Butlers Pantry Ideas: 10 Ways to Add French Style to the Butler’s Pantry
In this post: If you’re looking for butlers pantry ideas to decorate that curious little room, here are 10 ways to add French style to the butlers pantry.⇒
I’ve always loved little nooks and crannies in a home’s layout.
An alcove here, a passageway there, and little side rooms that seem almost hidden. Of course, this runs completely counter to the more modern trend of open concept space. Our home is on the newer side and has its share of open space. Yet at the same time, I’ve made some effort to add character in the form of little nooks where I could find them.
A perfect example is the butler’s pantry which we transformed from an unused storage closet into a beautiful, if tiny, serving space. You can read all about that renovation HERE.
But once any remodeling work is done, the best part is styling the new space to reflect your personal style.
Today I’m sharing the finished product, fully decorated with my favorite elements. Here are 10 butler’s pantry ideas for adding French style to a lovely serving area.
Butler’s Pantry Ideas
As with most of the design in my home, I approached the butler’s pantry with my signature enthusiasm for modern French Country style. Most of my vignettes include a balance of contrasts, from polished to patina, sleek to pastoral, light to colorful and hard-edged to softly draped.
The list that follows includes all of these characteristics comfortably mixed in the very small space.
1. Vintage silver – The glimmer of silver is always refreshing, adding a hint of bling to a home, but can be especially beloved when offset by the timeworn patina that a little tarnish can add in the crevices. Pieces with repoussé trim lend themselves particularly well to this look. In the butler’s pantry I love a decorative ice bucket or water pitcher, as well as this lovely wine caddy that I found at a street market in a small town in France.
2. Crystal wine goblets – One of the key elements used liberally in my home, crystal affords the opportunity to bounce light around a space. The glints are exceptionally lovely off the cut crystal pattern in these goblets. I’ve also tucked a decanter behind the stemware on the drink tray.
3. White linen – Another go-to element present in most of my rooms, white linen lends a softness and purity to any vignette or arrangement. Here I used a stamped french tea towel, but often it’s an embroidered napkin, a pillow or even a coaster. I love the balance a soft textile lends to the harder pieces around it.
4. White ironstone and fresh flowers – Florals are a great way to add touches of color and gentility and here I’ve incorporated both fresh roses in an antique blush and a vintage white pitcher embossed with lily-of-the-valley stems. Pieces from my ironstone collection pop up all over my home.
5. Kitchen utensil prints – The elements I’ve used in our butler’s pantry were selected not only for their look, but also for concept, taking into account the purpose of this space. In that spirit, I loved the idea of using artwork depicting pretty flatware pieces. I selected the matching pair (the other one is a spoon) which would also look fabulous in a kitchen or breakfast nook.
6. Elegant brass tray – A tray is a wonderful piece to use to corral like items when styling your spaces. It has a way of bringing smaller pieces together to create a cohesive statement. Thematically, in the butler’s pantry, a space made for serving drinks, an elegant brass tray can be just the thing to present your glassware and related items. This one is not vintage but has a charming antiqued finish that worked perfectly against the white backdrop.
7. Vintage brass candlesticks – I’ve always been comfortable mixing metals and you will very often see me use gold and silver together. Here the gilded look is attained with vintage brass candlesticks and pear shaped crystal drops. Metallic flecked candlesticks only enhance the look even further.
8. Antique chippy candlestick – I probably should have named my blog ‘bling and patina’ and right on cue, next to the blingy pair of candle holders is my chippy-paint altar candlestick (found in an antique shop in Florence). The notion of contrasts helps underscore the effect of one element when balanced against another.
9. French wine – and what would a French pantry be like without French wine? Not only is the wine fridge filled with our favorites, but I also display a preferred bottle or two on the counter among the serving pieces. In this vignette it is, of course, served up in the pretty silver wine caddy.
