Fitting shelves in a pantry: measurements and order of work

How to measure the pantry space before drilling

Start with the empty room, not the shelves. Measure the width at three heights, floor, middle and top, because older walls and built-in nooks are rarely perfectly square. Note the narrowest width and design around that figure, so nothing you plan to fit ends up too tight for the frame.

Measure the full height and mark, on paper, where the ceiling, any sloped section, and services such as pipes or an extractor duct run. If the pantry backs onto a kitchen wall, check for visible conduit or a socket on the other side before you commit to a drilling pattern.

Sketch the shelf run to scale, even roughly, with the items you actually own written next to each shelf. This ten-minute step is what stops you buying the wrong length of board or spacing shelves evenly out of habit rather than need.

What spacing suits which kitchen and household items

Even spacing looks tidy but wastes height. Tall items such as cereal boxes, bottles and tins of oil need more clearance than jars of spices or tinned goods, so the gap between shelves should follow what sits there, not a fixed rule.

As a working guide: 20–25 cm suits tins, jars and spice bottles; 30–35 cm suits cereal boxes, bags of flour and small appliances; 40 cm or more near the bottom for bulk items, crates or a bin. Leave the bottom shelf, or the floor itself, for anything heavy so you are not lifting it above shoulder height.

Keep the shelf directly above worktop or entry height a little shallower than the rest, so it does not catch your head or block the light. If you plan to store anything on its side, such as trays or chopping boards, measure that item's height before fixing that particular shelf.

• 20–25 cm: jars, spice bottles, tins
• 30–35 cm: cereal boxes, flour bags, small appliances
• 40 cm or more: bulk items, crates, bins, at the bottom
• Leave one shallower shelf at eye level for things used daily
• Heaviest items go low, rarely used items go high

Levelling and marking the wall

Fix a temporary batten or use a spirit level directly on a pencil line rather than measuring up from the floor at both ends. Floors in older buildings are rarely level, and a shelf marked from an uneven floor will visibly slope even if every measurement was correct.

Mark one reference line first, using a spirit level at least 60 cm long, then measure all other shelf heights from that same line rather than from the floor each time. This keeps the whole run consistent even if the floor itself is out of level.

For shelves longer than about 80 cm, mark both bracket positions and check with the level across the full width before drilling either hole. A laser level makes this quicker across a whole pantry wall, but a good spirit level and patience do the job just as well.

The fixing method depends on the wall material

A stud partition wall needs the fixing to land in the timber stud or noggin, found with a stud detector or by tapping and listening for the change in sound; a plug on its own in plasterboard will pull out under any real weight.

A block or brick wall, common behind pantry nooks in newer flats, takes a standard wall plug and screw once you have drilled through the plaster into solid material, though check for pipework before drilling near any visible plumbing run.

Panel buildings from the Soviet era often have a concrete inner layer that needs a masonry bit and more patience than plasterboard; going slowly and letting the drill do the work avoids cracking the surface finish around the hole.

When to carry on yourself and when to call for help

A single row of light shelves on a sound wall, for jars and tins, is a reasonable job for most people with a drill, a spirit level and an evening free. It is honest to say this part rarely needs a tradesman.

It is worth stopping and calling someone once the wall turns out to be unclear, once shelves need to carry real weight such as bulk supplies or small appliances, or once a full pantry system involves several runs that all need to line up with each other. Getting the first bracket wrong on a long run means redoing all of them.

Our shelves and mirrors service, from 39 € per hour, covers exactly this kind of fitting when the wall or the weight makes it worth a second pair of hands. If the pantry also includes a flat-pack unit or drawer runners, furniture assembly, also from 39 € per hour, covers that side of the job.