Cottage Living Pantry Ideas

A pantry keeps food fresh and ready to use.

Eating good food can be a highlight of time at the cottage. Having a spacious pantry where lots of food can be kept fresh is an incentive to do more gardening and cooking. Since most cottages are smaller than houses, finding room for a pantry can be more of a challenge than in a house. Good design and efficient use of space are key to success.

Closet Pantry

The easiest way to make a pantry is to transform an existing closet into a food storage space. A good pantry provides a cool place with good air circulation for keeping food fresh. If the closet is on an exterior wall, this is easily done by installing two vents, one at floor level and one just below the ceiling. The vents should be kept open all the time except in the winter when they should be covered up. The closet can be fitted on all walls with shelves for canned goods, produce and fruit.

Adjustable Shelves

Making your cottage pantry shelves adjustable will allow you to change the space as your needs change. If you store bulk goods in 5-gallon buckets, you will want a sizable space on the floor below the shelves to put these heavy items. If in the future your storage methods change and you no longer use large buckets, you will be able to fill this space with shelves if you have an adjustable shelf system. Adjustable shelves can be made by drilling rows of holes up the front and back of the uprights, then placing dowels in the holes at the height you want a shelf and resting the shelf on the dowels. Be sure that the dowels fit tightly into the holes to provide a secure seat for the shelf.

Hanging Hooks

If you garden at the cottage, particularly if you have an herb garden, you may want an out of the way place to dry herbs for winter use. Putting rows of hooks into the ceiling of the pantry is an easy way to make a place for herb drying. When you harvest the herbs, separate them into bundles, tie two bundles together with a 2-foot-long piece of string, and put the string over a hook so the bundles hang down. The circulating air in the pantry will help the herbs to dry. The air will also keep them fresh while preventing mustiness or mold.

References

• Kitchen Bath Ideas: Kitchen Pantry Ideas
• Sufficient Self Forum: We're Building A Pantry
• Organized Home: Organized Pantry