10. Teacup chandelier – In a teeny-tiny space, sometimes you need to think vertically when approaching your decor. Here is pays to look up to catch a glimpse of this very special chandelier. It was my grandmother’s classic crystal fixture, and I had the teacups and other trinkets added to give it personality and uniqueness. It was embellished years ago when I first got it, but when we moved into this house and added the butler’s pantry, I knew that was the perfect spot for it conceptually.
Other Elements
In addition to the decor items I added when styling, there are a few more permanent items worth mentioning that help give the room its distinctly French flavor.
Before we refinished our entry floor, which extends into this butler’s pantry, I had covered the hated ceramic tile with a beautiful needlepoint rug in an aubusson type pattern. It was perfectly sized for the space, played off the floral arrangement, and added just the right punctuation for this tiny space. But with the new white marble tiling, I’m happy to leave the floors bare to enjoy all that gorgeous stone.
Likewise the stunning embellished brass knobs we selected for the cabinets are like a very special icing on the cake. Their lovely curved shape and decorative flourishes are the epitome of the vintage look I love to play off the more sleek look of all that white marble.
These enchanting French elements are using sparingly here, as the space is rather tiny. Yet they show how easy it is to bring character to a room by selecting your decorative items carefully.
How fun it is to have a little serving nook in my home, even if it isn’t a hidden passageway!
Resource Guide
To get the look, click on the items below for direct links to the products. Where actual items were no longer available, I’ve provided similar options. If an item is out of stock but may be restocked, I left it on the list.
(This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.)
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Stunning room, everything flows so well. You will have so much fun decorating. Hats Off to your contractor and you as the decorator.
Thanks so much, Sandy!! And yes, I was lucky to have a terrific contractor… 🙂
Hi Lory
I am new to your site. Beautiful photos. I am lucky enough to live in Burgundy france renovating an old farmhouse, we are 35 kms from Sancerre. So I do not have to go far to pick up my french wine.
Au-revoir
Thanks so much and welcome! And how lucky for you… 🙂 I am definitely a French burgundy girl – love the Montrachets!! Thanks for stopping by!
A Butler’s Pantry has long been a dream of mine too. You have the perfect space for it and it turned out so sophisticated as well functional and beautiful. You certainly have a knack for celebrating the beauty found in anything you put your hand to. I wanted to mention that some of your photos are coming in blurry of late. I’m having trouble like this on some other blogs as well. They are clear in the email and in windows on my PC but not after opened in Safari on iPad. Someone said it had to do with WordPress. Thought you’d want to know.
First, thanks so much for the lovely comment, Pamela! What a nice thing to say… 🙂 Re the photos, I’m not sure what’s going on with that but thanks for alerting me to it. For me, they’re really clear on my iPad, but not so much on my laptop in Safari. Will have to research this. The photos are so much clearer when I post to Instagram because I post full size there. But then there’s the delay of transferring them to mobile to post, so it takes me a few days to get to it… lol. Anyway, I will look into it and again, thanks so much for the kind words!!
Seeing this brings back memories of my grandmother’s house. It was filled with wonderful dishes, silver prices and her best crystal. We had tea parties and I got to pick my favorite China. I love your updated version and the color is awesome!
Thanks, Ellie!! Yes, I’m definitely a tea party girl. So funny because my fashion sense is the opposite… lol. Thanks, as always, for visiting!
Looks beautiful all put together.
I love it.
Rose
Thanks, Rose and thanks for stopping by!
Mine needs updating. Thank you for showing these pics. Beautiful!
My pleasure and thank you for visiting and taking the time to leave a comment!
Lory, Everything is absolutely beautiful! I especially love the crystal and brass candlesticks and marble
backsplash/counter. The cabinet hardware adds warmth and style. This is a very inviting space you have created.
Well done!
Thanks a bunch, Dawn! My heart was really in this one, so it made it easy. So glad the effort is appreciated… 🙂
So Beautiful. I love everything about this makeover, from the whimsical chandelier down to the rug. You make French Country design seem so effortless, when in fact, it takes a lot of thought, planning and editing to make a room come together with such elegance. I love the way you use mixed metals with such balance, nothing outshines anything else they just all seem to blend together in perfect harmony. As always, Well done.
