Sort of. It is only one half of a hallway, and I always picture a butler's pantry as being both sides, or even an entire room, but it is located (between kitchen and dining room) and used -- and called -- the same.

We store silver, crystal, linens, trays, holiday china, barware, etc. in it. We use it for serving, as well, both dinner and cocktails depending on the occasion.

Christmas Eve sushi:

Storage:

We had the original ca. 1925 butler's pantry/breakfast room in our last house. The built-in was a whopping 8' wide. We had the good china and crystal displayed in a large piece in the dining room, so the butler's pantry got a more casual assortment of things. The lower closed storage held party supplies, liquor and flower vases.

Beautiful butler pantries! I don't have one, but I wish I did. They're the perfect place for all the dishes and serving pieces that never seem to fit anywhere else :)

Jakabedy- Vase storage is a great idea. If there was a bar sink nearby, it would be the perfect place for arranging flowers.

Can someone explain to me exactly what is a "butler's pantry"? How do they differ from a normal pantry? Please pardon the ignorance.

Pricklypearcactus - the Butler was in charge of the silver and the butler's pantry was where the silver, serving pieces, often the dinner and luncheon china, etc. was stored. This room or area was between the kitchen and the dining room and often contained the liquor cabinet and may have had access to the wine cellar. There was usually a sink, counters, and sometimes a table. often the upper cabinets were tall- right up to the ceiling and usually had glass fronts. The counters were wood, zink, linoleum, etc. depending on the period, location, etc. In some English novels the butler was depicted as sleeping in the pantry to guard the silver- do not know if that is true.

Today the butler's pantry has had a big comeback. Check out Willowdecor and other blogs for pantries. They are absolutely unbelievable! One gets pantry envy!

My grandmother had a butler's pantry but no butler! It was not a pretty as jakabedy's by any means!!! Wow that was lovely. It was much as I described with a zink counter on the sink side and mahogany on the other sides. There was a huge soapstone sink that my grandmother used for potting plants, etc. There was a buzzer under my grandmother's dining room chair that was supposed to be used to summon the butler to serve the next course, bring in the finger bowls, etc. - the buzzer rang in the butler's pantry- You can imagine what fun we had with that growing up in that house! Used to drive Grammy crazy!

HTH with the explanation of a BP

segbrown-
Could I ask the dimensions of your butler pantry?
Is it about 4.5' wide and 30" deep?
Thanks!

Rexroat, it is 63" wide and the standard 24" deep.

Mine isn't a proper butler's pantry--just the passage from the kitchen into the dining room with the living room wall on one side and the laundry walk-in closet wall on the other. I wanted a sink there, but the drain took up too much space. It does house all the serving pieces, luncheon dishes and flatware, trays (horizontal and vertical), napkins, etc., with a serving counter. On the other wall are stemware cabinets. Called such but holding the stems as well as the mugs and teacups, cream and sugar sets, company glasses, and some small knicknackery like tea bag rests. The wine and spirits were going to go in, but I decided a shelf in the pantry cabinet around the corner was better suited.

segbrown: beautiful butler's pantry. Nice detail on the counter backsplash.

O.T., but what is that flooring? I'm guessing some 4" hand-scraped walnut. If it is the hand-scraped variety, does it feel 'unusual' to walk on? I like the look, but am afraid the waves/bumps will feel weird underfoot.

Segbrown, I love that!!! That's what I think I want to do with mine. I love the lower plate storage area.
You know, I always assumed you were a guy because I went to high school with someone named Seth Brown....I actually imagined you to be him. Now I'm thinking you might be a woman! LOL!

Segbrown I love the granite backsplash and I wish I had seen if before I ordered the subway backsplash. Nice design.

Oic - I have handscraped antique walnut and I love walking on it. Where it is scraped it gently and I mean slightly cups your feet. Handscraped has its own look of course. I wanted more character which I got with the antique walnut not a flat matte look and the handscraping allows more of life to happen and not be as noticeable as a mat finish. Least that is what we think.

Floor is actually oak, and yes it's hand-scraped. Robbins Gatsby collection, Tudor Brown color, 5" planks. It doesn't feel weird to me to walk on. I always (95% of time) wear shoes, though.

THat's funny, spider! but you never know here, I guess.

Thank you so much, beachpea3! That was a really wonderful explanation and now I don't feel quite so lost on the subject.

Thanks everyone! And thanks for the photos, segbrown. So I guess 6' wide is not really big enough to have a sink in there also... ??

The architect has my BP at 9'x9' and my DR at 13'x13.5' which I'm afraid is way too small for a DR. I'd like to take some footage off the BP and add it to the DR, so I'm wondering how small to go and have it still be useful.

Anyone else have a BP and BP ideas to share? Keep them coming. Thanks!

Forgot to add... jakabedy, thanks for sharing your photo also. So that built-in is only 8' wide? It looks so much bigger than segbrown's at 6'... So maybe 7' wide would be the perfect width for me. :-/ IDK

Sorry! I'm obviously not awake yet. 63" = ~5' not 6'. I do know how to do a little math, I promise. I'll just stop talking now.

I think you could take something off 9 ft, certainly, to gain some DR space. I would do it.

And we could have fit a sink there -- in fact, we had one planned for there originally -- but then added a prep sink in the kitchen, fairly close, so didn't see the need for three sinks. Plus, that second photo is the view after turning from the foyer, so I wanted it to be a little more formal looking, maybe.

Our plan originally had one included in the hallway between the kitchen and dining room but I ultimately removed it and gave the space back to the dining room. It was only a 4' hallway.

We were going to use the space for wine storage, glasses, decanter, etc. on one side, and extra countertop/seat on the other.