01 Feb Maximize Your Modern Kitchen Storage with These 10 Pantry Ideas for Diyanni Homes Designs

If you’re in the process of building your dream home with Diyanni Homes, and are looking for ways to maximize your modern kitchen storage, then this article is for you. With Diyanni Homes Modern Pantry Design, you can really see how easy it is for the kitchen to be the heart of your home. It’s the one spot of the home that you’ll spend a significant amount of time in multiple times a day. That’s part of the reason why open concept homes are so popular! Modern kitchen designs are all about the cabinet space, the sleek countertops, and creative storage solutions.

Pantries in modern home designs are meant for kitchens that are lived in. They are meant for storage and snacks! As you’re getting ready to build your new home with one of Diyanni Homes’ custom home designs, you should look into having a couple of these ideas worked in if they work for your family.

 

1. Varying Shelf Heights

One modification you can make to your pantry is to vary your shelf heights. Nothing is worse than having to find alternative storage for boxes that are unusually tall. Having a pantry should mean that you aren’t storing your cereal boxes on top of the fridge! When planning out your pantry, think about having shelves spaced out between 10” and 20”. The taller shelves should be toward the bottom, with the tallest in the middle at counter height. This will help with some of our other ideas later on!

Depending on your pantry and ceiling height, you can fit between five and nine shelves in your pantry. Some customers even put a sliding shelf or drawer at the very bottom of their pantries for maximum storage potential. Diyanni homes offers the latest trends in custom kitchen storage solutions.

Remember, just because one wall has size shelves, doesn’t mean that it has to be the same throughout! Don’t be afraid to mix and match sizes on all of the available space.

 

 

2. Storage Containers

We’ve all seen the perfect Pinterest boards that have perfectly organized storage containers lining the shelves. There are glass, plastic, wire, wicker options, and more! Finding the right option for your pantry should be an easy task, but there are some things to consider.

First, you may want to consider budget. Storage containers can range from a few dollars per piece to over $50 per piece! Pre-planning your pantry and what needs to go in a storage container versus what can stay in its original container will help you stay within your budget.

Second, think about the material you’d like your storage containers to be made out of, like glass, plastic, etc. Many people prefer to store their food in glass containers, which while more expensive, tend to last longer and have more benefits like resistance to absorbing odors and air-tight seals. There are lots of options within the glass family, too! Retailers like Amazon have glass jars that come with labels to match our modern kitchen designs, but there is nothing wrong in going with the tried-and-true Mason jar.

Then, there are more affordable plastic options. These can be better for families with small children because they tend to be more durable. Typically, these can be purchased at the same retailers, with many of the same labeling options to match our modern kitchen designs.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match your options. Wicker baskets on the bottom shelf make great options to store bulk toilet paper and prepackaged snacks. Then on the eye-level shelves, you can use plastic or glass to store things like sugar, flour, and rice.

Most importantly, when you’re picking out storage containers for your new pantry, make sure you’re choosing a system that you can keep up with. Unused storage systems are one of the leading causes of food waste, which can affect your everyday budget.

 

3. Small Appliance Storage

Classically, there are two types of families: those who keep their small appliances out on the counters, and those who store them away. With open concept homes, it can still go either way. If your purple toaster is part of your design aesthetic, then leave it out on the counter! If it’s not, consider dedicating one of your lower shelves to your less-used small appliances to keep your counters clutter-free.

An alternative option if you’re early in the buying process is to plan for an extra countertop to be placed in your pantry with added electrical outlets. This way, you can leave the ugly toaster in the pantry, or have extra room to cook for when you’re entertaining.

 

4. Hidden Storage

If you are anything like the staff here at Diyanni Homes, you love to cook. Seasonings are one of the hardest things to store and store neatly. When you do store them, it can look messy and then you forget what you have. If you’re looking to keep your open concept home neat and tidy, consider some hidden storage options in your pantry, like under cabinet spice racks.

Another option is to use a combination of open storage and cabinets in your pantry. Countertop height cabinets in your pantry can help you keep some of the more unsightly items hidden away, like cleaners, paper products, and those snack cakes we’re hiding from our children.

 

5. Tricky Corners

Any time you’re putting shelves in a square room, you’re going to end up with some tricky corners that can be tough to keep organized. Don’t worry, we have some options that we like to use in our modern floorplans!

First, those tricky corners are great places to store things like brooms and mops. They keep them out of the way and contained to a defined space.

If your shelves are creating those tricky corners, there are still some other options! On the larger shelves, it is a great places to keep paper products. On the smaller shelves, consider purchasing a Lazy Susan so that all of the items stored in the corner are easily reached. If you are more of a DIY kind of person, you can also make one with two cake pans and some marbles for about $3 at your local dollar store.