Aw, what a nice comment, Kimberly! Thanks so much… 🙂 I just put in everything I love, but it is a kind of formula I follow always having these same elements in most of my rooms. Thanks for stopping by!
I agree completely! I want that room. It is gorgeous besides being useful. Couldn’t ask for anything better. Excellent job.
Thank you so much, Lois!!
This is such a gorgeous makeover. What a creative way to use and otherwise oddly placed closet. Now it’s purpose makes perfect sense with the flow of traffic through the hall into the dining room AND it’s just plain beautiful to look it.
Thank you so much, Elisa! It’s actually funny how many people didn’t get it when I tried to explain before what I wanted to do. Seemed like a no brainer to me. So glad people are enjoying seeing the makeover. Thanks for taking the time to comment… 🙂
Lory, I love that you use mixed metals…me, too. You always know just what will work, from the artwork down to those perfect napkins. I feel I am in some wonderful dream where there is this great house that just gets better and better every time I fall back to sleep…loving it all! So wish you lived closer….I sooo need a professional designer to figure out fabrics and paint colors with this open house plan….a designer whereby I love their ideas. I’m having such difficulty finding the kind of fabrics I want, with a good deal of them being too contemporary for our furniture, or the ones I like cost WAY too much. Think I’ll just go to sleep and dream about YOUR house…lol!
Thanks, Bobbi! What a lovely thing to say!! I’ve actually toyed with the idea of doing eDesign for people who do not live nearby.. 🙂
I just love Bobbi Duncan’s comment about not knowing what to do with my own house so just dreaming about how lovely yours is! That is what I do every time I look at FB sites and see all the wonderful Country French ideas.
I appreciate so much how you go into detail about the way you decorate, whether it is a room or tablescape. This helps those of us who are “challenged” in that area to understand why it looks good and how to achieve that “look.” Love your little details!
Oh how beautifully styled! If I was you I would sit and stare at it all day! You should be very proud of what you’ve accomplished in this space! Well done indeed! Thank you so much for sharing this inspiring project at Making Broken Beautiful, it is a pleasure to have you and I hope you will join in again soon!
Have a great weekend!
Smiles!
Terry
Thanks, Terry! And, lol… I sometimes do just turn the lights on and stare at it… 😉 Thanks for hosting!!
Where to start!!! Stunning, beautiful, elegant etc… Congratulations for your Butler’s pantry, what a marvelous result!!! Love all your posts as they are very informative, instructive and very inspiring!! Like following a design course :-)) I am learning a lot and your in-depth descriptions are very useful when visiting shops!!! Have a great weekend!!
Thank you, Kate! That’s so nice to know that my posts are resonating with you… 🙂 I tend to focus on the visual, but I’m really glad to hear the text is inspiring, as well. Thanks for taking the time to comment and of course for visiting the blog!
love love love it pinning to my butler’s pantry board this is what I want when I get a home so beautiful thanks for sharing have a great week
Thanks so much! So glad you appreciated it… 🙂 And thanks for pinning too!!
It’s gorgeous! You have a great constructor too. We had a butler’s pantry in my old big farm house. Now we don’t and looking at this made me want one and brought memories to me.
FABBY
Aw, thanks Fabby!! Yes, I was lucky with our contractor… 🙂 Thanks for visiting!
Since you have a wine cooler and have stated you are using this space for pouring drinks, I’m surprised you don’t have any wine (or any other drink ware) in the upper cabinets.
Ha ha, interesting observation… 😉 We drink mostly white wine, so it’s all in the wine captain, but there is one bottle on the counter next to the ice bucket and the wine goblets are front and center on the counter. Given my penchant for setting tables, the real need was storage for my many sets of dishes. Thanks for dropping by!
Is it possible to see a close up of the chandelier?
Tks.
