Organising your Kitchen Pantry in the Perfect Way

Pantries are becoming more and more popular being one of the most requested features within the kitchen design. They are a loving element to a Nicholas Bridger handmade kitchen and a handy spot to keep the cooking ingredients and essentials all in one place. Since the middle ages, a pantry was where bread was kept and food preparation was done, with them being dedicated to a separate room in a Victorian large house and estates in Britain. Today the modern pantry is making a huge comeback in British homes, and the demand is due to both charm and nostalgia a pantry has to offer.

The word “Pantry” comes from the Latin word “Panis”, meaning “Bread”.

Pantries are not only a practical solution for the home, but they add lots of style. From large walk-in pantries to slim pull-out larders complete with bespoke racking, Nicholas Bridger has a solution for every size of kitchen, as well as meeting your needs and requirements.

Our kitchen designers can design the perfect pantry for your kitchen layout with the help from you. They can be built into a day pantry to keep all your tinned, boxed and dried goods in a handy place, as well as keeping them stocked up, all behind a double-doored full-size style. Or a sleek and stylish breakfast pantry to keep your toaster, coffee machine, bread and condiments you need to hand to create an incredible breakfast area that is hidden away, but instantly accessible, with convenient drawers and a cold shelf to prepare on.

We have helped many of our clients add the perfect finishing touches to their pantries with solid wooden drawers, spice racks and bespoke artisan open-shelves.

In our modern shaker below we levelled the bespoke shelves in order to fit the tallest of containers, so our client could organise their day pantry in the best possible way. A storage basket sits below on the ‘cold shelf’ perfect for storing fresh bread or vegetables and a nifty space to prepare on. The solid wood doors open outwards welcoming the chef to racks of spices making it easier for them to select the ingredients they need for that delicious Saturday night curry. We even incorporated drawers in the pantry cabinet for extra storage and placing items you may not need all of the time. We hand-painted this part of the kitchen in Moles Breath by Farrow & Ball.

The shelf spacing is a key feature to the cupboard as it can maximise the room you have for storage as well as just the right height for those tall tins and jars. A work surface can be added to large, deep cupboards where appliances can be stored, keeping them out of the main kitchen area. This ‘cold shelf’ is perfect for toasters and coffee machines to create the ultimate breakfast pantry. Prepare and serve all in one place.

Dividers in amongst the shelves separate all the dry goods and kitchen accessories, making it easy to organise a perfect pantry. Artisan spice and condiment door racks built on to the inside of the door are really handy for the small jars of spices, it makes it easy to select and add to that delicious recipe.

Bespoke shelves are beautiful choices but you do have to be careful and think about the weight of the items you are storing. Lighter shelves are perfect for cereal and bread while a sturdy oak shelf is a good option for holding the weight of jars and tins.

Chigwell’s finest barista station has been created in our project here. Shelves are divided to create an organised pantry with an integrated workspace that’s a wonderful way to store the coffee machine. We have helped our client to become a great coffee connoisseur, with the doors folding all the way around to fully open it when preparing and can be shut away when finished to create a minimalistic look to match the rest of the kitchen. Soft-close dovetail drawers were built underneath for all the coffee essentials for a busy morning ahead.

With pantries being hidden away from the main kitchen area by doors they can still become cluttered if not organised properly. With a neat and tidy kitchen pantry cupboard, you will be able to see what you have, what you have run out of and what you don’t need to stock up on. A great saving money idea too!

Stylish containers are a great option to decant dried goods into them. They can then be labelled up to make it more easier to select that specific ingredient.

Storing items in this pantry in our Potters Bar project has been a breeze with the stackable square containers. They are space-efficient and provide a visual arrangement of the cooking ingredients. Bulky packaging has been thrown away and lots of space has been created using this clever idea. This is a floor-to-ceiling traditional shaker pantry cupboard we designed for our client in their utility room. The shelves have been evenly spaced to fit the tallest of jars and storage containers, as well as managing to stack tins on top of one another, for our client’s stock. This unit has been hand-painted in Blackened by Farrow & Ball and designed with traditional in mind.

With the four seasons a year, items we use and the food we cook can vary between them. Larders are ideal to store items that can be swapped around that we use especially at Christmas or in the summer. Having a good sort through and throwing away unwanted food helps you to clear the clutter and free up the space ready for the seasonal foods and dishes.

Don’t overstock your cupboards. This can lead to a cluttered pantry and makes it difficult to see what you have, leading to wastage in the long run. Bring food items to the front that have a shorter date and move your recently bought items to the back. This allows you to organise the pantry in date order and uses everything up before it expires.

Slim pull-out larders like the one below allows our client to quickly select the ingredients they need to prepare that mid-week meal in a hurry. The kitchen island isn’t too far away providing our client with a wonderful multi-functional kitchen and plenty of worktop space. It has been designed next to the big American fridge freezer with another pull-out larder on the other side completing the kitchen cabinetry and providing the exact amount of storage our client needs.

Here at Nicholas Bridger, we pride ourselves in creating new and enticing designs to our projects to get the very best out of your bespoke kitchen. Sometimes storing food in a kitchen is often overlooked, so a pantry of any sort is a great addition to add an effective design in the hub of the home. Contact us today for a design appointment and how we can help you to achieve that dream kitchen you have always wanted – we look forward to hearing from you.