I've had this pantry project in mind since the first walk through of the house in April 2003. There was an existing pantry, but it was too small to be helpful, and as I started working on the house, I realized I could make it bigger. I took space out of the library which wasn't useful to begin with, and I made the door opening wider to accommodate two doors, necessary for the eventual pantry system depicted in the first image below.
From the beginning, I knew weight would be an issue, consequently, the pantry doors each have four large butt hinges, instead of the conventional two or three, even though each door is only 15" wide. I knew I would use piano hinges for the swinging door shelves. Once I settled on a single, ¾" wide center section (instead of the two in the original concept), I recognized I would have to vertically offset the left hinge from the right hinge to prevent screws from either side contacting each other.
Once I did the mockup (see pics below), I realized that the nosing of the center section was a weak point and needed reinforcement. Thus, the dowels as depicted farther below.
To review, this is an image scanned from a magazine that got me started.
Starting with a clean slate, I opened the wall and inlaid a nailer into the studs to support the eventual center section.
I cut up some plywood and made some shelves. Sounds simple, but there's a lot more to it than that.
There was always going to be a center vertical section to support the hinged shelf units. Originally, I thought I'd cut shelves to fit without the center support and then cut them each in half by the thickness of the center support. It turned out that all of the various dimensions (width/depth of the pantry, width of the door opening, etc.) meant I couldn't get a single piece of plywood in the pantry.
I wound up making patterns out of lattice (much as counter top fabricators do) to cut shelves to fit. The lattice was flexible enough to get in and out of the pantry, and I then traced the outline on each shelf blank, trimmed to fit, and then cut down the center line, allowing for the thickness of the center support. The result, crude though the process may sound, was a surprisingly consistent and good fitting set of shelves. What really astounded me was that the shelf edges, both front edge and each side edge, all aligned perfectly and were perfectly plumb.
I built a clever sliding jig for my table saw to get the front and side edges perfectly square to each other, and square to the center cut. Every other edge was compromised either by the variances due to joint compound or less than perfect framing (some of it mine).
A small mockup of one of the pantry door shelf units helped insure I had clearance all around.
This is how each door will swing 180° to reveal another layer of storage and permit access to the shelves behind.
Sides, web (central panel), top, and bottom panels dry fit in the shop. This was a big deal.
I had previously mocked up the swinging shelves in foam board, but once actual construction started, I made some minor dimensional changes which needed to be tested. Since by this time I had actual shelves and an actual center section, it was a trivial matter to set up for the manufacture of a small section to demonstrate the necessary clearances had transferred from drawing and foam board to actual wood. I'm glad I did for a couple of reasons.
First, SWMBO, to this point, hadn't really grasped the concept of the swinging shelves despite the image from which I was working, and despite the foam board mockup. Seeing actual wood on actual hinges was an “ah, ha!” moment for her. That was exciting. Second, notwithstanding the perfectly plumb shelf edges and center section, I discovered an interference issue on the right side due to the center panel being out of position (offset) about 3⁄16" (to the right). I was faced with some choices.
I could ignore it—the “wallpaper principle”—where no one will ever be able to notice the difference. I could accomplish this by the simple expedient of making one door shelf unit about ¼" narrower than the other. The drawback, however, is I know it's there. Or, I could cut each shelf on the left off by about 1⁄8", and add the same amount to each shelf on the right—in each case, doing the surgery at the junction of the center support, the net result being the center section shifted left by that amount. The only problem with that approach was the rabbet (and stopped nose radius) on the two top shelf halves. I solved that by doing the surgery on the top shelf on the wall sides of the shelf, which also necessitated a concomitant surgery on the left/right nose edgings of those two pieces. Who said life was easy?
The long and short of it was, I did do option two, and while it was a bit of a pain (as in impeding further progress until it was completed), and ensured that the final result was going to have to be painted rather than varnished (my plan all along, but some interim observors had lobbied for a clear finish), the end result was worth the effort—perfectly symmetrical and plumb assemblies in every respect. Now I could proceed to manufacture of the shelf doors illustrated by the dry fit, above right.
The center section clamped to the saw so I could fit the piano hinges on the front edge.
All those screws just ¼" from the edge were a fault waiting to become a chasm. Although there isn't a dowel at each screw location, where they are, the screws will drive into the dowel.
Time to do some painting—preceded by priming, of course.
