What is the best place to start updating your entire house? The pantry of course! It's small enough to feel accomplished quickly and there's nothing like have food at your finger tips to keep up your strength while working on larger projects later on =)
Lots of ugly before pictures. How blagh.
This project started with a very quick paint color decision. No need to spend hours worrying about the color you've picked when it's the pantry. I mean who else will be in there? So, I saw a paint chip I liked and bought it. Just. Like. That.
Then I just went right to the painting.
Next I got the measuring tape out and made a plan for my shelving. Part of my planning also including making a list of the things I knew I wanted to make room for like drinks and cereal boxes. I 'chicken scratched' how I planned the pantry to look. The measuring tape comes in handy to measure things like the height of paper towels and can goods.
After getting it all figured out I ran to the store and bought the wood and L brackets to attach the shelves. When I got home I got right to the cutting and painting.
Yes, I used my dog crate to hold some boards. Don't judge.
So, then it was on the the fun stuff. Well, only fun when you have a 18 month old crawling on your back when you are trying to screw shelving into small cramped spaces....
I decided I NEEDED some contact paper on my shelves. I found the coolest "stainless steel" looking contact paper! I'm in love!!
What a cool product!!
At this point I'm pretty happy. I have a place for cleaning supplies and a place for my toilet paper. But... I just can't rest with that old school flooring. It's just so bad. So, I decided to do something a little crazy and a little risky.
PAINT. THE. FLOOR!!
Clean floors are a must for this project. I used TSP for my cleaning agent. After it's nice and clean and dry I used a deglosser to get the surface ready to accept the paint. Some people also use a sander at this point. Being a very low traffic area I opted to skip that step.
This proved to be a much quicker project than I expected. (When does that ever happen?!) I was able to do the whole floor from cleaning to finished while my son was napping. Yes, you heard me right, all done during nap time!!
Then to top it all off I added my own definition of a pantry. I am truly thankful for a pantry to have to decorate and fill with food to keep my family healthy and happy.
This pantry project was very simple and I accomplished it with no help! You can too. Get out and just do it =)
