client’s needs, but tailoring a design to meet those needs and provide special spaces where everything is contained and organized when our lives are out of control.”
Two distinctively different pantries were Peter Deane’s concept for these homeowners, who love to entertain. Here, the butler’s pantry provides lots of storage for food staples, beverages and kitchen overflow. — Photo: Paul Johnson
Not all pantries have to be that complicated, however. Empty nesters who like to entertain asked PB Kitchen Design of Geneva, IL for a nice-looking home bar. PB and Haven Design Group of Geneva complied.
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“It was a historic home, and finding room for such a bar was complicated, ” tells Dan McFadden, president, PB Kitchen Design. “We did find room in the back hall between the kitchen and the back door. It was a tight squeeze, but we pushed a tall cabinet into a void in the wall and mirrored the door to help reflect light back and make the space feel wider. “
The bar is a source of pride for the homeowners. The black custom cabinetry features a sink and lots of storage, while open shelves on a background of gleaming subway tiles hold ample supplies of glassware and bottles.
A dining pantry designed by Peter Deane of Deane, Inc. is the elegant partner of the butler’s pantry next door, with custom cabinetry for fine china and accessories.
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Valerie Corsaro and Alyson O’Hanlon designed this self-service home bar area of a butler’s pantry for the Clive Christian Furniture New Jersey showroom to showcase utter glamour. The backsplash for open shelving is gold leaf-backed mirror and the high-gloss black cabinetry includes refrigerator/freezer drawers equipped with an ice maker. — Photo: Philip Innes Productions
Peter Deane, principal, Deane, Inc. in Stamford, CT designed two pantries for discerning homeowners. One, called the butler’s pantry, features wall-wide, floor-to-ceiling cabinets and stores food staples and overflowing kitchen items, while the other is a dining pantry, located right next to the dining room. It stores china, silver and other items for elegant hosting. The dining pantry is especially lavishly appointed, with light blue/gray cabinetry, decorative wallcovering and stunning accessories.
For their showroom at the Clive Christian Furniture New Jersey showroom in Tenafly, NJ, Valerie Corsaro and Alyson O’Hanlon decided to showcase just how glamorous a butler’s pantry can be. They chose high-gloss black cabinetry, a wall of deco-inspired glass mosaic tile by Artistic Tile, and a light marble countertop and floor. A generous home bar is included. It’s designed as a self-service bar, with exposed shelves displaying glasses and bottles. The backsplash is goldleaf-backed mirror by Antique Glass and elaborate wallpaper by Pierre Frey. The butler’s pantry includes a concealed refrigerator, freezer drawers equipped with an ice maker, and, of course, plenty of space for ice buckets, serving pieces and bottles.
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Designer Jere Bowden is a believer in the two-kitchens concept. Here, a long corridor connects a chef’s kitchen and a large pantry/storage/bar space. Cabinetry in the bar area is sage to indicate that this is a furniture-inspired space and not part of the working kitchen. Treasures of world-traveling homeowners are everywhere in this space, including the entrance of the chef’s kitchen, which is highlighted with a sculpture. Colorful rugs and textiles are used in the kitchen and dining areas.
As Hungeling reports in her blog, historically, a butler’s pantry was a downstairs room in a large estate home, where the china and silver was stored. Since it contained valuable items, it was a locked room to which the butler had the key. Hence, the name.
Eventually, the butler’s pantry evolved into a walk-through area between the kitchen and dining room, usually with glass display cabinets and a bar sink. In today’s homes, it often features a coffee station or bar area.
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In the hands of Jere Bowden, an Auburn, AL designer long serving an international clientele, a butler’s pantry becomes a gem of efficiency and classic elegance, As beautiful as any main kitchen, it features all types of specialty storage:
Extra-deep bases for large appliances and trays; raised areas to accommodate endless flatware, complete with locks, and lots of carefully calculated room to hide small appliances, a pair of dishwasher drawers, a large ice machine and cooking and serving equipment. The extra-deep countertop is essential when serving large casserole dishes and arranging silver trays. Classic, timeless cabinetry and old reclaimed pine flooring creates the impression that the space has always been there.
Bowden has designed numerous auxiliary kitchens, considered musts in the fine old mansions and modern estates that have been her venue throughout her career. “In most homes there was always a clean and a dirty kitchen,
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