We have pull out drawers like the last photo and they work very well. I think they are easier to use and have greater capacity. We have a 10' bank of three cabinets, all with roll outs that are used for food storage, cleaning and pet supplies and one for linens.

I pulled out a loaded door-attached versions in a cab shop. I'm pretty strong, but it took a real tug. If it's thin and filled with light stuff it might be ok, but I passed on that idea and went with the pull out drawers.

I had pullouts like your first pictures....3 of them, each 18" wide and about 4 foot tall (they weren't full height, but set over an open cubby, where the cat's food went!)
They were heavy, but were sturdily made (my cabinet maker said he sat on each to ensure that they would hold up to 300 lbs. ) and easy enough to pull out, with good sliding hardware.

I loved them. Loved that I could easily see on either side and could get at the contents with one motion, instead of two (open door, pull out shelf). And they really were the best solution for me because the pantry area they were in didn't have a lot of spare room for cabinet doors to open into.

That being said, if I had had more room and/or planned to have wider units, I would go with the the roll out tray shelves instead, because the pull-out pantry cabinets DO have a downside. It's harder to reach stuff put in the middle of the shelves, between the two sides, and sometimes stuff would get pushed to one side or the other and have to be repositioned to close the pullout.

I have an 18" wide x 84" high in my own kitchen. My wife at 5' has not trouble with it fully loaded. Since we don't each always put things away the same I like that I can see everything at once. Mine is a Rev-S-Shelf.
For clients that want them I keep them between 18 and 21" wide. Nowadays I prefer Hafele to the RAS unit. If they are to built in the shop with a wood box I have them use the Hafele glide system. (The advantage of the wood box is odd sizes.) The glides need to hold the weight over time and regular drawer glides will develope problems.
Hafele now has one that can be pivoted after you pull it out- I would love to change mine out but that wont happen.

I have the last option and even though it is wedged against the wall(not the greatest but necessary), it is awesome! I never had a pantry before and would lose everything in my cabs. I find it to be very functional and hold a ton of items.

With the first option, is it limiting as far as sizes of items-- where you have to juggle things around or some things won't fit on certain shelves??
Are the shelf distances usually all the same height or do they vary?

Here's our plan although it's still ever-changing : ) One KD today asked about putting the pantry all the way to the right with the baking area in the middle and the ovens on the left... (from the angle you're viewing the plan)

I put one in as an afterthought and love it so far!
DH has a spot for empty bottles
We each have a sports food shelf and the top shelf hold a few tall items.
Shelves are adjustable.
It was expensive but one of my favorite items (Faucet and caves are the other favorites)

It is not too bad to pull out and we don't even have a handle on it yet (should arrive tomorrow!)

Picture before filling it up!

I am really, really liking my pull-out pantry cabinet. The top and bottom drawer are attached to the door and the others pull out separately. I definitely did not want a hinged door with roll out shelves because I knew we would not always roll the shelves in all the way before closing the door -- so the door would get banged up. (I saw them that way in the Ikea showroom.) Our is 15" wide, so no trouble at all with access. It holds a ton. The door is not heavy to pull out since there are only 2 drawers attached to it. In the top photo in this thread the position of the knob is a little odd to my eye; surely it would be easier to pull (and less stress on one side of the cabinet) to have a centered handle.

Thanks northcarolina- I'm having trouble understanding your description. Are you saying you only have 2 shelves attached to the door and the rest pull out like drawers?
I'd Love if you could post a picture of your set up if it isn't too much trouble : )

I have 2 15inch wide pullouts with adjustable shelves. I would not want them any wider as then I might have difficulty seeing what was in the middle. Generally, no stuff is in the middle.

Mine are loaded and very much loved.

