Wednesday, July 17, 2013

A pretty, little pantry - before and after

I have always wanted a walk-in pantry, and it was on my must-have list when we were house hunting... I didn't get one. Boo, hiss. But just because it's not a walk-in doesn't mean it can't be super functional and organized.

This is what we started with...


Not bad. Fairly organized... but still in need of some "Type A" love.

The problems:

1) It was in major need of a fresh coat of paint. Seriously. The previous owners must have had food aggression because it looked like someone got into a knock-down, drag-out fight with cardboard food packaging, and lost. Scuffs, scrapes, and food splatter EVERYWHERE. It was gross.

2) The door- ugly, old, in poor working order, and when opened would close off the doorway to the dining room.

3) Storage - normally, losing vertical storage is the problem. In this pantry, I was losing storage in the form of depth.

What we did...

We emptied the pantry, removed the door (good riddance), and gave it a fresh coat of paint. I chose a blue. It was supposed to be a pop of color, but due to my fear of dark paint, I ended up choosing a very pale blue. You can barely tell that we painted by looking at the picture, but we did. It is a very pretty blue... subtle, but pretty. I then maximized my storage by grouping like items in bins and drawer organizers.

What it looks like now...


More specifically...

Medicines are in the drawer organizer (I wrote about this in more detail in a post titled "Label It") on the top shelf next to the cereal. I considered purchasing containers for our cereal, but the packaging it comes in is fine and changing it wasn't go to give me any additional storage room... it was just going to give me another thing to wash.

On the second shelf, a bin holds our basics like rice and Bisquick. A tiered shelf holds our canned goods, and another, smaller bin holds extra condiments and dressings.



The third shelf holds all of our pastas (I labeled their containers so that I don't forget the boiling times), and two more smaller bins - one for pasta sauce and sides, and another for baking necessities.


The fourth shelf is home to a bin for chips and popcorn, and another for baby food (those little containers are a storage nightmare). The new three drawer bin for our K-cups is rocking my world (a drawer for decafs, a drawer for tea, and a drawer for the good stuff... what more could a girl want?)



The bottom shelf has three bins. One for crackers, one for sweeter treats (fruit snacks and cookies) and another for granola bars and nuts. Finally, the floor is home to a large milk crate used to hold our bags (reusable, paper, and plastic), as well as the puppy food container.


The final problem was the door, or lack thereof since we removed it. My very type A brain is screaming "It's a shame to hide all that pretty storage!" but I don't think the hubs would go for the open shelving concept. So, I purchased and hung an ombre curtain from a tension rod. I think I like it. It might not be a forever solution (we may buy a new, prettier door at some point), but it works for now.



It may not be what I dreamed of, but it is maximized, organized, and functional. Turns out I didn't even need a walk-in. Who knew? :)

Here is another before and after so you can really see the transformation...


Better, right?

2 comments:

  1. Thanks :). I thought so too. My husband was underwhelmed... leave it to a man to not find beauty in a well appointed pantry. ha!

    ReplyDelete