Kitchen pantries are highly useful and practical to maximize storage and organize your kitchen and household items. Kitchen pantries are also practical to hide away unwanted clutter and may also work as an extra workspace and storage combined.
For a pantry door be, a minimum aisle width of 44 inches is recommended. This means a walk-through pantry needs to be a minimum of 60 inches wide with storage on one side and 76 inches for storage on both sides.
If you want to know more about pantry door widths, keep reading. We'll cover this and other related questions that you may have.
How Wide A Pantry Door Should Be
There are numerous types of doors to choose from and ways you can customize them, and it is important to come up with a good design for you to take advantage of its potential. Two major things you need to take into consideration are:
- How large is your available space?
- Do you envision putting additional appliances/household items inside the pantry?
If you answered yes on the second question, you need to make sure your kitchen appliances will fit through the door. The commonly used sizes of a single door are 32 inches and 34 inches but can be as small as 24 inches and as large as 36 inches.
It is also essential to take note of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements for kitchen storage. ADA compliance is based on the overall height of the work area, ground space, knee, and toe clearance combined. Presently, there are also a lot of new technologies and products which are more advanced and useful for adapting to ADA standards.
Note that your local city or county may have additional requirements that are more restrictive details. So make sure you’ve complied with ADA standards and review current regulations, always.
What Size Is A Walk-in Pantry Door?
A standard walk-in pantry is typically 5 feet by 5 feet and U-shaped.
To layout your walk-in pantry properly, you must again consider how big your space is and if you're going to put any appliances inside the pantry. Furthermore, determine which feature of the pantry is most important to you.
With these considerations in mind, a walk-in pantry door is typically 24 inches to 36 inches wide. The width depends on the amount of space you have available for a door or doors.
How Are Pantry Doors Measured?
Tip: Measure in millimeters for more precise measurement.
- On each perpendicular side, measure its inner surfaces. The longest measurement determines the height required, and always make sure to allot clearance for any floor covering.
- Measure the width of the door by taking three measurements on the inner surface of the door frame – at the topmost height, at the center and bottom. The widest measurement is the required wideness of the door.
- Once you have measured all of it, double check your measurements to be absolutely sure you have measured each door correctly.
Should A Pantry Door Swing In or Out?
It should always swing outward. One of the most common mistakes in building your pantry is choosing a door that swings inward. If you use a door that opens inward, it can be inconvenient to get to the items you've stored behind the door.
What Type Of Door Is Used For A Pantry?
Here are 7 types of doors you can use for your own pantry:
- Single doors, as the name implies, makes use of one piece of a door that operates by swinging.
- Double-door pantries are two sole panels that are placed alongside and attached on both sides of the doorway; they function either by swaying or gliding.
- A sliding door does not take up much floor space because they operate by sliding or rolling on tracks. Sliding doors come in single and double-panel designs
- A bi-fold door opens by sliding and folding back in a row of panels or divisions and is mainly used as room dividers.
- A pocket door is a sliding door that “fades” into the extent inside the wall when fully opened. A pocket door is attached from the ridge and travels along a trail and rollers, this type of door can be a single door or double door.
- Screen doors are very functional and have different varieties of their own that can flatter your desired style.
- Glass-doored pantries are ideal for small-spaced kitchens since they make the room appear bigger. There are various kinds of glass doors to select from like clear, frosted, textured, etched glass, etc.
How Do You Make A Pantry Door Look Good?
In styling your pantry, this obviously will depend on which kind of fashion you are going for as you build your pantry. There is a minimalist design, barn-style, sleek look, etc. There are probably hundreds of ways to make your pantry fancier.
However you like your aesthetics, these are general rules to keep your pantry in style:
Step 1: Declutter
There is a long list of reasons why an organized pantry is a good idea. Decluttering helps you to be able to clear away unused and unwanted items. Decluttering also helps you discover unnecessary items you have been storing in your pantry.
Step 2: Group "Like" Items
Place items you use often together and keep them in an accessible area, then your baking items together... you get the idea. Lastly, place your less frequently used items above or below. Lastly, make sure to create a "home" for each group.
Step 3: Tailor Storage For Your Needs
Have a uniform set of canisters with matching labels, seeing those perfectly lined up canisters can almost feel like therapy. You may elevate and find a great solution in keeping your pantry items organized by using tools like round spinning trays or baskets. As always, whatever it is that suits your needs.
Step 4: Sort Appliances
To make your pantry as functional as possible, it’s a good idea to sort your appliances. You may also encounter appliances that are no longer useful and ones that don't just make the cut. You can either donate or sell them. Space is a valuable commodity in your pantry so make the most of it.
In Closing
We hope that you now have a good handle on how wide a pantry door should be! For more pantry door-related content, check out the following posts:
