Pantry Before and After

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Roeshel

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A pantry makeover, before and after…

Did that space actually grow larger and taller with the addition of shelves or is it just me?

When we removed a pantry closet in our kitchen to move the refrigerator (more on that here), it decreased valuable storage space. What were we thinking?! What to do? Well, after much thought, the solution was to utilize an odd room/hallway to create more storage space. Lucky for us, that space exists in our home right behind the kitchen. Jackpot! Kismet. Fate. Whatever – it was finally time to make it happen!

The space is bigger than a hallway but six (6!) doorways make it too awkward to be a room. There are doorways opening to the kitchen, dining room, living room, old cellar stairwell, enclosed porch (original front door) and half bathroom. We walk through that room a gazillion times a day.

It’s approximately 6 ft. wide and 9 ft. long with 9 ft. ceilings. Ever since previous owners enclosed the front porch and re-routed the front door, this poor former entryway has been feeling forgotten. Perfect for some custom DIY industrial pipe shelving and a new job description as ‘open pantry’.

Where is all started: The idea to one day call this area a pantry formed three years ago after drooling over this awesome pantry by Emerson Made on Design Sponge.

And then falling in love with this cool pipe shelving I spied at the Brick House…

inspired the transformation of this space…

before – boring, useless, a lamp for light

now: a functional beautiful open pantry area…

with new paint, new lighting and DIY industrial pipe shelving. It’s a small space…no room to get a photo straight on of the monstrous pipe shelves but plenty of walking room even with 20 inch deep shelving. I love storing dried goods in glass jars too.

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Before from another angle…

After…isn’t the industrial pipe shelving unit awesome?!

It’s super convenient with it’s location right off the kitchen.The shelves were designed to fit the wall to ceiling and floor space perfectly and to accommodate our microwave as well as dried goods and baskets. I’m still messing with getting it all organized but I loooove how this once awkward unused space is now functional and pretty! Hurray!

More photos: Notice all of the doorways?

Custom design was also handy when working around the heat vent…

Why yes, that’s still a little Christmas hanging around for another week or so. Thanks for noticing!I’ll share more about the lighting challenge soon too.

Paint – inexpensive way to brighten up a room lacking natural lighting. (accent wall tutorial) Base wall color: Valspar Cool Grey.
Lighting – The Allen + Roth fixtures from Lowe’s were super affordable at around $57/ea. but electrical wound up costing more than I anticipated due to labor charges because there was no lighting whatsoever in the space from the get go and an outdated electrical outlet. (We did attempt DIY but it was over our heads and I’m not referring to just literally!) The exterior track/wiring adds to the industrial charm.
Pipe shelving – DIY means custom to fit our space and needs. Not a cheap DIY but still more affordable than purchasing two manufactured floor to ceiling shelving units. I’ll share how we did in in a couple of days! Check back!
West Elm Fiesta Tile Printed Jute Rug (sold out)
Flea Market Distressed Galvanized Metal Clock (DecorSteals – currently unavailable)
IKEA Burken jars with lids
Large Seagrass Basket (I got a set of three nesting ones on clearance at Wisteria a few years ago.)
Petite Cow & Bull Cameo Plaques, set of 2 – Antique Farm House
Grocery Sign – I had plans for this to be a DIY sign (mine would have been the same wood stain as the shelving with white lettering, not red) but with so much going on in December and the real life holiday home tour deadline…when I spied it at Hobby Lobby, I couldn’t resist.
Galvanized letter B – Hobby Lobby

DIY INDUSTRIAL PIPE SHELVING TIPS & TUTORIAL

ACCENT WALL

LIGHTING DETAILS

This post is sponsored by my Young Living business! Check out my essential oils page for more information on how you can get these amazing oils in your hands too along with helpful freebies, a gift from me, and tons of support:

First project of 2013

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Roeshel

You may be wondering what I’ve been up to. Where have I been? Besides cursing my camera for starting off 2013 with a non-working auto-focus which forces me to use my iphone camera.

Well, I’ve been right here at home. Working on some no pressure sorts of things at an easy pace. The first of the year had me packing up Christmas

which led to organizing the basement…because I sort of messed it up digging out Christmas decorations and piled up empty boxes in a hurry to resume making the upstairs pretty for the holidays.

All of the decorations are in hiding and the basement clean up is nearly wrapped up. Our scary OLD OLD OLD part of the basement will never be pretty but I do love the additional storage space it provides. {never say never. I could win the lottery and then…possibilities!} Be warned. These pictures of a 90 year old basement are not for the faint of heart and do look as if they’re still-shots from “Hoarders” {hence, no watermarking. lol!}…not something you’re going to see in the next issue of House Beautiful:

Of course it was one of those “make a bigger mess” before it looks better types of projects”.

Dig EVERYTHING out.
Unpack boxes and storage containers.
Purge.
Create a pile for donating.
Fill 3 garbage bags.
Have tissues on hand…dust can induce sneezing and a runny nose.
Wash dirty hands every 30 minutes.
Listen to happy upbeat music, sing, dance throughout the obstacle course you created.
Separate and organize things in to related piles.
Pack neatly and in an organized fashion.
Label boxes and containers.
Pile it all back up where it will fit.

This may take days. Family might send out a search party. You’ll need a shower with lots of scrubbing. Oh, and lotion for those extra dry hands.

You may wonder why the heck you’ve been hoarding 584 empty boxes of various sizes.

I organized some decorative accents I like having on hand. It’s like my own secret store for shopping from home.

Must have spray paint supply…

I even managed to create a work space using an old farmhouse table. It’s not much of a “project” in the way of fun or pretty or a “oOoOohhh” reveal. But you know how much better it feels to get chaos under control, right?

And it feels sort of like nesting for adding a furbaby to our home in the near future. I want everything to be perfect…even the scary old spidery dusty basement that no one but me sees. Oh and well now, you‘ve had a glimpse too. I know you’re torn between feeling honored and horrified. Sorry about that.

And, all that lead to finding the chartreuse paint that I used on the apartment door…

{Valspar Guilded Pesto}

because yes, the boxes of apartment renovation supplies have been sitting unpacked, haphazardly tossed in a corner from the car. For months. And cleaning/organizing the older part of the basement meant putting those things away too. Finally.

And where am I going with this? Organizing the basement, finding the left over paint? Well that lead to an unplanned mini-project upstairs which I’ll share with you tomorrow.