Scullery
Bright lights Depending on the floor plan of your home, chances are your butler’s pantry won’t have a window in it, so artificial lighting is really important. As well as ceiling lighting (downlights work best; a pendant dropping down from the ceiling can make the space feel small), incorporate some lighting under your overhead shelving to illuminate the bench area. Use either downlights, as pictured here, or a row of LED ribbon lighting for a more consistent casting of light. Another great addition to your butler’s pantry is having your lighting connected to a motion sensor so that the ceiling lights come on automatically when you enter the room – a useful feature when you are laden down with shopping bags.
6. Open front pantry drawers A spacious walk-in or butler’s pantry with lots of storage is on most of my clients’ wish lists. If you are lucky enough to have the space, plan to incorporate some under-bench drawers instead of just shelves in your pantry. Opt for open fronted drawers like these ones so that instead of having to open every drawer to find what you are looking for, you can simply walk into your pantry, take a quick glance across the front of all the drawers, and pull out just the one you need. TIP: Use different drawer heights to store different items. A shallow-height drawer is perfect for storing cans and jars while a deeper drawer is great for flour, cereal boxes and bigger jars of spaghetti and other dried foods.
Functional materials Building a butler’s pantry space into your home can add additional costs to your build or renovation, but you can save money on the materials that you use for the cabinets and benchtops. Instead of using the same stone or solid wood benchtop that you have in your kitchen, choose a matching or contrasting laminated benchtop for a fraction of the price. The key is to create a look of consistency so that there is a flow between the two areas. Also, as I mentioned before, it’s not necessary to have doors on the cabinets, and this can save you money. It also means you can easily see all the contents on your pantry shelves. For the cabinets themselves, use the same hard-wearing, inexpensive white melamine board that your cabinetmaker most probably used to manufacture the carcasses of your kitchen cabinets.
Q