Thoughts on what to use for Pantry Shelving Material

[Gary Thinglum]

My Son built a new house about five years ago. In the walk-in kitchen pantry, they installed wire shelving. They are not happy with the wire shelving. He would like to replace it with something solid. We talked about putting plywood, and paint or, something else. However, the paint would scuff. The only thing I could think of was something like formica over the wood. But that too would scuff from cans or etc. being slid over the shelf. Any thought on what to use???

[Ric Jones]

how about melamine shelfing with melamine edges

[Mel Fulks]

There are paints that won’t scuff. I just used one can of spray epoxy paint , weeks ago. No scuffs ,but the paint still has some faint odor.
A carefully organized pantry would eliminate having to slide the cans . The 1/8th white’ Melamine coated stuff would work well ,simply laid
on the shelves. Some people like seeing solid wood shelves ,often unpainted pine with small knots , and down the road the can bottoms
will polish the shelves.

[Darrell Bade]

Strickly looking for shelves? Is stain & Poly a choice? Don't
know how much room you have to work with, I have a walk in butler's pantry, it has 2 base cabinets with pullouts and a butcher block top, upper cabinets, an angled cabinet with 3 sets of doors and a narrow 1' wide cabinet with pullouts that have a total of 6 shelves. It is stained with poly. It was a tight build, two of the cabinets are floor to ceiling, built them in the pantry. Had to put a lot of thought into just making sure everything would open and close.

[George Yetka]

What about leaving the wire and adding 1/2" melamine on top with a return to cover the wire? Wire is strong for closet shelving, but is pretty annoying with smaller items. I added 1/4" ply to 1 shelve that has smaller items.

[Jim Becker]

I'm with Rik...Melamine with melamine edge banding which you can also get as actual shelving material if the pantry space is adaptable to sizes normally sold. You can shorten them, but, well...you can't stretch them. :) Alternatively, pre-finished shelving material, typically maple or birch, is available from a good sheet goods supplier and is also already edge banded. It'd a very durable clear coat finish. I honestly tend to build upper cabinets with the same stuff to save time and not have to finish interiors. For our small pantry, I just went with the typical white shelving material from the home center and shortened to fit.

[ChrisA Edwards]

We have a small pantry and we found the wire shelves awkward.

So I ripped them out and built drawers and shelves out of cabinet grade plywood and drawer fronts in solid Cherry.

I built drawer height to work with various size bottles/can/containers that I found in the pantry.

I also decided on drawers going up to the height that could be opened and the contents still viewed. Above that I went with shelves.


Before
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/PantryBefore1(1).jpg



After

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/PantryDrawers(1).jpg


https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/PantryAfter1(1).jpg


On the floor, I also put in a sliding pull out tray.
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/LowerDrawerClosed.jpg

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/LowerDrawOpen.jpg

To use the minimal space, I also made these small shelves on the left and right.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/SideShelvesRight.jpg

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/SideShelvesLeft.jpg


https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/SpiceDrawer.jpg

[glenn bradley]

Being a pantry where most of the shelf is covered most of the time I would go with melamine also. I would seriously consider leaving the wire shelving, cutting 1/4" melamine to fit with a drop edge to hide the balance of the wire form.

481269

Smooth, cleanable and well supported.

[Dave Sabo]

I'd be using this :

https://www.industrialplywood.com/browse/cabinet-grade-products/cabinet-liner.html


While there are paints that will hold up, they are 2 part affairs that are expensive, not widely available (especially in the U.P.) , must be sprayed, and are difficult to dial in the first time for a neophyte.


Chris - nice pantry, especially like the radius shelves on the wings. The crooked handles have me reaching for my ocd meds though.:cool:

[Gary Thinglum]

I had thought of using the Melamine. Is Melamine the real thin white material that is laminated onto 3/4" partical board? If that is the stuff, I thought that the surface would not last that long with cans, and items being slid on it.
I do like the pull-out drawers which Chris made (nice job Chris) but don't think there is enough room in the closet for them.
Will talk with my son, and Daughter-in-law when they get home, and show them some options.
Thanks for all the input guys, nice to have someone to bounce ideas off.

[ChrisA Edwards]

I'd be using this :

The crooked handles have me reaching for my ocd meds though.:cool:

After that was when I decided to buy TPI Drawer jig.

[Jim Becker]

I had thought of using the Melamine. Is Melamine the real thin white material that is laminated onto 3/4" partical board? If that is the stuff, I thought that the surface would not last that long with cans, and items being slid on it.
I do like the pull-out drawers which Chris made (nice job Chris) but don't think there is enough room in the closet for them.
Will talk with my son, and Daughter-in-law when they get home, and show them some options.
Thanks for all the input guys, nice to have someone to bounce ideas off.

The actual pre-made shelving may have a slightly thicker coating on it, but I'm not sure of that.

[Dave Sabo]

The actual pre-made shelving may have a slightly thicker coating on it, but I'm not sure of that.

Melamine is fine as long as you don’t get the absolute cheapest , thinest stuff around.


If you get a pantry from Calif. Closets Container Store , Closet Factory or any of the other regional players - you’ll get melamine.

melamine shelf with 15yrs of wear & tear from cans :



481335

[Charlie Velasquez]

What about leaving the wire … (snip)
Wire is strong for closet shelving, but is pretty annoying with smaller items. ….

