Yesterday was Frank’s birthday, and I cooked up a pretty yummy meal, if I do say so myself. I’ll share the recipe next week. I’ll say it involved potatoes, cheese, wine, and duck. Yum!
I’m jumpin’ on the pantry makeover bandwagon. I’ve been inspired my many bloggers who have done the same, and our lil pantry was getting out of hand!
New shelves, a fresh coat of paint, and a few new baskets made all the difference.
The first thing I did was take a quick inventory of everything we had in there and thought about what we wanted the pantry to hold in the end. That helped me think through how many shelves we’d need and how much height each shelf would require.
Those wire shelves that used to be in the pantry weren’t installed level, and didn’t maximize the space. I started by removing them. None of the screws were in studs, so every single one was in a drywall anchor, leaving dozens of huge gaping holes once it was all removed.
I glopped spackle in and let it dry. I knew from experience that when the holes are big and you use a lot of spackle, it shrinks a bit when it dries. So, once it had dried, I went back and added another layer. I like the pink variety…you know it’s dry when it has turned white.
Once all of the spackle had dried, I sanded the spots and used painters tape to map out my new shelf locations and the depth of the new shelves.
I knew the highest shelf needed to be pretty shallow (8″), since it was above the door frame. Most of the shelves are 12″ deep, but the one right in the middle is the full depth of the pantry…18″. Once I had decided on the locations, I wrote down all of the measurements and took down the tape. Then, I painted the inside the same color as our kitchen, a pale blue.
Next it was time to get out the power tools. I’m so lucky to have a handy husband who has a pretty nice workshop set up in our garage. I feel fairly confident using several of the tools, and was able to complete this whole project on my own. I picked up pre-primed 0.5×2″ slats to screw to the walls, on which the shelves would sit. I needed to cut these down to fit in the pantry. As Norm would say, the most important safety equipment is your safety glasses!
Our pantry is less than plum, so the slats to support the shelves would all be slightly different. I just made sure to mark them well so I wouldn’t get them mixed up and used the chop saw to cut them to length.
I shopped through Frank’s drawers to find screws that would be long enough to get through the slats, the drywall, and well into the studs.
Using a level, I screwed these into the back wall, making sure to hit the studs.
The side slats varied in length, depending on how deep I planned each shelf to be. You can see that here, under the shelves. I painted those the same color as the wall.
I used a circular saw to cut down the piece of plywood I used for shelves. I set up sawhorses, and again measured and cut each shelf for the specific location it would be installed.
Once the shelves were cut, I primed, then painted them. I used leftover off-white paint that was used for our cabinets before we moved in. I was so anxious to fill the pantry and get all of this stuff off of our counters, I neglected to take a pic of it empty. Here it is all filled up!
Frank and I are both pretty tall, so we use that top shelf for tall shallow things like cereal, and we can reach it easily.
I made the labels in Word using Emily’s cute new Fancy Font. It was only $1.99 and comes with a bunch of adorable symbols. Then I “laminated” them with packing tape, cut slits, and threaded white grosgrain ribbon to tie them to the baskets. Our printer was running out of color ink, and I’m pretending it’s an intentional ombre effect.
It’s a mishmash of baskets and containers, some of which we had before, and some of which I picked up at thrift shops. Ball jars work for some containers. Oh, and whenever I see lazy susans at the thrift shop, I grab them up. They are so handy in kitchen and bathroom cabinets. I used one here.
Recycling sits on the floor.
If you’re wondering, our cans and jars live in another place. See that door just to the right of the pantry? It goes into our laundry room.
Hanging on the back of the door is this handy rack. In a perfect world we’d have a big walk-in pantry, complete with small appliance storage, bins for flour and sugar, an extra fridge/freezer, and plenty of room for cans. Actually, I’d take Jen’s in a heartbeat. She just made over her gorgeous roomy pantry.
So far I’m loving it! It feels so much more organized, and the space is used more efficiently.
Linking up at Serenity Now.
