Preparing an elegant meal, serving it at just the right temperature and entertaining guests at the same time can be a tiresome feat.
This is especially true if you have a long walk from the kitchen to the dining room. What if the chateaubriand cools too quickly or the plates from one course stack up as you serve the next?
The answer for many buyers of custom homes is a butler’s pantry. This small room between the kitchen and dining room provides the perfect venue for dropping off dishes, popping a dish in the microwave and grabbing another bottle of that aged Bordeaux.
The butler’s pantry has long been a symbol of affluence, as wealthy homeowners carved out a space near their dining room for their heirloom linens and silver coffee service and serving trays. Often they actually employed butlers to keep the glasses filled and the plates cleared.
In today’s custom homes, the butler may not be present, but the room serves the same purpose. Homeowners are using the space to store their fine china, crystal and table linens, and as a staging area for entertaining.
“It’s more than just a walk-through pantry,” said Janice Pattee, director of design for KraftMaid Cabinetry Inc., based in Middlefield, Ohio. “Maybe there’s a water source, wine storage, refrigerator of sorts and maybe another dishwasher.”
Originally the butler’s pantry was designed for dish storage and as a food staging area for formal dining, Pattee said. “Because our dining has become informal, we’ve taken back the pantry and made it less formal.”
Instead of using the entire room for storing items used for formal dining, consumers also add a microwave for heating portions of a meal and a sink for cleaning vegetables for dips, for example.
When entertaining, consumers use the butler’s pantry as the resting space between the kitchen and dining room. “Why walk all the way to the kitchen with the dishes when I can stop off at the butler’s pantry after entertaining, when this is where I store my dishes anyway,” Pattee asks.
The location of the butler’s pantry solves many problems with serving and preparing food, said Matthias Jans, principal of Starfire Homes, which builds custom houses priced from $400,000, and Palatine-based Matthias Jans Architect. “Think of the walking distance between your kitchen and dining room.”
The butler’s pantry can be used for warming parts of a meal, stacking cleared dishes and serving wine. “Maybe the mashed potatoes cooled off, so while you’re serving the turkey you put the mashed potatoes in the microwave, serve the turkey and come back and the mashed potatoes are hot,” Jans said.
Also, the plates can be cleaned in a dishwasher in a butler’s pantry. This saves someone from carrying their dishes and glasses from room to room. “The storage of good silverware is an issue for many people,” Jans said. “Everybody has just barely enough room (in the kitchen) for their everyday dishes.”
When considering a butler’s pantry, homeowners should think about their lifestyle and serving habits. This type of room is well suited for those who entertain frequently, have large families or who like to serve formal meals with several courses. Those who prefer to eat casual meals or eat at restaurants might not find it useful.
Once you’ve decided to add a butler’s pantry, consider the layout. Most are built as “walk-through” pantries. The space is a separate room with a door leading to the kitchen and one leading to the dining room. The advantage to this design is that it is accessible from both rooms, but can be closed off for privacy.
Butler’s pantries also can be U-shaped and accessible from one room only. These are similar to walk-in pantries seen in lower priced housing, but they have a sink, refrigerator or other appliances and are designed for food staging as well as storage.
The smallest version of a butler’s pantry is one that is built along one wall between the kitchen and dining room. The space is designed for storage and food preparation, but is not part of an enclosed room. This style often is used when someone is remodeling a home, where the space does not allow for a separate room, Jans said. While this layout varies from the original style of the butler’s pantry, it provides extra counter space to use when serving meals.
Most walk-through butler’s pantries are at least 6 by 8 feet. This allows for one wall to have a row of base and wall cabinets for storing linens, glasses and dishes, Jans said. Homeowners often use the same cabinetry in a butler’s pantry as in the kitchen, as this approach carries the same design theme through the two spaces.
Some homeowners want large drawers in the base cabinets for storing table linens, serving platters and small appliances. Some add glass doors in the pantry cabinets to showcase their china and crystal.
The other walls are used for food preparation. They often include a sink, a refrigerator that fits under the counter, and a microwave. When the room is expanded to 8 by 8, homeowners add cabinetry on two opposite sides, with the food preparation areas along the other walls, Jans said.
Butler’s pantries have become the norm in many custom houses, according to several sources. New Paradigm Custom Homes typically builds a walk-in pantry for storage in each house. Many buyers also want a butler’s pantry in which to store formal dishes and to use when entertaining, said John Curtis, president of the Lake in the Hills company, which builds houses priced from $600,000 to $1.5 million.
Often buyers want base and wall cabinets on two sides of the room, a sink, and a small refrigerator for storing wine.
They also add decorative lighting to highlight detailing in the cabinetry or in the woodwork in the room. Lights placed near the toe kick area of a base cabinet can draw attention to a section of granite that runs horizontally near the bottom of a base cabinet, Curtis said. “Pantries are becoming extremely ornate.”
While all this luxury is convenient, it also comes with a price tag. The cost depends upon the size of the room, the amount of detail and the cabinetry and appliances that are added. “If you’re doing it while you’re designing the house, the main expense is for the cabinets and the countertop,” Jans said.
A 6-foot-long granite countertop, for example, costs approximately $9,600. A 36-inch-high, under-the-counter refrigerator costs $1,000.
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Allison E. Beatty is a Chicago-area freelance writer. If you have questions or information to share regarding new home buyers’ product and design choices, write to Choices c/o Chicago Tribune, New Homes Section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611.
