Off the Wall Kitchen Idea

[Windy in Kansas]

Lately I've had an off the wall kitchen improvement idea since I live in an older home without much pantry storage.

I'm toying with the idea of removing the sheetrock from one kitchen wall that does not have cabinets or appliances along it. I'll then add horizontal members between the exposed studs (or line them with 1/4 inch thick box material) and then store canned goods on the horizontal shelves.

Over the area I'll install barndoor hardware and a quaint style barn door. This is an example of the hardware. http://www.barndoorhardware.com/standard-flattrack.html

Each opening between studs would hold five cans per shelf and if you stack them---

Looks like I could easily make the hardware from a couple of pulleys and some strap iron as an added bonus.

So--too off the wall, or a usable idea?

[zant]

Fantastic idea-great way to save space...I saw someone do this,then they mounted a shelf unit on hinges over it so they had a lot of storage without taking up a lot of kitchen...

[mtman]

if its an outside wall its going to be brrrrr

[Windy in Kansas]

Nope, this is an interior wall. It might even be greater than 2 X 4 since it is the common wall between kitchen and stairwell.

Thanks for the other ideas too.

[FolioMark]

My mom and dad once rented a house that had just such a pantry, except that the wall was framed with 2x6 which made the shelfs a bit deeper and it had plain knotty pine doors with magnetic latches. The wall looked like a plain knotty pine wall but it had tons of storage inside. Its a great solution to the storage problem.

[uncle Will in In.]

If the house has sheetrock and not plaster your Idea might be good, but if the house is old enough to have the lath and plastered walls, it will be a major mess to clean up and cover up the back side of the wall behind it.

[boonieman]

Was the "off the wall" a clever pun??? LOL. I think it's a really good idea that never occurred to me. I may shamelessly steal your idea!

[Pink_Carnation]

I our last house the ironing board had been a built in and we put shelves in there for a spice cabinet. It worked great for that...nothing hidden behind the other stuff. Just check the depth it would make and take into account any finishing you need to do against the back.

[whiterock]

A friend of mine put a screen door on their pantry.

Another one took the panels off of some of the cabinet doors and installed poultry netting.

Ed

[sisterpine]

in one of my houses i did this in the bathroom. put shelves with bifold white shutters on top and tow bars on the bottem. sure looked nice.

[Thatch]

nice idea, however the barn door has to have the same amount of area free to swing onto. so I'm not sure how much room you are actually going to save. I love the barndoor look but you've got to have a lot of free wallspace to use it.

J

[LagoVistaFarm]

One of the main purposes of drywall is fire protection. You may have insurance issues someday if you remove it and have a fire claim. Is there a door on the stairwell?

[Maura]

I've seen this done, but not with doors. Go ahead and ask your insurance agent. If loosing the drywall creates a fire problem, I'm sure you could make up for it by the type of doors you use.

[YoungOne]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

Nope, this is an interior wall. It might even be greater than 2 X 4 since it is the common wall between kitchen and stairwell.

Thanks for the other ideas too.

If it shairs a wall with the staircase my question is what about that space?

I have seen were people build shelves on rollers and have them roll out of the wall. This could be modified so that you could have a shelf say 12" wide and as deep as the stairs between each 2X4 rolling under the stairs. This would give you a lot of shelf space and (my opinion) a pretty look with cabinet like fronts staircasing up the wall.

[fastbackpony]

its a cool idea, i'd be tempted to tack on additional 2x4's onto the existing ones, then you'd have 8" deep shelves, and 8" x 16" is a much better shelf space, lots of room then nearly the same amount of work, and double the outcome yeah !

[Windy in Kansas]

Wow, lots of great ideas.

To clarify a little, the wall I intend to use separates the kitchen from the stairwell and is along an inside wall, and yes the stairwell has a door. I won't deepen the shelves any as the space beneath the stairs is already a closet from the bedroom on the other side of the stairwell.

The hardware I mentioned is for rolling doors, not doors that swing open so it would take little space for them to roll open to the side of the opening. I'll use a single door of Dutch door height just like our old horse barn grain bin had on it.
Perhaps I'll weaken and make it full length.

Uncle Will, you brought up a good point. While the kitchen side of the wall is sheetrock the stairside of the enclosure is still lathe and plaster. More hassle than anything to change it to sheetrock. I'll probably add a thin paneling with the face side to the storage before hanging the sheetrock.

As far as insurance issues--well I don't carry any on the structure itself. While I'm not normally a gambling man I will gamble that I'll come out ahead by using the premium money to replace the roof this coming year instead of gaining from a hail damage loss. The roof is 15 years old so what do you think I'd get toward replacing it.

Lots of good ideas. Thanks a bunch.

[RenieB]

We did something similar a few years back. We had changed a room and we removed a door to that room and walled it up on the bedroom side on the other hallway side we put some shelves in for canned goods. It is a little narrow but it holds a lot of cans and we made a door for the area. The hallway is right off the kitchen so it is quite handy.

RenieB

[1/4acre]

Similar idea. My sis had one of those old ironing board built in's without the ironing board. She kept it when she remodeled and added shelves and it is now the spice rack.