My Baking Pantry

During cooking school, I began dreaming of a baking pantry that would function like my own little home bakeshop, off of the kitchen in the new house, where I’d  store all of my baking supplies, and of course, bake! The plan was for it to function as a pantry for storing all of our food items as well.

To make the most of the space, I had shelves built into the interior wall just deep enough to hold pantry jars, canned foods, and baking/cooking supplies. Because they’re inset, it still allows space for the drawers to open on the adjoining wall.

The adjoining wall has open shelving for my cake plates, various glassware, pottery, and some cookbooks. And in summer, it’s a fun place to display my honey tin collection and picnic baskets.

The drawers below hold baking supplies, cake decorating supplies, cookie cutters, measuring cups, etc.

I’ve had the enormous pantry jars seen on the counter for many years and they’re favorites of mine. I love how much they can hold and they’re airtight. I’m still deciding if I want to do something different with the lids that aren’t quite the perfect color blue alongside the color of my cabinetry. Time will tell.

Cookie sheets and cooling racks are housed in the tall skinny cabinet on the lower adjoining wall as well as dishwasher drawers just to the right.

A big single basin sink is just to the right of the dishwasher drawers and is big enough to place large jelly roll pans in with room to spare.

Since all of the food items are in the pantry, it functions as a great space for the toaster as well.

The coffee maker is close by, which is handy in the morning near the toaster. The microwave is built into the cabinet wall just to the right. The cupboards all around are used for food storage, coffee cups, tea supplies, etc.

I chose to create a mix of cabinet styles and hardware in the pantry to give it a vintage feel and to create warmth. I think that when things are too matchy it can almost feel cold.

The cabinet doors have a shaker frame with a rolled detail, which gives them a bit of weight (aesthetically), and the drawers are completely plain. The face around each of the drawers and cabinets is “beaded”, which ties everything together in the space.

There is a mix of hardware, all from The Hardware Hut. (If you live in Spokane, Washington, you can visit Spokane Hardware to see everything in person, as it’s the headquarters for The Hardware Hut). I wanted some of the drawers to have the look of furniture so I used two simple brass knobs here to create that look. Brass window pulls were used on the dishwasher drawers and smaller drawers. A brass cupboard latch was used on the cabinet doors under the sink.

I chose not to have toe kicks in the pantry but instead of the cabinets going all the way to the floor, I had the flooring wrap up to meet the cabinets. Because this is a high-use space, I wanted the base to be completely scrubbable. This took a lot of planning to get exactly right so we had to know the exact measurements of the backing, tiles, and cabinetry, and then plan accordingly.

There are wall ovens just outside of the pantry, making them accessible to both the pantry and kitchen.

One of my happiest memories in the pantry so far was when my nieces Shea and Kaia came to visit and we baked blueberry lemon cake together. While the cakes were baking, the girls spent the entire time going through my cake decorating supplies, testing sprinkles, and learning a lot about baking. I hope it’s something they’ll also remember as a special time.

Notes:

• My Instagram page offers a detailed behind-the-scenes look at our building process, including the pantry, on my story highlights.
• I’ve done a series of posts on our house building process. You can find the first post here, the second post here, the third post here, the fourth post here, the fifth post here, the sixth post here, the seventh post here, the eighth post here,  the ninth post here, the tenth post here, the eleventh post here, and my guest posts on selecting door hardware here on The Hardware Hut blog and narrowing down the choices for our cabinet hardware with The Hardware Hut here.

Sources (some links may be affiliate links):

• Cabinet Hardware: The Hardware Hut
• Sink: here
• Faucet: here
• Pantry Jars: here
• Hand Towels: here
• Cabinet Paint: SW “Sleepy Blue”. (This color tends to vary GREATLY in different lighting. If you are interested in this color, I highly recommend testing it first to see if you like it in the space.
• The counters are quartz in a Calacatta marble style.
• The floor is made from 1″ Carrara marble tile, with a contrasting 1″ white marble tile band and was inspired by a coffee shop in Toronto.
• I’m unable to share information on the cabinet maker.

If you have specific questions, please post them in the comments below so when I respond, I’m able to answer and share with anyone else who is following along and may want the same information. Thanks!