The Pantry Ladder | by Humphrey Munson

The bespoke oak ladder is now so utterly synonymous with a Humphrey Munson pantry we thought it was about time we dedicated a post to the origin and design of this very clever accessory.

The ladder was designed by Peter Humphrey, the Design Director and Founder of Humphrey Munson, when he realised that only the tallest clients could easily reach the top shelves of a typical HM walk in pantry.

A bespoke rail, similar to our towel rails specified on a kitchen island, is used to stabilise the ladder with an optional wall-mounted holder as shown in the image above to store the ladder out of the way when not required.

Made from solid oak, the first pantry ladder was introduced in the Longford pantry above in our Felsted showroom in the spring of 2016. Since then we have incorporated the ladder into many of our projects in our bespoke oak finishes.

The walk in pantry at the Tudor manor house project has the pantry ladder finished in Portobello oak to tie in with the cabinetry interior finish in the rest of the project.

Similarly, the walk in pantry at the Sevenoaks project has a Portobello oak ladder. As with all our cabinetry, the ladders are made by our amazing team of cabinetmakers at our workshops in Felsted, Essex.

The detail of the finishing is absolutely everything to us, and you can see in this image above how beautiful the natural grain of the oak shows through the Portobello finish.

The super cool walk in pantry at the White House project in Beaconsfield has the ladder finished in Berkeley oak which is the same accent wood used throughout the project.

The walk in pantry in our St. Albans showroom has the same paint colour – Goose Iron – as the White House project, but shows the Smithfield weathered oak finish which contrasts so perfectly with the painted cabinetry and walls.

Peek into the walk in pantry at the Old Vicarage project in the image above and you can see the classic oak ladder which looks wonderful against the Top Hat painted cabinetry and walls.

A walk in pantry is a great place to be really bold with colour and painting the cabinetry and walls the same colour creates a crisp, fresh and contemporary look and feel which we just adore.