This is an easy project we did for my mom last fall. She has a kitchen pantry that is approximately 2ft. by 4ft., with the door opening on the 4ft. wide side. The shelves that were originally installed went the full 4ft. across the pantry, but they were also very deep. Since the door was only about 2ft. wide, this left each side, the rear, and especially the back corners of each shelf very difficult to access. Light was also kept from reaching the back of the pantry, adding to the visibility problems.

The deep shelf at the top of the doorway also provided an extra obstacle when trying to make use of any space in the upper level of the pantry. Large items would not fit between the top of the doorway and the shelf.

Pantry Shelf

I put together a diagram to the left showing how the pantry was laid out before, and our plan to make better use of the available space in the pantry.

We took a 4ft. by 8ft. sheet of 3/4 inch thick plywood, and cut it into 4 pieces, each matching the 2ft. by 4ft. footprint of the pantry. Then we cut out a 1ft. by 2ft. section from each piece, creating a U-shape. Then using standard metal shelf brackets, we attached the shelves into the pantry. Then we used additional brackets to attach the 1ft. by 2ft. pieces we had cut out to the wall high in the pantry.

Pantry Shelves After

The result, while not always picture perfect, is a much better use of the available space! Items can be placed and accessed throughout the entire pantry. The back corners are now easily accessible. Larger items can be placed on the top shelf without the bottleneck created by the old shelves. And even though the U-shaped shelves have less physical storage space than the shelves they replaced, we were able to use the pieces we cut out to add storage space in the top of the closet! And the existing space can be managed much more efficiently than was possible before.

You can actually step into the pantry and view everything on every shelf. The U-shape also allows light to penetrat into the back corners where it never would before.

Overall, the project took a good part of a day. We used a sheet of plywood, about 2 dozen metal shelf brackets, some screws, and a pint of polyeurethane to coat the shelves before we installed them. The finished space gets used about 4 times as much as it did before, because items don't get lost in the back, and it's so much easier to organize the things that are in there.

This solution won't work for every situation, but we hope it shows you how a little thinking can turn a problem area into a beneficial storage space!