Another way to maximize storage in corners is by off-setting the shelving so that shelf A is vertical and the next shelf is perpendicular. Alternatively, if you’ve chosen to go with cabinets, corner-specific drawers are becoming a more popular option.

 

6. Mix and Match

Like we mentioned previously, our custom home designs are meant to be lived in. Your Diyanni Homes modern pantry design can be customized to create a system that works for you and your family. Whether that’s built-in cabinets or wire shelves, we’re always looking to make your new home your dream home.

One of our favorite design suggestions is to mix and match styles in your pantry. Not all pantries are built the same, and some of them deserve to be shown off! We can mix and match cabinets and open shelving on the building side, and when your home is complete, you can finish the mixing and matching with glass storage containers and black wire baskets on the bottom. You can mix and match everything from materials to textures to colors in our custom home designs.

 

7. Maximize Your Storage In Your Modern Pantry Design

The main part of a pantry’s job is to keep a stock of food and supplies. Even if you’re going for minimalism in our modern floorplans, you’re still likely to want to have extra essentials and will need a place to store them. Because of this, maximizing your pantry space is crucial.

One of the easiest ways to maximize your storage is to install a rolling element to the bottom of your pantry. If you’ve chosen cabinets, a drawer can easily be installed. If you have open wire shelving, rolling flat carts are a great option. Why is it important to have a rolling element on the bottom shelf? You’re more likely to use the items on the bottom shelf if you can access them easily. Otherwise, that bottom shelf is commonly used as the catch-all.

Another easy way to maximize storage is to make sure that your shelves go up to the top. Depending on your ceiling height, there could be a ton of unused space in the top 1-3 feet of your pantry! Because this space may be a bit less accessible, we suggest using this space for those holiday-specific items that don’t get used in everyday cooking.

Finally, this may be taking a note out of the College 101 handbook, but many people overlook the storage opportunity that the back of the pantry door provides. You can use a shoe rack and store all of those tumblers, or install an over-the-door rack for the most used items in your kitchen.

 

 

 

8. Label Everything

We don’t know about you, but we can safely say that almost everyone has at one point or another picked up a can without a label and guessed what was in it. One of the best ways to stay organized within our modern kitchen designs are to make sure you label everything.

We’re not saying that you need to label every can, but if you’re choosing to repackage your bulk goods, it’s a good idea to make sure you label it. Things like powdered sugar and cornstarch look an awful lot alike, but they definitely don’t take similar!

Not only will you want to make sure you label anything that you take out of the original container with the proper name, but you should also make sure that you add directions. If you don’t make rice often, you might not remember the right water-to-rice ratio. Also, many of the different types of rice have different ratios and cooking times!

Finally, you’ll want to make sure that you add either purchase dates or expiration dates to repackaged items. While dry canning (if using mason jars) can elongate the life of the product, you’ll still want to know what to use first to reduce the amount of food waste in your kitchen.

 

9. Rotating Stock

Another common mistake that many people make in their new pantry is that they buy new food before the old food is gone. When you do this, your pantry is likely to get overcrowded and sometimes things can get lost. A good way to cut down on having two boxes of cereal open at the same time is to make sure that you have everything placed in a specific spot.

 

Additionally, when you purchase multiple food items, like cans of soup or veggies, make sure that you’re rotating your stock so that the older items are used first. We’ve all had that one grandma that has salad dressing in their cupboard from 1996, and we don’t want to do that in our new open concept home.

 

Lastly, don’t forget that if you’re repackaging your pantry items, you’ll want to rotate that as well. For example, if you are restocking your jar of flour, make sure to dump the current flour in a clean bowl, wash your container, add the new flour, and then add the older flour on top so it’s ready to be used for the next recipe.

 

 

10. Quarterly Reset

Our last piece of advice to make the most out of your pantry in one of our modern kitchen designs is to make sure that you do a quarterly reset. It’s a good idea to review the items in your pantry, get rid of anything that went out of date, and make a list to restock.

Part of this reset should also include inspecting your items for damage from pets, children, and household pests. It’s always better to be safe rather than sorry, and no one needs to keep those hardened marshmallows from last year’s bonfire.

Now that we’ve shown you everything you need to know about pantry organization & custom kitchen storage solutions in our modern kitchen designs, we’re sure you’re wondering what the next steps are.

We would appreciate you sharing this article with your friends. Also don’t forget to comment on the article with you savvy home pantry organization tips! Explore Our Home Designs

For more information on building the custom home of your dreams, or have questions give us a call today at 1-855-DIYANNI.