The key to a spotless kitchen is a well-organized pantry. These two spaces make a perfect team, with the kitchen doing the heavy lifting in terms of prep and the pantry providing plenty of room to stash tools, ingredients, and serving pieces. While storage is the centerpiece of the pantry and should be the main consideration when it comes to design, the space can do double duty as a bar or a secondary prep area for food and floral arrangements. It can also serve as a showcase for collections of glassware and china, on open shelving, in glass-front cabinets, or even on the wall. See how Steven Gambrel , Barbara Westbrook, Ray Booth, and other designers have created highly organized and beautifully functional pantry spaces.

In the pantry of a Bridgehampton, New York, home designed by Steven Gambrel, a white-oak ladder by Putnam Rolling Ladder Co. makes the tall shelves easily accessible; polished-nickel pendant lamps by Hudson Valley Lighting illuminate the space.

Antique Wedgwood and Coalport china is stored in the pantry of architect Jim Joseph and musical theater composer Scott Frankel’s upstate New York home .

The pantry of architect Alison Spear’s Hudson Valley, New York, home is outfitted with a 1930s pendant light and heirloom china; the dishwasher is by Miele.

In the Nashville, Tennessee, home he shares with his partner, TV executive John Shea, designer Ray Booth devised a working pantry lined with open shelves for tableware. The sink and fittings are by Kohler.

Designer Barbara Westbrook fashioned a gracious, party-ready home boasting two pantries for longtime clients in South Carolina . In the butler’s pantry, diamond-pattern glass door fronts and a crystal chandelier lend a dressed-up look to the cabinetry.

To provide a handsome focal point in the storage pantry, which is visible from the foyer, Westbrook backed open shelving with a slab of Italian marble; the space, off the kitchen, has its own sink and appliances and functions as a secondary prep area.

Shoji-like doors conceal the pantry in the Los Angeles home of actress Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, actor and director Christopher Guest.

At the Martyn Lawrence Bullard–designed home of Khloé Kardashian , the pantry is meticulously organized.

In the same home, containers of baking supplies are neatly labeled for easy access.

Designers Thomas O’Brien and Dan Fink display their collection of vintage and new copper cookware in the pantry of their Long Island home .