My New Pantry! Now My Favorite Little Room In The House

Our pantry has been a thorn in my side since we built this house 16 years ago.  I wasn't paying too much attention to closet shelving, as I wanted to use the money elsewhere in the house for upgrades.  My husband did surprise me with a closet system in our master closet a year after we moved in, but the other closets in the home still had wire shelving which was fine. Except the pantry, this pantry drove me nuts for 16 years!  You put stuff on the shelves, everything falls over, falls behind, got thrown in there never to been seen again, until I would clean it out 2-3 times a year.  I would find so much expired food because you would never find what was put in there!  I even had to have shelving in the garage for canned goods, because you couldn't ever put them on those wire shelves, they never stood upright. 

 Finally, I got the OK from the hubby to hire a contractor to tear this pantry up and out and get the job done right, YAY! The contractor I hired was fabulous, he  not only listened to everything I asked for, but offered some even better ideas on how to improve the space. So together we came up with more space out of this tiny little room. I couldn't have asked for a better guy for the job he was the best, and I am now in love with my new pantry!

So much wasted space and just 4 wire shelves to hold food for what was originally 5 people living in this house, totally not enough room.  All dirty from years of use too.

Shelves out and a new beginning is about to happen.

Fresh coat of a bright extra white to add more light in the space.

WOW, it looks better already.

This pantry sits under my back stairwell, that is why the wall is slanted.

This was all custom made shelving to fit in this space. It's was made sturdy to hold a lot of bottles, cans and boxes.

So I got two more shelves on the original wall, more space! I had the contractor go down a few inches on the width of the shelving, they are not as wide, so things still don't fall behind them. It also made more room in the space so now it's easier to walk all the way in and turn around.

He even beveled that edge on the slanted wall so it looks finished off. Now there is shelving on that empty space wall too, so even more room in the pantry.

Oh yea, it 's filled up already, everything is in there, even the canned goods from the shelves in the garage. And I can see everything that I have, no more falling over and behind other things.

My added feature that I wanted, to use up all the space on the walls, was to attach a shelving unit to the wall for canned goods, and to do the same feature on the door for packaged goods.  The contractor did suggest a heavier solid wood door, which I did get to hold the unit, because it is solid wood so it is very heavy.  Also, all the shelves are removeable and adjustable for height, like I said he thought of everything.

Filling up nicely!

Everything in and I still have a little space left for anything new.

The contractor's attention detail was amazing, he even made plugs for all the screw holes.

The wall and door unit have ledges so nothing slides off.

I now actually love going into the pantry to get something, it's no longer the black hole it used to be.

  It makes me so happy!

 

Bedroom Redo

We FINALLY became empty nesters, YAHOOOOOO!  So with that being said, it was time to tear some rooms apart and redo them, they are going to be empty but at least will look nice.

.  I am an OCD driven person and need to have things in my house in order or it drives me crazy and makes me feel unsettled.  I have to have organization in my life.  I did this whole bedroom over by repurposing some things and buying some new so it wasn't at all expensive. New carpet will be coming hopefully this Spring.

I stripped everything old out and cleaned the whole room from top to bottom.  The walls were in really good shape, no marks, scuffs or holes in the walls, so I didn't feel the need to paint.  The color on the walls is Sandstone Cove by Behr.  I loaded everything up on the bed that I was going to use in the room. 

Only two windows in the room, so no big expense on curtains.  The door on the right is the walk-in closet, a nice size for this room.  The doorway on the right, behind the table, is a Jack and Jill bathroom, shared with the other bedroom on the opposite side, same layout as this room.

So here it is!  The bed I had, its an old one from IKEA but in really good shape so no need to replace it or the mattress, no one ever slept on it. The duvet was brand new from IKEA I bought a few years back and never used.  New sheets to match, a few throw pillows, only the tasseled one is new, the blanket at the bottom of the bed is new.  All wall art is new also.

The bureau is 32 years old, it was my oldest sons baby bureau that matched his crib. I painted the bottom so it looks and feels like weathered tin. The mirror I have still has to be hung. Painted the chair and covered the cushion a while back, it was still in really good shape so it fit perfect.  Curtains were purchased new from Home Goods, they have great selections and very reasonably priced for $29.99 a pair. Also got the metal basket at Home Goods for $16.99.

This is the bedroom on the opposite side of the bathroom that was redone last year. The color on the walls is Winter Lake by Behr.  These two rooms are now done.

The Jack and Jill bathroom that these two rooms share will be torn out and redone this Spring, so stay tuned!

This bedroom is still being used occasionally by my daughter when she comes to visit form NY.  It is not complete just yet, I need to find wall art for it to make it more cozy. She picked out the color and we didn't realize it was the same as the above bedroom. This room also has it's own bathroom in the room, she's a lucky girl!  The bed is the same as the other room, for some reason I liked this bed back then, it has served me well.

 

New Floor!

Oh my gosh I've been away for sooooo long!  A lot going on in my life this past year.  Found out I was going to be a first time grandmother (Nonna as I chose to be called)! SO excited for that, he was born in April and I am happy to say, he is the love of our family and so handsome.  In between all this exciting news, there was house hunting for his mommy and daddy, painting and decorating to be done at their new found house, then he arrived and all is balanced in life again, so happy for him and all of it!

Also, I have been a very busy Nonna at my own house.  I decided to finally get my family room floor done and remove the carpet in that room.  I couldn't be more thrilled with the way it turned out.  It made such a difference, and the match is just about perfect to the existing hardwood floor which was 13 years old. I did good by the old part of the hardwood floor by taking care of it, and in the end it paid off.

The old carpeted floor and the new hardwood floor, what a difference a day makes!

Tearing out the carpet and exposing the sub-flooring.

 Moisture barrier down, boards laid out across the floor and it's almost done.  The whole floor took about 8 hours worth of time to install.

 A few glitches that had to be fixed.

OK, so I'm really picky.  But hey, I paid a lot of money for this floor and it should be perfect, right?  The installer did good and fixed all those blue tape little problems I saw with my crazy eyes.  All was well in the end.

 He also left me a parting gift in case the kitties scratch my floor.  You would never know the cat scratched the floor after using this.  If you buy this, match it to the color of your floor, this color matched mine perfectly.