Discuss Pantry: Pull-out v/s Door ?? on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. Pantry: Pull-out v/s Door ?? - Need help with planning your remodel? Want a kitchen planner to review your ideas? This is the happenin' spot!.
For anyone with a pantry -
What are the pros/cons of pull-outs v/s doors + drawer/shelves? Are the pullouts easier to use, or do you find yourself blocked by the attached upper drawer? More clearance needed or less? Easier or worser (sorry) to access items?
I'm interested to see which is recommended.
I also think I might prefer 2 shorter doors/pull out rather than one humongo tall door/pullout. Anyone want to chime in on that one?
I have a base pullout in my bathroom but a door with interior drawers as a pantry, so it's not a perfect comparison, and yet I'm full of opinions.
If you have space to open a door, that's what I would put in. Our pullout base works fine in the bathroom because I can use the internal drawers without knocking the door into my husband at the next sink. But I like the door with internal drawers for the pantry because I can see what's on the drawers better, and I feel like the door gets out of my way.
I have a set of two base pullouts stacked (no room for a full pantry) and I must say I find the lower pullout easier to use than the upper. I'm not sure I would like the kind where the upper drawer is attached to the door--one advantage of our setup is we didn't have to do that. I think the only reason I might still go with the pullout setup is that you can have a drawer at the bottom with no hinge interference--so the idea of splitting the doors might work. In a pantry I would put a set of external drawers on the bottom to match my base cabs, then do internal drawers above (possibly baskets or a shelf at the very top). That means the doors would be shorter so I could skip the upper attachment with the shorter doors and I might do them as a pullout to avoid the hinge issue. But Ikea gives you a million options, so you can mix and match as you please
I have the tall pullout and would have been perfectly content with it had Ikea not started offering the extra wide hinges (which enable the door). The only bad thing is I sometimes wish the upper drawer were not attached; it can get in the way of cleaning way back in the cabinet. Also, drawers are not easily removed with the 2 attached drawers blocking the way. But that said, my 2 pullouts flank the fridge, which sticks out beyond the face of the cabinets, so it would be pretty hard to put a door there too. Maybe someday I'll try switching one of them out just to see which is better, but for now, I'd say use the door if you have full swing space.
I don't see that stacking 2 pullouts would be better than using the tall one, unless you're short on space for the height like NBeth was.
I've got a tall 24" pantry with the pullout door, and I must say that if I had the chance to do it all over again, I'd probably do it a different way. I had the pantry installed for about a month before I got the door attached (custom doors), and THAT was an ideal setup (except, of course, for the fact that there was no door, which was not the most visually attractive arrangement). I loved being able to pull everything out and see it. Now with the door attached, many nooks and crannies of the drawers are hard to see once again. If I were stuck with IKEA drawers, I'd consider the 12.5+11.5+4x6.25+39 arrangement from Zeuss's wonderful compendium of pantry arrangements:
As it is, I may actually go back to my door manufacturers one of these days and order two 12x64 doors that I can put on whatever type of hinges it is that you need to clear an inner drawer.
My local IKEA (E.Palo Alto) has mostly pullouts; but of course that's not a real-life user situation. And a couple have those child-locks attached in a very very awkward location (ie - next to the fridge, instead of on the open side.)
Based on the comments (thanks so much!) I think I might prefer 2 hinged doors and then pullout baskets/drawers/shelves. It just seemed to me that a hinged door would be more maneuverable; the idea of having the top-most and bottom-most drawers attached to the pullout door seems a bit more clunky.
I do appreciate that I'd need additional clearance for the door to operate.
Still soliciting opinions, if you have anything more to offer.
I'll give my standard "did you know" answer to this, just so you have all the info
If you do the hinged doors, it means that you can't put a pull out on the very bottom -the hinge gets in the way. There are lots of people who still like it better and do things like put a cleaning caddy at the bottom, but in my "short on space, especially for food" kitchen, that's a deal killer.
Yeah, I read about the hinges interfering with a pullout. However, I have a cunning plan...
An aftermarket pullout heavy white wire drawer thingie with the runners _bottom_ mounted. I have one in my current "pantry" and it's great. I got it from "Organized Living" when they were still around, but it's the same ones that are sold in many of the Home Organization places. The rails mount on a shelf, and the drawer wheels 'clip' in. My current "pantry" has the hinges and doors, and there's definitely enough clearance with this (yes, I lost about 5/8" space, but I can deal with that)
I think this would completely answer the problem of the hinges interfering with the lower pullout. See? Cunning....
Yes, I love that idea RubrikGreen. I will steal it from you.
I just made my first trip to IKEA this weekend, and after trying the pull-out pantries I am definitely going to go with the doors/drawers instead. I really didn't like having the door and attached drawer in my face and having to duck under it to get to the drawers beneath it. It was especially annoying with the pantry in a corner (which is where I'd need to put mine).
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