What's across from the island? It looks like a small closet and then a run of cabinets, desk, or other built-in. It's shared w/the Morning Room & Kitchen. Could you put a run of pantry cabinets there? Or, perhaps a built-in look with sliding doors or bi-fold doors?

Another idea is to have a finished end panel for the refrigerator and then build shelves that are "braced" on the back wall and angle wall sides. That would allow you to use every inch of room in that small area. I'm not sure what to do about a door though since doors need wall room...

Since you're worried about freezer room, I assume you won't have an auxiliary freezer anywhere else (utility room, basement, etc.). If there was a way you could have another freezer, it would solve your problem (have your DD's snacks, etc, in the kitchen refrigerator/freezer so she can easily access them...do I remember correctly that your DD is in a wheelchair...or is that someone else?)

HTH!

this sounds like the perfect opportunity for a pull out pantry. I don't have one but saw it on TV. Something like the "AKURUM Base cabinet with pull-out storage", but a made a bit slimmer and of course much taller. I think these slim pull out designs are great because nothing will get lost. good luck!

Would the budget allow for a true 42" built-in? Space limitations played a big role in our decision to bite the bullet and I'm glad we did. I love the easy access in both the freezer and fridge sections.

I would be miserable stuck with an 8" wide pantry. I went from 15" to 53" and am lovin' it! My shelves are 12" deep. Gives me plenty of room to be organized.

Will you have enough cabinet space elsewhere if you make a smaller pantry? We had a chimney that we had to build around in our expansion/remodel and initially we were going to just put panels on it to look like a pantry/cabinet when our KD said, well for the cost of panels you might as well order a shallow pantry. So our pantry is maybe 10 inches deep and 27 inches wide and we find on the upper shelves we put the tupperware, dish washer detergent, scooba cleaning (we have young kids and it is easier to get to than the under the sink cabinet with child proof lock), we keep all the freezer bags and sandwich bags on another shelf, we have toddler/baby food on other shelves, sodas and cheerios boxes on another. We also have another pantry that is deeper and only 18 inches wide and that has everything else. Now my DH likes to buy on sale (good and bad) so we needed to have a bigger pantry because he buys 2 and 3 of an item. If I did the shopping, we probably wouldn't need the second pantry other than to have someplace for the napkins and paper plates etc. My instinct would be to go for a bigger pantry. But I guess it comes down to if you need the freezer space more than the pantry space, if you buy ahead/in bulk, if there are other places to store what you have.

sdionne... I got to the same point designing our kitchen. I could cough up the money for appliances that make sense, but honestly, I could not say that I was going to be happy with the all fridge and all freezer either. I still wanted a machine with water and ice in the door AND I wanted another ice maker. (I was looking a the Whirlpool Gold, if I remember correctly.) So, decided to do a larger standard sized fridge with a cabinet surround box with ice and water in the door and put two more under-counter U-Lines strategically placed in the kitchen. One keeps eggs, cheeses, lunchmeats, quick froZen snacks like hot-pockets or potpies and the other is an ice maker and keeps sodas, yogurts, snack packs of fruits, puddings, juice, water, etc. This left me with a 6' x 7' corner to put a walk in pantry. I do not know what I would have done without this pantry. Miserable is all I can imagine! I also have another fridge with undermount freezer in the garage for wide platters, etc. I still want an all freezer. I just did not want the kind of heat they produce in my kitchen.

Thanks all.

Buehl, yes it is my daughter who is in a wheelchair. I'm not sure I followed the suggestion for braced shelving. I can be dense at times. :) It sounded like open shelving to me, is that what you meant?

The area across from the island is supposed to match kitchen cabinetry but be my "pretty" spot. Basically it would have glass doors on the sides and an arched niche in the middle to display things. In the base cabs I'm considering putting in refrigerator drawers for drinks and stuff on one side, the other base cab drawers would be for whatever. Too, if $$ becomes an issue, that would be the area that would wait to be finished.

I do have a separate upright freezer, but my reason for considering the All freezer all refrigerator was to do away with the upright freezer and have everything right there in the kitchen, since I do a lot of bulk shopping and rely a lot on frozen veggies. *sigh* Decisions, decisions, decisions.

As far as other storage in the kitchen, I'll have a
super susan 36x36
30" base cab for advantium
33" base cabinet
11" base cabinet
2 x 15" pull outs
2 36" drawers (pots and pans)
1 shallow 36" drawer
Vertical storage in a 21" cab that houses a prep sink
19" base that will be used for storing tall things

This doesn't include upper cab storage which is as follows:
33" upper cabinet
24" upper cabinet
27" lazy susan
2 x 27" glass door cabs
Additionally, IF I went with the 32" AR & 32" AF, I would probably have cabs over top for storing big, seldom used appliances, since that wall (the refrigerator wall) should be a total of 90" in height and the AR/AF are only 68.63 in height (though I'm not sure if that is with or without the risers) I could have 20" high cabs on top of the AR/AF. They's be too high for pantry though.

One other option is to do an All refrigerator only, but I hate the thought of going from room to room everytime I want to cook veggies. :)

Pantry shelves need to be strong enough to hold canned goods and other heavy items. This means that it's a good idea to add extra supports/braces for the shelves--especially shelves deeper than 12" or so.

Normally, pantry shelves are supported/braced along the sides and along the back and those supports are screwed into wall joists (or drywall anchors are used, but they're not as strong...ask me how I know!). If the shelves are supported on the sides, you often can just put supports interspersed along the back wall.

However, if you have just a finished end panel on one of the walls, you will not be able to support/brace the shelves on that wall so I would recommend supporting/bracing the shelves the entire length of the back wall + the entire length of the right wall where you will have a wall erected (angled wall). I think this kind of support/brace will be sufficient. For added strength, you could also add a functional corbel under each shelf in the corner that meets the finished end panel that extends from the back wall to at least half the depth of the shelves.

Below is are pictures of my basement pantry. Our shelves are 24" deep in the back (side shelves are 12" deep) so my DH supported/braced them all along the walls--side and back. He also added center supports which you could do as well, although I don't think you would need them. Now that I think about it, you could add a single support stud on the left end (finished end panel end) that could be used to secure the shelves from the front.

Note the 2.5"x1.5" studs lengthwise along the back, sides, and front and the same size studs as posts vertically in the corners where the shelves meet. They are also on either side of the pantry door in the front of the shelves.

I don't think you have to go this far, I think my DH when a little overboard, but that's better than the reverse!

Oh, I get you, buehl. I was thinking. . .well, never mind. Suffice it to say I had a much different vision of what you were talking about. :) Thanks for the detailed drawings.

I've got a 48" GE monogram side by side that is GREAT! There's lots of storage in the fridge side, more in the freezer side than you'll get with virtually any freezer drawer, and I have my ice and water dispenser, without which life would be sackcloth and ashes. If you have 75" of space to use, you can get a mahungo fridge AND still have 27" of space for a pantry. If you used full-depth sliding shelves, you could get the same amount of storage as in a pantry 4 1/2 feet wide and 12" deep. Don't know if that helps, but you're not as limited as you might think.

Mollyred, I considered the 48" SxS, even posted asking for interior shelf measurements, but no one responded to that post and we don't have any 48" floor models close by. Would you mind measuring the inside of your 48"cher and posting the width of shelves on both the fridge and freezer sides? I can compare these to my current I-hate-it regular SxS.