I have a pantry in my kitchen that I need to install shelving in. It's about 3 ft x 4 ft in size. Looking for some ideas as to how to best use the space and what I should do (wood vs. wire).

Hopefully some of you guys can help. Maybe I'm just over thinking it.

I just shared my solution in this thread...

https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/2329282_Weekend-project-Pantry-Build.html

Wood, not wire.

Is that 3' wide or 3' deep?

Don't do wire shelving.  It looks "cheap" and honestly looks more like an afterthought than anything. If you insist on wire, cut it a 1/4" short so you don't mess up your walls trying to drop it into place.  Honestly the best thing to do is buy a bolt cutter and cut them yourself at the house.  

Me personally I'm ripping all of the wire shelving and making nice "built-in's" for the closets and the pantry.  If you add a strip of wood to the front of the shelf you'll increase the rigidity of the shelf.  Max span for 3/4" ply is ~36" without support.  Can stretch it a little further if you add the wood to the front.  More ideas here.

Here is the space.

Does it make sense to do U shaped shelves? L shaped? Back wall only seems like a waste.

Attached File


Gotta get the trim installed still as well.

Yes do U shaped.  My pantry is currently done that way.  Without it the storage capcity would be crap.

Side note.  If you want more room in there, consider insetting the pantry into the stud cavities.  Bascially rip out the drywall and gain an extra ~3" of depth in the back and on the interior wall side.  Obviously don't do it on the exterior wall side.  You might lose that outlet though.

I'm not sure I'll need that extra room. Eventually I plan to enclose the breezeway between the garage and kitchen which will result in more storage space if needed.

This pantry is significantly bigger than the one where I currently live. And the kitchen cabinets haven't been installed yet. I suspect, for now anyway, I'll have plenty of storage space.

As for the U shape shelf. Do I try to cut that out of one piece of wood for each shelf?

How many should I make? What distance between them? How high off the floor? Etc, etc.

Probably easiest to do it with two pieces.  Do you have a tablesaw?  Can it take a dado stack or do you have a router with a straight bit?  I have a few ideas of how you can do it.

I do not have a table saw but I'm sure I have a friend or two who does that would loan me one.

I have a router (some old clunky craftsman one).

I used track wall brackets and three different sizes of melamine board in my pantry.  12", 10" and 8".  All white.  I'm happy with how it came out.

The 8" board is higher than the door but can still be reached.

Attached File


My pantry isn't sideways.  

I personally like white melamine shelves on
Knape 80/180 standard & bracket.
It allows you to adjust the height of all the shelves.
I also prefer different depth shelves on each wall.
Say 14-18” deep on the deep wall & 6-8” on the narrow walls.
Depending on room I’ll sometimes go as shallow as 4”
There are a lot of items I have found that you only have 1 of and on deeper shelves it just get buried.

@K1rodeoboater I'm curious to hear your idea. I'll probably be able to get to this in the next week or so, just trying to tie up some loose ends as far as painting windows.

I've also started to cut out the baseboard radiators to get them blasted and respray in my garage because apparently I just fucking hate myself.

Got the dimensions?

@K1rodeoboater

34 3/4" deep (wall to wall or roughly 34 1/2" wall to door trim). 47 inches across.

5" from side of trim to wall on the right side of the door. 6" from side of trim to wall on the left side of the door.

98 1/2" tall.

The hardest part is often anchoring the standards.
On every stud with 16 inch spacing works well.

how deep are the shelves? I like that idea

U shaped avoids the dark and deep shelves that you cannot see under well.

There are a number of brands of batter operated light to put under shelves.

They often have a 'motion sensor' of sorts to turn them on and off.
How well they work is hit or miss.

Many do not have sensors adequate enough to sense IR from a warm hand passing near them.

If you purchase them make sure you can return them if they do not operate in your application.

They are often more useful in closed cabinets that  are very dark until the door is opened to shine some light and trip them on.

It is stil far more reliable to just put in a wired switch that operates
at a lower AC voltage (like 24 VAC) since 'central heat' transformers are inexpensive.
The voltage is high enough to allow reliable switch contacts, and the wires are small
enough to be easily attached to the bottom of the shelves and run through walls with
little protection required.

The NEC has rules for low voltage power limited control circuits that are rather relaxed.

It can still be a bit of a PITA to run the control wires, 120 V power lines, and hide relays
under the shelves though.

I try to get as much of the wiring in place before installing the shelve.
At 24 V power limited those wires do not require boxes of any type to make junctions.

The 120 V supply lines DO REQUIRE enclosures.

If you step up to 48 V you can power incandescent lights with thin wires and still do
not have to enclose them or protect them all that much.

Voltage below 24 start requiring larger wires for incandescent.
LEDs are better but can be hard to find in commercial packages at reasonable prices.

I have cannibalized LED light by removing there 120 V power supplies and running them at lower voltages.
With the advent of lower voltage lighting yo may be able to find LED lights designed to operate on
lower voltage DC but not the super low 12 V range.

The COB type LEDs and fixtures using them operate on slightly higher DC to keep the
current down and reduce the wire size to feed the power to them.


'Bare' LEDs often need series resistors or a switching power supply to drive the actual LED.
Using the resistor to ballast them ends up wasting a lot of power (but still well below an incandescent light).

If it is powered by 120 VAC at some point actual power may not be as much of an issue.
I have some small COB power supplies that switch 120 VAC inputs to drive lower voltage LEDs without being
oversize and requiring large low voltage conductors.
You just use more of them.
Maybe one for every 2 to 4 shelves.

It is not all that hard to hide the small NEC required boxes on the bottom of upper
shelves at the back of a few shelves.

Good planning can limit how much work you need to do after the shelves are installed.
I have placed very small plastic boxes near the underside front of the shelves to reduce
the work required after they are installed.

If you use thinner plywood for the shelve and add a wooden edge to stiffen them it provide
a nice place to hide boxes at the front of the shelf to make the 120 V connections.

It is mostly a game of finding lower (but not as low as 12 V) light sources.

Look at the electronics stores (like Digi-Key) for boxes, wires, relays, etc.
They have a few light available also.

Mouser is another vendor.

30 V seems to be a popular voltage for round low profile packaged COB lights.
30 V pacaked COB lights