Yes, that's it exactly, they are all drawers and the door attaches to two of them. This is Ikea, so it might not apply to your situation... it's sold as components and you choose how you want it configured. You buy the cabinet box and door, those are the same either way; then you decide if you want fixed shelves or drawers (DRAWERS!). The drawers and their slides and soft close things are the same no matter how you attach the door. Then if you want the door to be on hinges with pullouts behind it, you buy the hinges; if you want the door to be attached to the drawers, then you get the hardware for that. You buy however many of the "interior" drawer fronts as you need (the door becomes the drawer front for the top and bottom ones if you attach the door like I did). OR you can make the whole stack be separate normal-looking drawers (like in a base cabinet only all the way up), or you can use a shorter door with separate drawers or open spaces above or below, or... you get the idea. Anyway, here are pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Thought of one more thing. You can't really tell from my photos, but this arrangement makes it very easy to access things on the bottom 3 drawers because you can reach in from above, not just from the sides. You wouldn't pull all of the drawers out at the same time like that; if you need the pinto beans in the back of the 3rd drawer, you pull out just that one and there is nothing blocking you from reaching in. That might be one argument for the separate door with pullouts behind it vs an attached door, if the door would have to be attached to all the drawers at the same time. But it really depends on vertical spacing of the drawers, width, etc. I don't have a problem getting to things on the second drawer down (just below the attached top drawer) because it's far enough below the top one and also at eye level so I can see what's in there.

Thank you! I'm still not sure what I'll do but this helps : )

I am a fan of a shallow depth pantries with adjustable shelves. I'd rather have the stuff right in front of me than having to pull something out and reach between fixed shelves or look down from above as if the case with roll out shelves.

A shallow depth pantry (just deep enough to hold your deepest item) is also a boat load less expensive than a full depth pantry with roll outs or the pull out pantry.

I think the pull out pantry works well if you are trying to keep your refrigerator away from a 90 degree angle such that you'll be able fully open the doors and remove the bins, etc. - in this situation you are using the space that would otherwise just be a filler.

I'm with MamaPaige...I wouldn't want to pull out the entire unit, to grab crackers or cereal. My mom has the shelves and I would love to have some! My plan only has an 18" pantry, but I'm still excited :)

As for what the KD said, I think that might be a good idea. Your pantry would be closer to the fridge and table, which makes more sense and your baking area would be handy to the pantry and the ovens. Think cereal for the kids, in the morning...the cereal would be across from the milk, not on opposite sides of the kitchen. Just a thought...

I think whether you arrange your pantry space as a wide shallow cabinet or a narrow deep cabinet (pullout) -- or in its own little room -- depends as much on kitchen size and available wall space as anything else. In our house there is nowhere to put a bank of shallow shelves in (or near) the kitchen without giving up much-needed cabinet storage. But we did have enough room at the end of a run to turn those shelves sideways as a pullout pantry -- so it's good there are so many options. :)

I weighed the same options over and over. I have rollout drawers like in the 3rd photo. However, I do not have a full height pantry to the floor. My freezer drawer is at the bottom and the the rollouts and shelves above.

I get the issues about things getting lost in the middle of pullouts, like the 1st 2 pics. However the same thing can happen with rollout shelves, especially those that are at the higher up.

A pro of the pullouts are that it is one motion like discussed. Pullout and everything comes out. If they are not that wide, I can't see most things getting lost. Biggest issue is cans and that is the same issue even with rollouts. Although I did a shallow rollout where the shelf above is a little higher then a 28oz can on its side. I have the cans on there sides so you can read the labels when you pull it out

If you are the one putting groceries away, you tend to know where everything is located. That is the plus. When my wife asks where the x is located, I instinctively know and tell her exactly where it is located.

Now my cabinet is 31" wide and I have double doors like the 3rd pic. In retrospect, its kind of a pain. Have to open both doors to get something out. Same issue people complain about with french door fridges. Also, the wide rollouts aren't efficient either. Maybe its more my senario since I only have 3 of them but I have a shelf where there are tall things like bags of chips and much shorter items. In retrospect, it would have been better to have a divider and narrower rollouts. This would have allowed me to use all of the space more efficiently. But then again I would loose all the space with the divider and the extra drawer/rollout material. Hmmm.

lavender- your mom has roll out shelves you mean? I'm really thinking about moving the pantry. It does make sense. However there's something about it I don't like either. I liked the open feel of the baking center without it being totally closed in. Also directly across from that space in the DR will be a bar with fridge and I think having the sink right there is nice. Of course, the sink would still be there but not visually if it's closed in.

Here's an example of pantry on end. The pic is copy protected so here's the link. It's the 3rd pic: http://thymeandplacedesign.com/portfolio/ramsey-kitchen

northcarolina- you're right. A lot depends on the space you have. A shallow pantry holds less, etc. and a deeper allows less wall space to be taken..

