A butler’s pantry design guide
A butler’s pantry is the perfect hiding place for all the functional elements of your kitchen that you don’t always want on show. As a natural extension of the kitchen, it gives you a secondary area to prepare food in, and a place to hide away mess from dinner guests!
In Australia open plan living is becoming the norm, with our living, dining and kitchen areas combined. This is great for entertaining as you can interact with your guests while you cook up a storm, but it’s not so great when dishes start piling up halfway through a get together.
This is where a butler’s pantry comes in – it’s essentially a mini kitchen within the kitchen. It can be used to wash dishes, prepare food and stow away mess, all completely out of sight.
What is your butler’s pantry for?
The first step in designing a butler’s pantry is to decide exactly what it will be used for. Will it be used occasionally or every day? While entertaining may be the first thing that spring to mind, a butler’s pantry can also be a great place to make a cup of coffee or wash your dishes. Once you’ve settled on its usage, the design will follow.
Location
As you would assume, the ideal location for the butler’s pantry is directly off the kitchen and out of sight of the living and dining areas. Decide whether you want to hide the pantry behind a door or leave it open. If opting to close it off, ensure any doors can be kept open if needed as it will become tiresome continually opening and closing the door. A sliding door is often a great option if budget allows. Once you have your location sorted, it’s time to think about the size and layout.
Size of your butler’s pantry
There are no rules when it comes to the size of a butler’s pantry. You may be restricted by an existing footprint if you’re renovating or limited by budget and kitchen footprint if building. As mentioned above, the size of your pantry will be determined by what you intend to use it for. But as a rough guideline you’ll need to allow a minimum of 1.6 metres by 2.2 metres.
Depending on the space you have to work with, you might design a galley butler’s pantry, an L-shaped pantry or a U-shaped pantry.
Choosing appliances
Unlike kitchens, butler’s pantries don’t have prescribed components that need to be included. Besides having cabinets and a counter top, the parts and pieces of a butler’s pantry can vary greatly depending on your needs.
Some butler’s pantries are essentially scaled down kitchens and have everything a typical kitchen has, while others only have cabinets, sinks and simple appliances, like a microwave, or a coffee maker, using the spot to free up bench space in your main kitchen.
Our recommendation would be to have your coffee machine in the butler’s pantry. That way all of your coffee elements such as sugar and coffee beans can be stored neatly next to the machine and not take up valuable space in the main kitchen.
Another appliance our customers like to add to their pantry is a dishwasher. Why? It means all your dirty dishes can be placed in the butler’s pantry and then loaded into the dishwasher – away from guests keeping your kitchen looking fresh!
Broadly speaking, here’s a list of appliances you could consider including in yours:
- Dishwasher
- Microwave
- Coffee maker
- Warming drawers
- Oven
- Cooktop
- Fridge/freezer
- Toaster
- Mixer/blender
Get the lighting right
Ensure your butler’s pantry has adequate lighting, and if possible, a source of natural light. LED strip lighting installed on the underside of cabinets provides great task lighting.
Don’t forget storage
Open shelving is ideal for a butler’s pantry so that you can easily access what you need. Install it right to the ceiling and organise contents by frequency of use. Glass jars or stackable square containers with locking lids are ideal for bulk dry foods like cereal and pasta. Wire baskets are good for under-bench storage and tricky corners can be utilised with pull-out cupboard systems.
Open shelving is also a great place to store appliances like air fryers, mixers and toastie makers, as you can keep them at a level of your choice that is easily accessible depending on their weight, rather than bending down or reaching up to a cupboard.
Butler’s pantry inspo
About NEFF
NEFF is a German-engineered kitchen appliance brand, with a product range that includes ovens, cooktops, rangehoods, coffee machines and dishwashers designed to make life in the kitchen a daily pleasure. For people who love to cook, NEFF gives you the tools to creative meaningful connections, express your creativity and make memories. Because real life happens in the kitchen.
Learn more about NEFF here.