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Rhode Island 2016

The 2016 FHB House is energy-smart, connected, healthy, and durable. It’s small and sensible. Most of all, it’s a valuable model home, meant to educate designers and builders who aspire to create high-performance houses that are exceptional in their quality, comfort, and style.

Design

Using Lazy Susans on Adjustable Shelves for a Pantry Closet

Create easy access for a deep, narrow pantry

By Mike Guertin
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The kitchen pantry closet in the FHB House demonstration house is a great feature for storage. Mike Maines designed the pantry to be about 4 ft. x 4 ft. and I planned to install shelves along one side and the rear to make best use of the space. But we had to sacrifice a foot out of the width of the closet for ducts and other utility runs between the basement and second floor. This meant that the effective usable space was reduced to just under 3 ft. in width — too narrow to install a shelf along the side and still be able to stand inside the closet.

lazyIMG_4742
6 ft. long standards are fastened to the studs with 3 1/2 in. structural screws. 20 in. brackets will support shelves/turntables and are height-adjustable.

This left us with the option of installing shelves just along the back wall and a portion of the left side wall. But narrow shelves would only be able to hold limited goods and deep shelves would make it hard to access goods in the back.

lazyIMG_4761
The Lazy Susan turntable hardware is first screwed to the top of the shelf
lazyIMG_4763
The shelf is turned upside down onto the round Lazy Susan shelf. Screws are driven through access holes that were predrilled through the shelf.
lazyIMG_4768
Close up of the access hole in the shelf and screw driven into the round Lazy Susan
lazyIMG_4779
1/8 in. x 1 1/2 in. PVC strip is screwed onto the edge of the round shelf to form a rim to prevent goods from falling off.

I considered a few other ideas and settled on making large lazy susan turntables that set on shelves, which are supported on heavy duty standards and brackets.

The advantage of the installing the turntables on the shelves is that if anything falls off the back of the turntables they will be caught by the shelf and not fall all the way to the floor.  And by using standards, the shelf height is adjustable.

 

 

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View Comments

  1. bobalu | Dec 09, 2017 03:53pm | #1

    You've stimulated thinking for a problem closet of my cousin. An improvement, If I may, would be a simple way of blocking the two rear corners, preventing goods from falling off at all. Perhaps a 45 angle on each rear corner approx. 6"-8" tall, mounted to the shelf. A taller rim on the disc also would help, but not the beautiful solution.

    1. Mike_Guertin | Dec 19, 2017 08:05am | #2

      I agree - it would be easy to build a curved 'dam' at the back of the shelf to prevent goods from falling off.

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