Pam
Yes, for sure! There’s a closeup of it in the post about the renovation here: http://designthusiasm.com/dream-butlers-pantry/. There’s also an entire post dedicated to the development of that chandelier. That one is linked in the post above, or you can just click here: http://designthusiasm.com/vintagechandelier/
Absolutely beautiful Lory. Everything is gorgeous. You did a fabulous job.
Thank you, Mary!!
Lory, thankyou! I have an almost identical space, and yet it’s a mishmash of storage, rather than an elegant butlers pantry. I’m inspired! Thankyou again! Mimi xxx
Thanks so much, Mimi! Happy to inspire… 🙂 Sometimes you just have to wait until the time is right. Now that we are empty nesters, we just didn’t need the storage for bulk family items. That left me free to dream…
what a wonderful space. your attention to detail is awesome. i collect beautiful trays and they would do nicely inside your cabinets. everything from pewter to intricate silver plate with detailed handles and feet to very old tole painted oval trays.
Oooooh… what a great idea! Love the idea of leaning trays behind my things. I’ve actually done that in the dining room, but it would look great in here. At one point we considered using antique mirror as the backsplash, but I love the marble tile. Better to put patina trays in the cabinets… 🙂 Thanks for visiting and for the kind words, as well as the great idea!!
Very tastefuly done. The backsplash and the chandelier do it for me. Most folks probably would not have even considered a chandelier in a butler’s pantry. Kudos to you for thinking outside the box.
All the materials, i.e, glass doors, light colored marble, backsplash and cabinetry make the space seem so much larger.
Again, the chandelier is the icing on the cake! The visual impact adds a very stated elegance.
Thank you so much!! I think I was just so driven on this one that I didn’t let anything hold me back… 😉 I knew what I wanted and just tried to ensure the space would cooperate… lol. The chandelier had been in my old dining room but I felt it was too small for this one, so it seemed meant to be that it would go in the pantry. So glad you appreciated all the details. Thanks for visiting!
Awesome job… Love the post. X deux ?
Thanks so much!
Everything is so beautiful, I also love the ice bucket, I guess that is an antique and not available.
Thank you so much! Yes, it is vintage from an antique shop. Here is a similar one: https://rstyle.me/+P1yBD3uzBYY5zBDd8txEag
and you might find others you like here: https://rstyle.me/+Bs94uOrEQHELmgpyVgaeZA
Absolutely gorgeous! When I saw the vintage creamer, I did a double take and headed straight to my China Cabinet, where I have a very similar creamer! Style and shape is very similar, mine is painted in roses also, but different color roses with a leafy background.
Funny!
I will definitely start following you.
Thanks, Lynette! And how funny about the creamer. I actually have another one that’s quite similar, too… 🙂 Thanks for visiting and following!!
Simply gorgeous.
I tbi,k,i recognize the blingy candlesticks from a Christmas holiday post. They might of been elevated on something.
Beautiful.
Thanks you and yes, you are correct!! The candlesticks were used in my ‘tartan and roses’ Christmas tablescape here: http://designthusiasm.com/tartan-roses-christmas-dinner/ They were lifted on upturned vases… 🙂 Thanks for visiting!
Hi, Lory. I saw this at Hometalk and rushed over here to subscribe to your blog. Every element of your pantry is just beautiful. It’s exactly how I want my entire home to look, haha! It really shows that you put such attention into every little detail. A labor of love with a spectacular result. There is nothing I don’t love about it but the hardware is especially gorgeous. They are the jewelry on those lovely cabinets. Well done!
Look forward to exploring your blog and getting new emails 🙂
Wow, thanks so much! Such a nice comment and I truly appreciate you taking the time to tell me your thoughts. Welcome and enjoy… 🙂
Fabulous Post! I love this french influence in your decor! Great blog, I see you like to travel like me! Have you been to Italy.. I go every year.. You must love France! Thats on my bucket list.
Thanks for sharing this on Dream Create and Inspire.