For my pantry George kinda hit the nail on the head. But I didn’t cover the wire shelving.
Instead I consolidated the smaller items into long smooth bottom tubs.

My pantry looked almost identical to ChrisA’s before picture. A number of smaller items were problematic sliding, and regardless, trying to get stuff that may be behind other things was a pain.
My solution was similar to his, but without building drawers. Larger items on the top two shelves and with a few plastic tubs from menards for the other items and everything is neat and easily accessible.
One tub for all the various cans of beans, another for my tomato based cans, one for soups, one for fruits, compartmentalized tub for sauce mixes and baking stuff, one for breads and baked goods…
Just slide the tub 3/4 out and every thing is accessible. No tub is overly heavy so pulling them all the way out to restock is easy.
Another advantage is by grouping things you build up a mental image of what each tub should look like. When you look in the pantry for a can of tuna, you notice the fruit tub looks low. Time to find out what SWMBO has snacked on.

[mike calabrese]

Melamine is the first choice but to go cheap and dirty how about white hardboard wall paneling $20.00 a 4 x 8 sheet, if you can tolerate still looking at the wire lip.
Stuff will slide smooth it is pretty hard and your done with simple cutting to size.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/47-75-in-x-7-98-ft-Smooth-White-Wall-Panel/3015239
The class act is like most said melamine .
mike calabrese

[Dan Rude]

Melamine will hold up just fine. I have used it for linen closet. For my pantry I simply used Pine boards with a shellac finish. They have stained over time, I sometimes wipe them down and put a new coat on them. I have also used a plastic sheet material and glued it on plywood. It is the material they use in Milk houses to protect the walls. Here is the description. "Fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) meets the high sanitary standards for healthcare facilities, commercial kitchens and wet areas. FRP wallboard offers easy cleanup with a finish that's made to last and a textured surface to help hide any scratches or imperfections. It is also an excellent product for garage walls, mud and laundry rooms or a basement." It holds up very well. I little more expensive now then when I bought it last. Dan

[Charles Coolidge]

I have 3/4 inch Maple ply shelving in my Kitchen cabinets. 12 years in they are holding up great. Everything is 3/4 inch, cabinet boxes, drawer boxes I upgraded when my house was built. Raised panel doors, drawer fronts, face frames all indestructible 3/4 inch Hickory.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I used 3/4 Oak Plywood with a solid edge band and varnished the heck out of it.

[Michael Schuch]

I despise melamine but it is used for shelving quite a bit with a lot of happy customers.

I would always choose plywood over melamine. I used plywood for all of my shop cabinets. I jointed and planed 2x4 fir to a common "real" dimension then used it to make a frame to hold the plywood for each shelf. (think 1 1/4" x 3" frame for the shelf with a rabbit around the inside to accept the plywood). To fill in any minor blemishes in the plywood and the cracks between the frame and the inset piece of plywood I use good old Bondo! I built a platform and shelves like this for my washer and dryer 18 years ago and the platform outlasted the stupid washer and dryer. This is with the washer and dryer 18" off the ground and 18 years of uneven loads... not a single crack in the Bondo fill. Semi-gloss Oil based paint held up to the washer and dryer without any major blemishes in the white paint in the same 18 years. I had to rip the platform and shelves out when I purchased a new larger laundry set that came with pedestals and were also too deep to fit on the platform.

[Lee Schierer]

I converted a closet into a pantry for my wife. I used full extension soft close slides rated for 100 pounds.
481348481346 481347
The shelves are made with poplar frame, red oak front panel and a 3/8" plywood bottom. They have been in use since November 2014 with no issues or visible wear.

[John Kananis]

I don't like melamine outside of utility purposes. How about lining the shelves with a colored laminate and edging the shelves with wood to match the rest of the cabinet?

[Justin Rapp]

I converted a closet into a pantry for my wife. I used full extension soft close slides rated for 100 pounds.
481348481346 481347
The shelves are made with a red oak frame and a 3/8" plywood bottom. They have been in use since November 2014 with no issues or visible wear.

I did the same for our closet-converted to pantry. I used poplar for the sides and ply for the bottom on 100lb full extension slides. I did that about 15-16 years back and it's fine. I didn't finish the wood though, just left it bare and it's fine.

[Michael Drew]

I used 3/4 MDF and applied a good laminate to the top, and oak for the face. Wherever the shelves would span more than about 24", I increased to oak face to 2" to give the leading edge more support. That was about 10 years ago. The laminate is holding up just fine.

[Gary Thinglum]

Thanks for some good ideas to think about. Last night daughter-in-law went thru each thread. She was impressed with all the feedback and ideas. This will give them something to think about and decide how they want to do their pantry.
Thanks again for all the ideas.
Gary

[John TenEyck]

Melamine has been used for millions of kitchens. It is hard, flat, and durable against things like cans, etc. Plywood is a distant second measured against those criteria. Formica is overkill. I built my kitchen out of BORG melamine for the boxes 30 years ago. They are still doing fine.

As has been offered several times, I'd use Melamine on top of the existing shelving. Low cost, low effort, maximum benefit.

John

[Doug Garson]

I'm curious, what is it about the existing wire shelves that they don't like? We have wire shelves in our pantry with plastic containers to hold and organize small items, works fine for us. The open nature of wire shelving is an advantage to avoid mold or mildew.

[Charles P. Wright]

I would use 3/4" plywood, which is what I used for my kitchen shelves (including pantry). If you use hardwood edge banding it should hold up well.