Pantry Makeover

So I failed to meet my weekly updates featuring some of my very talented friends who are of Asian/Pacific Islander descent {in honor of May's Asian/Pac Islander Month} but I will be featuring them in future posts so stay tuned.

It's been a crazy month and most of the reason why I haven't been able to keep up with my posts is because I created a storm in my house. A few living arrangement changes have been going on in the Groft household; my cousin moving out, and my bro and his daughter moving in. So naturally I thought about utilizing every usable space in the home while of course still maintaining aesthetics to a comfortable level. My first target was the dining room removing things off the shelves and placing them in random areas..then leaving them to die..on the floor. Then we started going through our boxed up things stored in the garage and before I knew it our home became a big cluster F$%! Excuse the language but I hate clutter! Now if you recall my Billy Book Case post, I mention my dining room being filled with alcoholic paraphernalia...  

This is just one side of the room full of European beer jugs, wine glasses, and whatever container you can store an alcoholic beverage, but I show this particular shelving unit because it leads me to the highlight of my post. This built in shelf goes into my pantry. The one foot depth of shelves were enough to be a hindrance on the other side. It may have looked nice in this room but it didn't leave much space to store groceries and with the addition of two more heads in the house, I knew I had to do something about it.

I was anxious to make more room in the pantry that I didn't think to snap a few Before photos to show you how we used to store things.

The plan of attack was to simply paint the outdated, beaten, {UGLY} floor; a one day project. Refinishing was not an option because I'm just not good at that stuff. So paint it was. Then my hubby had the brilliant idea of reversing the use of shelves; closing it off in the dining room and exposing the shelves in the pantry. Now I always thought to remove them completely (demo and all) and buy salvaged wood to install floating shelves..but this was much more practical and a big DUH on my end!

peek-a-boo I see a messy dining room 

(a Before pic..After to come very soon)

So our SIMPLE pantry makeover wasn't so..simple..Turned out the plywood on the other side was too thin..so we had to buy sheet rock to properly cover the wall on the dining room side. My thought when we discovered this snafu; take measurements and skip to Home Depot to get a piece cut fit to size, then simply insert in place and caulk. That is NOT what happened. Measurement of the needed sheet rock was off by a centimeter on one side making all the difference in the whole project. The sheet rock crumbled in the corners because we forced it to fit. Followed by a spackled mess..oh and  it wasn't spackled to that smooth surface it's "supposed" to have either. NO it was a chunky mess all around. Needless to say this was not a one day project. But with a lot of whining, pouting and a few toddler tantrums..we managed to get the pantry up and running.

Bye-bye ugly floor. Two coats of Behr's Porch and Patio paint in Light Tan was used to cover up these old wood floors. 

Yes I'm crazy! Last minute I decided to paint the pantry the same Harmonic Tan as our dining room. I had 2 gallons left so I figured..why not..and while I'm at it..why not create a theme wall of stripes! So overall this 

3' 5" x 5' 9" space took triple the time we anticipated..but it was well worth it..

Oh..and the other side of the wall...

BEFORE

AFTER

Now I can properly store the never ending stock of pasta we have! 


Even though this project took a little longer, we all more than pleased with the outcome and overall organization. We spend less than a minute each time we walk in the pantry but it still feels good to walk into this warm, comforting space. The best part is we spent $55 on this makeover. So just because it's a small space doesn't mean it doesn't matter. Every space counts especially if it means comfort.