I actually had the shelf door parts built before starting the painting, but I adopted a “Phase” description for the pantry project. Phase I is the shelves and center support. That's a stand alone part of the project, in that it doesn't depend on any of the next phases for utility. We can start loading them up once installed, and proceed on the swinging shelves when the mood strikes.
Phase II, which as you've seen is already underway, is the swinging shelves. Phase III is whatever we wind up doing with the pantry doors. The original plan was to place shelves on them, but there are a couple of reasons for scaling that goal back. One, is need. Between the space on the shelves and the space on the swinging shelves, we're going to be able to store a lot of stuff. Second, unlike in the concept image, our pantry doors (at least the one on the left) don't swing fully open (the one on the right can, but the baking cart is usually there, minimizing the utility of a fully opening door).
Consequently, we're thinking of Phase III as optional for now, although we may implement a scaled back version, with a few small shelves for herbs and spices, and perhaps some roll ware storage (plastic wrap, wax paper, aluminum foil, etc.). It will never be a full on can storage system.
Here is Phase I, complete.
Shelves loaded up.
Overview with surrounding furnishings. Now you can see why Phase III won't be implemented completely.
As you've seen, I've had the Phase II doors all cut and dry fitted. Now with Phase I complete, it's time to get to work on completing Phase II. There's been a month or so of sloth but tonight I hung (temporarily) the two swinging shelf doors as a full size “proof of concept” test fit. The concept was actually proven in the mock up earlier, but I wanted to make sure both doors cleared everything at full height (the mock up was only about a foot tall) before I went on to the priming and committed to the glue up stage.
I'm glad I did. The surgery I did before final assembly of Phase I wasn't quite enough. Of course I'm not going to go back and repeat that effort, so the solution this time will be to cut about ¼" or so out of the web on the right hand door/shelf. I'm also planning on rabbeting the hinge side of each door/shelf to accommodate the hinge and that may prove to be all the extra clearance I need.
The two swinging doors temporarily mounted on hinges to test the fit.
Left door partially swung open. The “horns” above and below the top and bottom shelves will be trimmed flush before painting.
Left door fully open. I'm pleased with the room for access to the rear shelves on the side with the door open.
Phase II compete, 23 August 2009. I'm very excited about this, as is SWMBO. We're finally able to put organization into the kitchen with enough storage space to be able to do a fair amount of stocking up on things. In truth, I wish I'd done the pantry another foot wider with wider doors, but everyone has “two foot-itus” about things—my shop, for example. Nah, we'll be happy with it the way it is, especially when we've fine tuned the organization.
Here are the shelf doors with the shelves cut, fitted, and glued in.
This is a closeup with a section of the shelf lip stock I milled. I think it's a nice balance of the right height, a pleasing thickness, and considerable added strength to the span of the ¼" shelf stock.
The shelf doors are assembled and painted, awaiting installation.
The first coat of primer was shot using shellac based Kilz® before assembly. That made dealing with all the nooks and crannies of four bays of seven shelves apiece much less taxing. It was bad enough finish painting. I got the general first coat of finish paint in the cavities before we left for my mother's 90th birthday party, then put a second coat in when we got back, while rolling a finish coat on the outside surfaces while the cranny paint dried. Construction of the shelf doors was complete and I let them set a couple of days for the finish to harden.
The shelf doors standing in the pantry space awaiting installation.
Doors in place and stocked.
The right door has been swung 180° clockwise to expose the shelves on the back side and to expose the Phase I shelves on the right side of the pantry.
The compromise in the design is easy access versus wasted space. We can store a whole lot more, but the shelf doors do have to be moved to access the shelves in the rear. I think we can live with that. There's room for 112 soup cans on the two doors, by the way.
This completes all of the renovation that was conceived from the time we bought the house. Six years? That's not too bad, is it? In fact, a couple of things have been added to the list in the meantime, so I'm not out of the woods, yet, but I can relax a little. What's to do? The guest bathroom needs remodeling. Paint and paper won't do the job, so some cabinet work will be involved. Some friends donated their nearly new carpet from their own remodel which will go in the two remaining bedrooms currently sporting “white trash terrazo”—my computer room and SWMBO's craft room. Paint first there.
We also need to erect a shed in the back yard so we can get all of our gardening equipment off the back porch and out of the shop. Ultimately, I'd like to rebuild the back porch (including a whole new roof structure) and reduce its footprint slightly. And of course, my shop still needs organizing…it never ends.
Main Page