***BTW, how DEEP is a pantry usually? Also, how deep is a wall oven cabinet??
Is there a standard depth? Can anyone tell what mine is in the diagram above?
I guess a bit over 24"?

todds- Great info, thanks! So I guess there's pros/cons to both. Sounds like you think a pullout like 1st pic might have the edge??

Also, one KD said we could even split it and do one pullout and the other side with roll out drawers. What do you think about that?
We'll actually have another 6-12" of cabinet on that run so I don't know if it should go towards pantry or towards the countertop area...

The.kitchen I just ripped out had 90" of 12" deep cabinets. In theory, and in using it as the pantry, I loved it. Nothing got lost, and mostly everything was on display. I couldn't justify the room for the new kitchen, tho, so now I have 36" of 18" deep shelving, and a 30" section of standard depth with rollouts. They both work okay, but if I had a huge kitchen, I would go back to the 12" depth. The rollouts are somewhat of a pain, as I put in mostly drawers everywhere else, and now I'm aggravated that I have to open doors, then pull the shelf out. I've got a bit of lazy in me.

I love our new chef's pantry-- it's a Rev-a-Shelf thing. You can see everything and the mechanism works easily.

There are shelves on the doors and in the back of the cabinet, and in addition, there are swinging shelves on a pole between them.

Here's the pantry with the front doors open...

..and here's the pantry with the right swinging shelves swung over to the left so that you can access the back shelves.

Actually I think there are pros and cons to both. The 1st pic seems like an edge but the one disadvantage is the since the entire unit rolls out together, it makes it more difficult to get things out of each row/shelf. Same things that many complain about with filler pullouts that house spices or oils. what northcarolina is showing is a hybrid of sorts. Allows you to pull out and gain access to the most used items, connected to the door and then pull out individual shelves that allow easier access as well since another shelf is not right above.

I have a pullout to the left of my rangetop and the door is connected to the bottom drawer. I then have two inner rollouts that are independent. It all of this was connected together, I would be limited to what I could easily get in and out of each of the rollouts. BY having them independent you can pretty much have things that go all the way up in height to the base of the drawer above and use all avail height.

I would say the best options are either a solution like Northcarolina's, where only a couple of drawers are connected (or the option to attach the other drawers and disengage from the door panel if needed (Ala blum tandembox) or use multiple bank/cabinets of rollouts with normal doors.

Thanks Everyone!
I actually H A T E my current pantry in my old kitchen. Looks cool but is such a pain. I hate opening both interior doors in order to get to the back. Then, if you went to the wrong side you have to close one of the inside swings and do the other one. Its just very cumbersome. And being it's so high/heavy things tend to fall off as you're swinging it around. Also with the height of the shelves both inside and on the doors many things DO NOT fit and we end up putting more than we should on the upper two shelves!

Fishies- I like the pantry moved...even with the bar fridge. The pantry and bar sink will make a great snack area...and depending on how often you use the microwave, I'd think about moving that over there, too.

I can see why you like the open feel, but picture just having baked cookies with the kids or having them with friends over (you did say you have kids, right?) and then sitting in the dining area. A little 'screening' might be a good thing :)

Also, as the kids get older, they can grab drinks out of the fridge or snack out of the freezer or pantry and make a snack, out of your main prep area. Just my two cents, but it I had kids, that's how I would set up the space.

And, yes...my mom has pull out shelves and they're great. You can see what you're looking for, without everything having to be pulled out or tipping over, depending on how well you have them 'secured' LOL. I like your pantry now, but I can see why it would be annoying to have to move all the small stuff, to get to the larger items.

2Littlefishies-- isn't it funny how we have the same kind of pantry, and I absolutely love it and you can't stand it? I love that about gardenweb-- you get a plethora of ideas, and one or two are bound to suit you to a T.

NaRo- YES!! Too funny! I didn't even realize you posted your pantry until I did mine. No offense and glad you love it! lol It has its benefits : )

We have the 15" wide, ~5' 6" high Rev-a-shelf pull-out. We also have a couple pull out shelves in a lower cabinet right next to it. Nice think about the pantry option is you can adjust the heights of the individual shelves after the install. The pull out shelves are fixed.

Pulling out the rev-a-shelf is a mini workout in itself, however, and that's the only think I don't like about it. But our cabinet maker thought the wood rev-a-shelf version was more solid than some of the (lighter) wire-framed versions.

We lined up the cabinet pulls (long bar) with the counter top and this is working out well. You want the pulls a bit higher than where your top drawer pulls are.