Pantry Makeover: Modern Style + Practical Organization

Pantry-Makeover

You guys, I disappeared for a month in my pantry and came out with the most organized (and possibly the prettiest) space I’ve ever had. Sometimes I go in there to just look at it. Then I eat a bag of chips or whatever.

Pantry-Before

Since our pantry is fairly large, we’ve been getting away with chaos in there. It’s embarrassing, but I’m all about transparency for the sake of an extreme makeover. The pantry is an L shape wrapping under the stairs (as seen in the slanting ceiling in the right picture).

Pantry-4

I used the Royal Design cheetah stencil. I’ve been wanting to find a place to use that stencil and behind my pantry shelves seemed like the most logical place. I mean obviously (said no one ever). I found some black and white striped wrapping paper and DIY’d it into shelf paper…more on that in another post.

Aside: I know this picture doesn’t show all the spots on the wall, but I did paint every inch of that pantry with spots. I had to do the first 3 shelves, so we could move all our food back in there while I finished the rest. It took forever y’all. This also shows the liner with the spots. So good.

Pantry-6

Apparently we are the king & queen of single use small appliances. They get used often, so I don’t feel bad about it. I put a white bin for all the small part associated with the food processor and blender. The plaid baskets were the perfect find.

Pantry-14

I found these canisters for my dry goods. I liked that they seal and were at a greatย price point. I put all the speciality flours in a bin next to them. I wanted the cereal in pourable containers from IKEA while snacks needed the larger containers from Walmart. I got the small bins from the 99 cent only store.

Pantry-13

The larger white bins are from Target. They are Y weaved just like the ones I found at the dollar store. My target didn’t have white as an option (only black and gray in store), but I found them online. They are heavy duty.

Pantry-18

I even alphabetized our spices guys. Nick laughed at me. I threatened death if he didn’t follow the alphabet when he cooks which then made me laugh thinking that he would actually put up a spice after he uses it. Laughter all around. 2 rows of spices, a row of oils/vinegar, a row of canned goods (that’s it 1 row in the entire pantry).

Pantry-17

It’s so clean in here. I hung up our aprons. Ramona and I have matching ones from Anthropologie years back. Nick’s apron was bought when we went to alt. Beckett’s is from Max Brenner in NYC.

The pantry makes all of our hearts happy. The kids are constantly in there and know exactly where the food is. Beckett eats apples and leaves them around the house. It’s great guys. Real great.

I’m having one of those making the bed moments. You know they say if you make your bed then you tend to have a cleaner room. Well in this case it’s if you have an organized pantry, you want everything to be organized.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Tagged As ,

COMMENTS

28 Responses to Pantry Makeover: Modern Style + Practical Organization
  1. Julie says:

    My goodness, that’s beautiful! But don’t you find it a bit impractical to pour everything (cereal, chips, pasta) on a day to day basis? I love the look tho!

    • Amber says:

      The entire top comes off the chips, so it’s actually been really nice. The kids can open it up and get chips themselves. I have a bin for chips, snacks, etc that are still in their box. Once the plastic bin is empty, I wash it and refill it with the bag/box that’s in that bin. It’s made grocery shopping a breeze. Cereal bags have always annoyed me, so pouring it without getting those stray cheerios lost in the box has been an improvement too. Plus Ramona has an easier time pouring the cereal from those IKEA bins than she did when they were in a box.

      I didn’t get bins for the speciality stuff (rice flour, etc) because I thought that would be a bit too much. I didn’t want to have to label everything. I also don’t use those enough to justify a full container.

      • Julie says:

        Also…I’d never have a leftover chip anyway lol! It really looks great…I’m feeling inspired to clean and rearrange my pantry and add some shallow shelves for cans!

        • Amber says:

          Lol well I let it get empty because the kids dig in it! I figure that’s the more sanitary approach! It keeps them out of the more expensive pre packaged snacks, so I really can’t complain!

  2. oh how i love it! i wish i had a real pantry!!!

  3. Ahhhh! So amazing!!! You are the coolest person ever! This was worth every last minute you spent on the stenciling – soooo good!

