Our pantry cabinet design began after my wife got fed up with trying to reach and find items in the back of our storage closet.

It had 5 shelves from ceiling to floor and was so deep. You could store a lot of stuff in there, but you couldn't get to over half of it with out pulling a bunch of stuff off of the shelves.

I researched the available solutions at the local hardware stores and was appalled at the wasted spaces they left in the pantry. So I made a pantry design for a 6 shelf Lazy Susan with corresponding back shelves that utilized all the space and wasted very little. This is a great kitchen do it yourself project.

Our pantry closet is 27" wide at the back and 41" wide at the front, 23" deep, and 76 inches high. The closet is very large and can hold a lot of food items.

I decided to make the lazy susan as a one half semi circle shelf with the pivot post at the front of the closet door. I wanted to make the Lazy Susan shelves as large as possible so that we all could reach into the back of the pantry easily.

We needed to mount the lazy susan at the front of pantry entrance so that it would clear the closet door as it swung around. Once this point was found we mounted a 5/8 inch pillow block bearing to the top inside of the pantry door and hung a plum bob from it to the point marked at the front center of the closet door.

You need to make a poster board template of the closet floor of all the measurements and drawings. Each shelf has a different size so make sure you know the largest and smallest size. You should be able to come up with one size that will work for all shelves. The shelves can then be cut to the smallest size and they should fit any location.

I reviewed the design with my wife and sons and decided to proceed. We decided to paint the inside of the closet a solid white color so that it would be bright and make it easier to find items on the back shelves. We used all oak ply wood panels and stained them a natural oak color.