Oh, I am so excited to share my little pantry makeover with you today! It makes me so happy to have organized spaces in my house! There aren't all that many so when I get one done, it's a big deal.
Y'all have to promise not to judge me though on my "before pantry." I know it was a hot mess. The kids are in and out of the pantry a lot and things just get shoved here and there and it ends up looking like a tornado went through it. So embarrassing. But real life.
Also, I know my pictures aren't the best. Our pantry is located in a dark part of the kitchen where there isn't much natural light. So the only light comes from the light in the pantry. Which leaves me with less than stellar pictures.
But here we go anyway!
I have linked most of the products I used at the bottom of the post for easy shopping if you decide to tackle your pantry too! So just keep scrolling!
Here's how this started.
One night I was on Pinterest (and when I say night, I mean 1am) and came across a super organized pantry. #anddowntherabbitholeIfell
It was this one from SeeVanessaCraft.com.
So pretty, right!? Her pictures are so much better than mine, but let's just skip right past that, shall we?
Anyway, I was immediately taken in by all that organized loveliness so I searched Pinterest for more pantry makeover ideas.
This one from ClassyClutter.net had me SWOONING.
I love some good Pinterest inspiration. I knew I HAD TO HAVE the glass containers for all my baking stuff that I use once a year. And since I have a Silhouette machine for my business, making labels for everything would be a snap. The white bins would be so helpful in keeping things grouped together in similar categories and would make checking to see what I needed to add to my grocery list so much easier. This was looking like a project I could actually handle.
I loved the gorgeous mint vinyl decals Classy Clutter added to the back wall of her pantry (above). However...I knew how time-consuming it would be to cut and apply those and how much mint vinyl it would take so I used the inspiration and came up with my own idea.
The shelves in our pantry were gross. For starters, it's painted the dullest of dull shades of off-white. But after being here for 10 years, the shelves are also covered in random stickiness, stains, etc. I knew I wanted to cover all that mess with something cute since no amount of scrubbing was helping.
I decided to use decorative contact paper to make the shelves colorful and pretty instead of the back wall. This was much less work and way less time-consuming. I actually had some left from a project, so I applied it to see what I thought. I didn't have nearly enough for the whole pantry so I searched Amazon for a while and found this one. I knew it was the winner.
I knew I had a plan now so the next weekend, I got to work.
My first job was to pull everything out of the pantry and toss anything that was expired or I didn't think I would ever actually use. I tossed a lot of stuff.
After I made a giant mess on my kitchen counters with all that junk, I wiped down the shelves and vacuumed out the rest of the pantry floor.
With the contact paper, I just went for it. I started at one end and laid it down in a straight line as best I could and tucked the excess hang off up under the shelf. I couldn't do it all in one piece so I cut where I needed to and pieced it together.
See those nasty stains!? Gross.
I got a little excited and did half of this shelf before I'd even cleaned out the whole pantry. You can also see the original contact paper that I tried it out with.
After I got the contact paper on, I put the labels that I'd created on all my containers and re-filled the pantry in a much more organized way.
Ahhhhh. So much better, right?
One thing that's been so helpful?? Lazy susans in the corners. They are a MUST. I got mine from Ikea a long time ago but you can find a bunch of them HERE as well.
I even cleared off the top shelf and put only what I needed up there.
(I didn't notice that some of my contact paper needed to be restuck until after I saw these next pics...oops!)
We clearly don't have the biggest pantry but it's not bad. I just have to make sure to maximize the space I do have. That teal metal trash can holds the dog food and was a Home Goods find.
I grabbed these white bins from Walmart but you can also find them HERE. They are perfect for holding all our different categories of pantry staples.
Off to the side is our snack station for the boys. Don't judge me on its nutritional value. 😂
I found the white wire rolling cart at Home Goods one day and knew it would be perfect for this space. (similar HERE)
To the left of the cart is an empty space where we store some of our larger randomness. I won't show you that part. haha It's also where we sit with our football helmets on and hide during tornado warnings after we shove everything out of the way.
I just love how everything has a place now!
And I love my glass containers so much.
And since I don't show y'all pretty pictures of my house very much (because it is never blog-worthy and rarely pretty) I'll show you this one when it was clean for .5 seconds. 😉 Since this picture was taken, we've changed out the chairs, clock and picture behind the lamp. I am never satisfied with my decorating skills, y'all.
(You can see more of my DIY paint job on the pantry door and back door HERE.)
So that's it! The pantry no longer gives me heart palpitations every time I open the door. I'm able to check quickly to see what we need to stock up on instead of having to search the whole pantry to make sure whatever it may be isn't hiding somewhere.
So one more time, here's the Before and After.
And if you are wondering what that red contraption is on the floor of the pantry, it is our NuWave oven and we LOVE this thing! I had to mention it. We saw it on an infomercial probably 7 or 8 years ago and we use it ALL THE TIME. No need to pre-heat the oven to pop in some chicken nuggets or fish sticks...just put them in here and turn it on! They come out crispy and perfect and in less time! We also use it for reheating leftovers a lot as well. I know I'm getting off topic but I had to mention it. We just purchased a new one last year after our first one finally died on us.
I've included some of the products (below) that I used or something similar. Many of these baskets are from years ago so I found something similar if I couldn't find the exact ones.
Your pantry looks great!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, friend!!
DeleteThis post has inspired me to
ReplyDeleteGet my pantry organized!!
Yay! You should! It feels so good when it's all done!
DeleteIt looks GREAT!! I have several of the clear jars in my pantry and they really are awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe glass jars are my FAVORITE!!
DeleteSwooning over your pantry re-do! It is most def pin-worthy!
ReplyDeleteAww thank you, Heather!!
DeleteI'm totally in love with your new pantry but I'm really marveling at the lock on the pantry! #brilliant. I need that for my boys. Especially the two year old who loves to climb up the pantry to get the peanut butter ;)
ReplyDeletemakingmilford.com
It was the best at keeping them out when they were younger!! I would catch them climbing the shelves to get the good stuff so I knew we had to think of something! It made me crazy! Now they've figured out they can just drag a barstool over and unlock it. 😉 So it doesn't get used quite as much.
DeleteI love how your pantry turned out. I love the labels too. What a great project!
ReplyDeleteYou totally inspired me to makeover my own pantry! I bought tons of bins and went st it yesterday and we'd to finish up
ReplyDeleteToday!
I have so many of those before and after pantry makeovers on my boards too; they are so swoon worthy and pretty! But I never once thought of using my Cricut to label my own plastic bins... why?! I couldn't say but you have inspired me!!
ReplyDelete