Maria
Thanks so much, Maria! And YES, I love to travel… 🙂 I love both Italy and France. You can check out some of my travel posts here: http://designthusiasm.com/travelfolio/ They’re almost all France or Italy… Lol!
I love it!! Your style is just beautiful, and this little butler pantry sure makes a big impact. 🙂 Can I ask you where you got that gorgeous rug and where you buy those embroidered linens? I can never find good prices for them.
Thank you, Mariele! The embroidered linens I always get from antique sources, sometimes online, sometimes actual markets, whether nearby or when I travel. They’re usually not terribly expensive at all. I’m not sure where the rug is from – probably online, but I can’t remember. I have a similar one I got from Horchow, but this may have been from ebay. It says on the back Victoriana Originals. Since it’s just the size of a mat, it wasn’t super expensive. Thanks for visiting!
This is gorgeous Lory. What a beautiful area you have created in your stunning home. You have an amazing eye for detail. I love the understated elegance and all the decorative touches.
Enjoy your new pantry.
Thank you so much, Janet!! This was definitely my pet project of the year.
Oh such a delight. I love this. If is were mine I would walk past many times a day and find every excuse to use it. Thank you for sharing and putting a pin in yet another dream. ?
Thanks, Wendy!! This little space is a constant reminder to me that we change anything that’s not working for us, given enough time and ingenuity.
Amazing transformation! Beautiful!!!
Thank you!!
Beautiful!!! I heart butler pantries as we had one in our modest home growing up. Adds such character and grace to a home. 🙂
Thanks! And I agree about butler’s pantries in general… 🙂 Always wanted one. Thanks for visiting!
My favorites are the choice of varicolored marble backsplash (it would have been so ‘easy’ to continue with the plainer white kind) and the 9-branch candle holder front-and-center in the glass cabinet. Both of these seem quite personal, giving an unanticipated ‘edge’ to your vision— something one wouldn’t find in just any butler’s pantry or French-inspired space. Yet here they really ‘nail’ it.
Thank you, Joan! Yes, the calcatta gold is a favorite of mine and if anything, I would have used it for the countertop if available. The candle holder is actually a menorah that we use for Hanukkah and I found it in an artisan shop in Israel, so it is quite personal. So glad you appreciated it… 🙂
Hi Lory,
I love your design! I’m building right now and have a similar size butlers pantry. Can I ask what brand of wine cooler you decided on? It is the same size we need, but they are hard to find sometimes.
Thanks, Laurie
Hi Laurie! Yes, sure. The wine cooler is Marvel 15″ wide. I’m planning to add links back into the post shortly so you can see the exact model. We’re very happy with it… 🙂
Lory, it’s beautiful and not too huge like some butler’s pantries I’ve seen (some as large as a normal size kitchen!). I, too, don’t have any qualms about mixing metals.
Sometimes, I get so caught up in your blog looking at your beautiful work, and following your links that I forget to go back and leave you a comment. I just clicked on this post again, and realized I didn’t leave you a comment on this one! Lory, this butler’s pantry is simply perfect. I honestly do not know what more you could have done to make it so beautiful and functional. I love the gold marble backsplash and how it plays with the cabinet handles. Your embroidered linen is a quite joy. The flowers and your vintage creamer! And that ice bucket! I love collecting cocktail napkins wherever I go to use at parties. These here were perfect for the room. Oh, and I really liked the molding you added by the entrance. Just perfect.
I absolutely love this comment! Thanks!! And no worries, I don’t always have time to answer, either. But I do always read them and smile… 🙂
I love your butlers pantry, if I had room I’d do one just like it. It’s just beautiful and your ideas are simply beautiful
This is one of, if not my favorite rooms in your home. It’s like a little jewel box designed to feature lovely items. Even if we are not blessed to have a butler’s pantry, there are plenty of ideas for a vignette here and there to add some character and ambience to the home.
Aww thanks so much!! I think it’s my favorite, too… 😉
The closet turned french styled butler’s pantry is brilliant! Looking at my closets to see if I can do this !!