  4. I’m not so much questioning your sanity with the containers….more so that stencil. I can only imagine how long that took! But it 100% worth it!! (Because I didn’t do it.)
    Also, Nate laughed at me when I organized our spices and he swore he wouldn’t pit them back right. He totally does.

    • Amber says:

      He’s probably fearful of your reaction if he doesn’t! Yeah I’m totally crazy for stenciling. Nick just kinda sighed when I told him what I was going to do. He should already know the crazy runs deep in me!!

  5. How UH-mazing is this space?!?!?! I’m SO jealous of it!!

  6. Tiara says:

    Love it! I need those white bins in my life.

  7. Ah! So pretty! I’d say I’m jealous of your giant pantry, except that I can’t even keep my tiny little pantry-esque cabinet thingie (perfect description, right? You know exactly what I mean now, I bet) at all organized, so I should probably just focus on my training wheels pantry before wishing I could move up to a big one. Good work stenciling! I’d have gotten halfway done and then just collapsed on the floor, dead from tedium ๐Ÿ˜‰ But it’s so worth it! (I mean, not if you actually died from tedium. But since you didn’t!)

    • Amber says:

      I think once it truly hit me how difficult stenciling the space was going to be I was too far gone. Plus I knew that I was going to love it when it was finished, so I trudged on. I’m also way too much of a perfectionist to undertake this type of painting project again. Remind me of this when I consider the next crazy paint idea I have.

  8. Not sure what I’m more jealous of: the size of that pantry, the organization or the stencil. Major McSwoonage. I saw some removable wallpaper that looks like that on chasing paper but my hubby poo-poo’s any mention of wallpaper/stencil. Rude. ๐Ÿ˜‰
    But seriously this is my dream pantry. Amazing. I’d go in there to eat snacks too. Just me, hanging out on the floor eating and admiring. Like a normal person.

    • Amber says:

      LOL well thank you! That’s basically become my life lately! There was a removable wallpaper option I thought about, but I wasn’t sure it would stick with the textured walls. I’m sure the cutting would have been just as painful and it would have cost a lot more.

  9. Sarah Neale says:

    loving the pantry! I overhauled my pantry in very much the same fashion as yours several years back (minus the epically amazing spot stencil!). someone pointed out to me my lemons and limes would last twice as long sealed in a plastic bag inside my crisper in the refrigerator. which totally annoyed me because I LOVED having them on display all the time, it made my heart happy. But I buy organic, and was also irritated at the fast rate of decline and waste I was experiencing, so I gave it a go. The suggestion was unfortunately true. Now my citrus is all stashed away, in plastic, out of sight in the fridge, but at least I get full use of it. Just an idea….not a visually stimulating one, but nevertheless…..

    • Amber says:

      Crazy I didn’t know that! I haven’t had any issues yet (it’s been finished for about a month) probably because we go through lemons and limes more than normal people should. The real problem is Beckett getting into the apples. I am constantly finding apples around the house! It’s driving me insane!

  10. I uuuuuh, ooooooh and ahhhhhhed all through this post. I need to be the size of my cats to disappear in my pantry. So I’m jealous of the size of yours and how pretty it is. Gosh if I ever come visit I’ll use your pantry as my guest room ok? LOL

    • Amber says:

      Haha it’s black and white, so I knew you’d love it! Girl, we’ve got a guest room for you so stop talking about coming down and just do it!!

  11. Pingback: DIY Shelf Paper | Wills CasaWills Casa

  12. Do you know how much pantry envy I have right now?

    • Amber says:

      No. Do tell. ๐Ÿ˜‰ I have no upper cabinets in my kitchen!! I have to have a big pantry that’s organized to hold all my stuff!

  13. Pingback: Easy Tips for Getting Your Pantry Organized

  14. Kelly says:

    I love this! You’ve totally inspired me. Question: If you had opted to paint your shelves/moulding, what color would you have chosen? My house is Restoration Hardware meets Farmhouse but I love quirky and whimsical points of interest in my home so I love this idea! I’d love your opinion. Black? Dark grey? Light grey? Tia!

    • Amber says:

      I would have gone lighter especially since there’s no natural light in there. I wouldn’t want it to look like a cave! Maybe a light grey or pastel color??