Ideas for a pantry with pipe in the corner

[macduff89]

Hello,

I have a townhouse with a very annoying built-in pantry and fridge space. It is built with stud walls, fixed shelves and a narrow door which make it hard to use the space efficiently. Until recently the door from the garage also opened into the kitchen, clashing with the pantry door (especially annoying if you opened the door when someone was accessing the pantry) but I'm in the process of converting this to a sliding door. My plan is to remove the front and side walls of the pantry and install a modern cabinet pantry with above fridge cabinet, similar to the one I have mocked up in the Kaboodle 3D planner. There is one major challenge which is the main waste water pipe from upstairs comes down at the back corner of the pantry.

  

 

I have considered using the Kaboodle pantry cabinets and modify them to suit. One option is to fit a 600mm pantry cabinet on the right side and a 300 or 400mm cabinet on the left. I don't think it would be too difficult to cut spaces top and bottom for the pipe and move the back panel forward, however cutting the shelves down and drilling new holes for the shelf supports would be a pain. I could also use a 900mm cabinet but this means making odd shaped shelves and more complicated joins to fit around the pipe.

I'm also planning to get a quote for custom made cabinets but wanted to see what other ingenious ideas you guys could come up with.

Cheers,

Adam

[EricL]

Hello @macduff89

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fantastic to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about your pantry.

That plumbing certainly puts a wrinkle in your pantry set-up plans. In these situations, I usually suggest building a false wall and moving the entire setup forward so that you won't have to cut the pantry. However, this idea won't work because there is a door present next to the pantry.

Another option is to get a 600mm pantry and put 3 x 300mm wall cabinets one on top of one another to go into the gap. This saves you from cutting the pantry, but you do lose quite a bit of pantry space in the process.

Getting a custom cabinet carcass made means that you won't have to do any cutting, the other fella will be doing all the cutting. I suspect that the custom cabinet carcass might cost you a bit.

I'm aware that you're not too keen on cutting down the 900mm pantry. If you consider that you'll only be doing this custom cut for this one-off installation along with the shelves this one time, it won't seem so bad. You get to use all the space that is available to you inside the pantry. The plus, of course, is that you'll be saving a bit of money by not having a custom carcass made. You can then redirect that extra cash toward the other parts of your kitchen.

Let me call on our experienced members @redbournreno @prettyliving and @Adam_W for their recommendations.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric    

[macduff89]

Thanks Eric,

Great idea of stacking wall cabinets, it's tempting as everything would be off the shelf.

You're right about the 900mm cabinet, I just doubt my ability to cut everything perfectly, but if I decide to go that way I might have to find a friend with a table saw. It would definitely be the cheapest option.

One other reason I'm considering going with two separate cabinets is it would give me the option of using drawers or wire baskets in the 600mm portion.

[EricL]

Hi @macduff89

I've drawn you up a sample diagram of what the cabinets will look like once you have them together side by side. Please keep in mind that the wall cabinets will be closer to the floor as they are sized at 720mm in height. So joining three wall cabinets will give you a total of 2160mm, you'll need to cut a 40mm kickboard for the bottom of the assembly. If you wish to see it in another configuration, please let me know.

Eric

[redbournreno]

@macduff89 I like your original thought the best (600+300 pantry). Both for looks and budget. Don't be scared of getting stuck in and having a go!  The Kaboodle cabinetry is well packed  and it is clear which panels are for which part of the cabinet.

A circular saw, table saw or jigsaw should all work well.  Just make sure you you a sharp blade that is good for chipboard.  Another trick is putting masking tape over where you cut can help keep it neat.  You probably only need to cut the BACK of the shelves (only 1 side has the melamine trim so don't cut that off!) and the back panel on one side.

Bribe a friend to help you out with dinner or a beer (AFTER the power tools of course!).

An 8G countersinking bit for your drill might help too I think. Mark the position of any holes you will need to reposition, if you happen to have to cut them off.

Good luck.

[macduff89]

@EricL that's very helpful to see, thanks for going to the effort!

@redbournreno appreciate the thoughts and tips! I think you're right, this might give the best end result short of a complete custom design. Lots to think about while demolishing and finishing the walls!

[MikeTNZ]

Hi @macduff89,

Yeah that pipe is really poorly placed and there isn't really much you can do about that either.

Also bear in mind that that inspection tee just above the floor needs to be accessible in case you have a blockage in the soil pipe.

I mean it's pretty rare, but you don't want to be dismantling your pantry while a plumber waits for you to do this.

Just a thought.

Mike T.

[macduff89]

@MikeTNZ thanks for pointing that out! I had a suspicion about this, as the previous box built around the pipe had a cut piece screwed in at the bottom. Although they had then placed tiles in front and skirting on the side which had to be removed to get it out so that left me scratching my head. Anyway it  shouldn't be hard to cut a hole in the back of the pantry and screw a small cover over it.

Cheers

[macduff89]

Just an update on the pantry. I ended up going with the custom option which was installed this morning.

The cost was a little under $3300 for the final design with installation. 

I considered a few options using Kaboodle cabinets. I certainly could have saved a lot of money if I had gone for the simple option of a 900mm pantry with a cutout for the pipe. However for my preferred option with a thinner, shallow cupboard next to a 600mm pantry added quite a lot to the Kaboodle cost, but a minimal amount to the custom design. I also decided to add drawers to the larger cabinet. To achieve this design with Kaboodle I would have had to make some custom orders and then spend a lot of time making further modifications. After a chat to a kitchen consultant at Bunnings and finding out how long custom orders are taking at the moment, I decided the custom option was worth it in this case. I'm pretty happy with the final result.

 

I did all the demolition, plastering and painting myself. The next step is to use the materials removed from the original pantry to build a bulkhead above the new cabinets and install cornice. I'm also planning to get some Dulux renovation paint colour matched to the new cabinets and paint the rest of the kitchen.

[EricL]

Hello @macduff89

Thank you very much for the custom pantry update. That combination of 600mm and 300mm custom pantry cabinets looks perfect. No one would ever suspect that you're hiding a drain pipe behind the pantry. Whoever sees it would just be thinking that it is a design feature you've gone for. 

Accessibility for repair would have been the same had you gone for the single 900mm pantry, so going for something that you like I think is the best way to go. Will you be putting in a bulkhead to hide the gap between the cabinet and the ceiling? 

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing the final look of your kitchen when it's complete.

Eric