New Kitchen Pantry Design Makeover
Well, I really feel like I have entered a new level of adulthood with our new kitchen pantry design. My entire life I have been resigned to idea that a pantry is meant to be boring and messy. I was too busy to really care, let alone make this zone a priority. Plus, when you move every 1-3 years what works in one house doesn’t always work in the next…or at least that is what I would tell myself as an excuse for not investing the time and resources into a well thought out kitchen pantry design.
Now that we have learned that we will be here another three to forever years, I really have no excuse…Plus, I found a wallpaper that got me REALLY motivated to give it a try. I can’t wait to show.
The Hygge and West wallpaper, The Container Store bins, and Lamps Plus Stool are all sponsored, but the opinions are 100% my own.
Before Kitchen Pantry Design
In case you forgot about the before pics on this space, I wanted to give you a quick (and scary) reminder…The situation was bad…really bad. The only redeeming qualities were a pretty green coat of paint, beautiful casing, and rad door pulls…otherwise…I cringe at everything I am about to show you in the next image
😬😬😬.
Now that I have shown you the hard-core honest truth of my past, you have to be my friends. LOL.
After Kitchen Pantry Design- Wallpaper
Luckily, an old dog can learn new tricks…especially when assisted by their teenager in the process. First we removed everything from the closet and installed Hygge and West Palma (Deep Green) wallpaper.
Ready or not!
Before installing the Hygge and West Palma (Deep Green) wallpaper, we added a 1/4 in plywood to the inside of our raised panel doors. Working with a flat surface was imperative. I was afraid the result might look tacky, but I’d say it is anything but.
I love how the wallpaper works with the site line to the dining room.
Also, I think it looks amazing with the sight lines to the entryway /powder room bath.
From a design perspective, I love how the closet is a surprise element in the room. You don’t know that it is green in there until you go to open it. I have a similar surprise effect in my wallpapered entryway coat closet. Additionally, I just finished my son’s bedroom and it has a surprise closet as well.
I mentioned my rad hardware earlier. I love the way it plays against the wallpaper on the inside of the doors.
Here is the view to the kitchen…I love it too!
While I think this effect would be gorgeous as a butler’s pantry design, you saw in the before pic that this kitchen pantry design needs to be intended for food…enter the next step of the makeover
Kitchen Pantry Design- Food Organization
Once I had a gorgeous backdrop, it was time to make the space functional for the needs of our family.
We sorted through all of the food that we had shoved in this space. Much of it needed to be thrown away. YUCK!
Also, we realized that a large portion of the food we had was repeat versions of the same thing. Do we really need 8 jars of curry sauce and 15 cans of black beans in our pantry at once? Maybe if we still lived in a military assigned base house with limited storage, but here we have a large dedicated storage space in the basement. We took the repeats and stored them on two shelves down below.
Then we started to corral items into like themes, dog supplies, cereal, snacks, etc. Those that were the least attractive ended up in the lovely Container Store’s new Marie Kondo Ori Rattan basket. These baskets are not only gorgeous but surprisingly strong and stackable. We will not be stacking them in this application, but they look perfect as a natural element against the dramatic wallpaper.
I asked my friends on IG if they saw value in decanting their baking supplies and pantry items. The majority of people found this to be a helpful practice, so I decided it was time to jump on board.
Three of us are gluten free and one of us eats gluten cereal and occasional gluten snacks. We knew that these gluten items needed to stay in their original packing, so as not to get crumbs everywhere (they are up in the basket above), but the rest of the food was fair game.
With a bazillion types of gluten free flours and wheat alternatives, we filled up most of the OXO Pop canisters from The Container Store pretty quickly. It was nice to have a variety of sizes, but especially like the medium to large size bins. We have labels that we are starting to apply to the canisters as well, but it is so nice to be able to see and find all of our supplies so quickly.
In addition to the Ori Rattan baskets, we employed the help of these wire baskets. I wanted the power to sort, but still be ability to see what is inside the rest of the storage containers. These wire baskets are crazy strong and are perfect for the cans, boxes, and odds and end items we have stored in each of them.
Things still left to do in this space:
Replace the soup tureens with our small kitchen appliances
Add shelf liner to the shelves. I bought two times (one removable and the other permanent) TBD which option I go with.
I have to say though, this was a relatively simple and straight forward makeover, but it is one that will definitely effect our daily lives. I’m thankful to have a daughter committed to keeping this area organized and tidy. She might just keep me committed to this goal. 🙂
Thanks for joining me on this fun project. If you like what you see, I’d love to have you join me on Instagram.
Now go check out my talented friends as they take on closet or other organization projects!
How do you do it time after time! Beautiful! 😍
Thank you so much Jennifer!
This is gorgeous!
It’s beautiful and so fun that you get to enjoy it multiple times a day! I like seeing how all your wallpapers flow together. I love the idea of a fun surprise closet and will be incorporating that idea into an upcoming remodel. It seems like a good way to give kids some design choice too.
Thanks so much Kate!
Thanks so much Sarah! I’m surprised at how much joy it really does bring me. Surprise closet for the win!