Kitchen Pantry Reveal

We have come to the end of the "Impossibilities Challenge" and I am excited to show you all my pantry. It is still incomplete, however. I have not yet changed out those ugly accordian doors. Remember these?:

Well, they're still there :-( But, I will be replacing them and can update you all when it is done. I have some fun things planned for the inside of the new doors, so I couldn't do that part yet. But, I did get a lot done and I am very happy with the results. So here they are:

Here was the before:

First, I painted the shelves with black chalkboard paint. Upon the advice (which I have since determined was horrible advice) of the Home Depot employee, I used spray chalkboard paint. He felt this would be the best way to paint the inside of a pantry or cabinet. Um, it was a mess. I taped off the walls, but as you can imagine, the spray paint did not really care about the taped off areas. So, there was a lot of paint everywhere. Like on the floor and even way outside the pantry into the rest of the kitchen. I was digging black paint out of my nose and ears for a couple of days too. Apparently, this problem should have been totally obvious. But, I was just doing what the Home Depot guy said. Don't they know everything? Lesson learned.

My wonderful husband primed and painted almost all the rest of the pantry for me after I nearly killed myself huffing paint while doing the shelves. The walls were painted in Swiss Coffee. Then, I put down some of that rubbery shelf liner stuff in a charcoal color.

I bought lots of dollar store baskets and painted them aqua, then attached chalkboard tags to label my baskets.

Next, I used some labels that I also painted with chalkboard paint to label my canisters.

I decorated a plastic grocery bag holder that I already had, put my cans on little shelves from Bed Bath and Beyond, my spices on a 2-tier lazy susan from Target and my foil/plastic wrap/wax paper et. al. in a hanging shelf from the container store.

I bought some inexpensive wicker hanging baskets from a flower shop in my neighborhood, spray painted them heirloom white and put my chocolate/peanut butter/butterscotch chips in one and packages of nuts in the other one:

I put an LED light from Home Depot on the ceiling:

The top shelf holds my bigger appliances, like my crock pot and coffee pot as well as a basket with coffee stuff (coffee, flavorings, coffee filters, coffee grinder and tea):

Also on the top shelf are my cookbooks:

The next shelf has my spice rack a small basket of garlic powder, salt and pepper (the things I use all the time), a basket of oils and cooking sprays:

The second shelf also has baking powders/soda, cocoa powder etc in one basket. There is an entire basket just for sprinkles (is that too much?) and a small basket with extracts and food colorings:

The 3rd shelf - 2 baskets of snacks (crackers, cookies, granola bars etc.) and shelves of canned foods:

Under the snack baskets is the hanging shelf that holds the plastic wrap, aluminum foil as well as boxes of pasta. Below the hanging shelf are 2 small baskets, one with dry mixes, one with jello/pudding boxes:

Beside those is a basket of boxed sides and next to that are all the canisters:

The bottom shelf has small appliances like my rice cooker, Foreman grill, little crockpot for dips and my griddle:

And on the floor, I have a box that holds my steam mop and swiffer accessories, another box that holds paper bags and a box of paper goods like cups, party napkins etc. These are ugly boxes that I plan to either cover up and make pretty or replace with some other type of basket or box:

And there we have it. Before:

After:

LOVE IT!


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