Spring is practically here and since I've been in my "nesting" phase, I've scheduled a few final home improvement projects that I would like to get done before baby Graham arrives at the end of July! One of my projects was updating our pantry. Now unfortunately, I don't have a true "before" picture, I was so anxious to redo our pantry that I started ripping shelves out before taking a picture, but here's the scoop. We have a very deep pantry, and along with our deep pantry came really deep shelves, 4 wire baskets on rollers (which actually didn't roll all the way out so they were dysfunctional) and wasted space at the top and bottom of our pantry. Just to give you an idea on how deep our pantry was, the measurements were 34" deep and 37" wide, and the original shelves came to about 32" deep! Yikes! I had tons of wasted space because if I put things all the way at the back of the pantry, I wouldn't be able to see them as I added more food.
Going along with the floating shelf concept that was already in our pantry, we ripped out the existing shelves because they were grimy and oil stained but left the existing floating shelf railing (picture below). As you can see, there was quite a bit of space wasted at the top and bottom. (Sorry the floor looks weird and dirty in the picture, I promise it's not!)
Next, my husband used existing white paint we had from another project and covered the vanilla walls to brighten it up! Here's a picture of him painting below.
Once the paint dried, we measured the floating rails to add one shelf at the top and one at the bottom. We bought four 1x2's and cut them to a length of 33.5" (to go on the sides) and two 1x2's cut to a length of 36.5" (to go on the back wall). We also opted to buy 1" thick particle board instead of plywood because it looks nicer, it's heavier AND it was $20 for a giant sheet instead of $50 for a giant sheet of plywood. We had Lowe's cut the giant sheet of particle board into our shelves which we did five shelves at 36.75" L x 12" W and one shelf at 36.75" L x 14" W (I wanted one longer shelf at the top for my larger appliances). We used existing screws that we bought for our fireplace mantle project and screwed the rails into place, exactly 12" apart.
Then my husband started from the bottom and laid the new shelves on top of the rails and screwed down. This part took about 30 minutes.
We originally bought shelf liner and I had plans to cover the shelves before putting food on them...but I got way too excited and opted to skip that part! :) I restocked our pantry and absolutely love it! Here's the final product!
Pantry Organization from Top to Bottom:
- The top shelf allows about 19" of storage from shelf to ceiling and I have our George Foreman Grill, A glass salad bowl, a small crock pot, glass carafe and our Ninja Blender. (This is the shelf that is 14" deep)
- On the second shelf from the top I have overflow canned items and condiments: rice, soup, canned chicken breast, chili beans.
- On the third shelf from the top I have my Italian shelf (I'm 50% Italian, so this shelf was a must!) I have spaghetti and penne noodles, traditional and Alfredo sauces, olive oil, artichoke hearts, Parmesan cheese, Italian bread crumbs and mac & cheese.
- On the fourth shelf from the top I have our breakfast items. The basket nicely organizes our breakfast bars (my husband and I like different kinds) and then we have cereal, oatmeal, syrup and a basket of gum on the right (I didn't have a better spot for this).
- On the fifth shelf down I have snack foods. The basket nicely organizes crackers, fruit snacks, applesauce and other small snack foods. Then I have my peanut butter, and canned fruits.
- On the last shelf at the bottom I have entertaining supplies. The basket contains disposable bowls, plates and silverware while the serving tray next to it has our zillions of napkins that we've somehow inherited from family parties.
- On the floor I have a case of water, my Apple Cider Vinegar and food that will be donated to the food pantry.
- On the left wall I hung my apron on a command hook and then we have out two step ladder on the right.
Total Supplies and Cost:
- 1 giant sheet of particle board - $20
- Having the particle board cut into shelves - $0.25/cut (about 12 cuts were made)
- 6 1x2" rails - $12
- Screws (had at home) - $0
- Baskets - $8/each
- Command Hook (had at home) - $0
- White Paint (had at home) - $0
TOTAL Money Spent: $59.00
TOTAL Time Spent: 6 hours
Happy Living & God's Blessings!
J.M.
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