17 pantry and scullery ideas (with advice from Rita Konig on how to do them right)

Strange as it might sound, there is something very luxurious about pantries and sculleries. Obviously, they are especially luxurious if there is someone other than yourself using them, but these back-of-house rooms bring order that makes life more comfortable, and ultimately luxury is about comfort.

The scullery and pantry are appearing more and more on architects’ plans, and they are very valuable, especially when the kitchen doubles as a dining room and living space. I am currently working on a farmhouse where this is the case, so all the washing-up is done in an adjacent scullery, relieving the kitchen of this heavy lifting and allowing it to remain attractive and calm. An added bonus is that it will have walls of cupboards for china and glass, which I find exciting.

When you are at the beginning of a project and about to knock down walls to make a large, open-plan kitchen, consider keeping a small room separate for a scullery. It really is lovely to have a place to retreat to, and being able to see into an adjoining but separate room from the main kitchen can give a much greater sense of space than another five foot tagged onto the end.

This scullery at Rita Konig’s County Durham farmhouse keeps the mess out of the kitchen, which also serves as a dining room. The glazed door means that it feels separate, but not cut off from the kitchen, and the bright blue paint makes it an appealing place to be. Tongue and groove, painted in Plain English’s ‘Scullery Latch’, forms the backdrop. ‘The panelling gives some pattern to the wall,’ says Rita, who created this room to ‘take all the heavy lifting out of the kitchen’, carving out space for a sink and shelves to store china and kitchen equipment, with baskets for vegetables.

Paul Massey

As for the design of the scullery, a wooden sink and draining board might be old-fashioned, but they are very practical – as wood is softer than stone, it is more forgiving when you are washing up china and glass. Add a couple of holes to a shelf by the sink to drain decanters, and consider built-in plate racks to display china, as in the ‘Longford’ pantry by Humphrey Munson. This design also has the clever option of rails on the front of the counter to run a small ladder along to get to high shelves and cupboards. Think of using sliding doors rather than hinged ones – they take up less room. If you are planning on having china cupboards, consider lining the shelves with baize to reduce breakages and think about the depths of the cupboards. You do not really want the upper ones deeper than a dinner plate, but make sure the lower ones are big enough to hold a large serving dish.