Finally another room reveal! We really are taking our sweet time decorating. I want to have a vision for each space before I start buying, but also money is not growing on the trees out backyard so we have to spread out some of the spending.
The pantry is small but there is enough going on to give it it’s own page. I have all the details and links below.
The top 4 things I wanted for the Pantry:
- ☑️ Enough space and outlets for the microwave and toaster
- ❌ Enough space for food prep (a butler’s pantry)
- ☑️ Big enough to have a back stock of food
- ☑️ Pretty inside because I don’t think the door will ever be shut (we ended up not bothering to put a door on)
Picks with our contractor:
Flooring:
The pantry tile was purchased from Royal Flooring for those that are local. I wanted a floor change from the kitchen to show it is it’s own space regardless how small it is.
Reflex Hexagon Tile
color Night,
Grout color Warm Gray
Counter:
It was decided to put in a wood counter top. We were not really a part of this decision. It was a standard thing our contractor put in and we didn’t really think about asking at the time. It looks great so I’m not complaining. After it was put in we had it stained the same color as the stair railing in the living room. The stain is a special mix designed to look like “Special Walnut” on the type of wood they used. I am drawing a blank on the wood in our home. We have extra stain which you will see came in handy because I stained some of our baskets to match the counter.
Paint:
The entire pantry is painted the same color as the rest of the house, Pure White from Sherwin Williams. There is trim along the floor but no door. We have an arched entry into the space to dress it up a bit. Due to having our microwave in the pantry I figured a door would just get annoying. Everyone is always saying they could never not have a door because their pantry is a mess. I get it. Our old pantry was much smaller and because of this we did not have any sort of system. The food just laid out. Our old pantry also had a door but we never shut it so everyone that dropped by saw the mess inside anyways.
Our own picks:
Microwave:
The microwave was part of the contracting bid but we decided with an open pantry we needed a pretty microwave. It ended up being much cheaper for us to pick out a microwave from Walmart vs purchasing one through the appliance vender our contractor used. Of course when you buy the Beautiful by Drew Barrymore brand it is easy to get carried away and before we knew it we had the Beautiful brand microwave, toaster, can opener, blender, electric kettle, crockpot, pressure cooker, popcorn maker, panini press and yes even the ice cream maker.
SHOP THE PANTRY
Other Items I Considered 👇🏻
What you see in the images is pretty self explanatory but there was some DIY. The baskets on the first shelf from the bottom were lighter in color but I took the left over stain we had from our home build and stained the bamboo part of the storage cube. Changing these cubes was not the only makeover. I also changed the color of the crates up top. These came in a cherry wood color. I stripped that stain and painted two of them black and stained the other two, matching the rest of the wood in the pantry. I glued on a thin piece of wood (which I also stained) and used my Cricut machine to cut a black rectangle. The black rectangles are vinyl so I am able to change the label with a wet cloth as long as I write with liquid chalk markers.
The glass domed serving tray is up on a stand because it looks much better elevated in this way. I did see when I was making my links that this serving tray comes as a cake stand so anyone else making this purchase could choose that instead. I was not going to spend the money on a new one. I will link the recipe to the banana muffins I made because they are delicious. It is the crumble on top that takes it to the next level so do not skip that step!
The storage in this pantry comes from the height of it. We need something to reach the top shelves. With minimal floor space this step stool accommodates us well. I do wish it was a little shorter so the top step was level with the bottom shelf. Maybe I can cut the legs down someday. The part that I want to call out is the bottom step folds up. This prevents us stubbing our toes with the limited walking space.
I used a heat transfer vinyl for the gray baskets. The Cricut cut out the rectangles and I used my hair straighter to make them stick. The faux leather handles are sensitive to heat so I had to be quick and use a piece of cloth to protect where the hair straightener touched leather.
12 baskets and here is what’s in them
- Flavored Rice Pouches
- Mac & Cheese *Recommend the Smoked Gouda from Aldi
- Honey and Butters *Recommend Aldi’s Hot Honey and Oat Haus
- Protein Bars
- Tomato products: diced, sauce, crushed, paste
- Broths: beef bone broth, chicken bone broth
- Olives: green olives, kalamata olives, black olives
- Canned Meats: salmon, tuna, sardines & Tuna packets
- Candy *Recommend YumEarth Giggles & YumEarth Sour Littles
- Baby Foods
- Chip bag clips and koozies
- Birthday candles and cookie cutters
We do not transfer all the bagged and boxed items we purchase into pretty containers.You will find foods like crackers and cereals in their boxes, and bags of snacks for our daughters’ and snacks for mom and dad.
The little house here was on super sale at Hobby Lobby. I later found out it was part of the Halloween collection. In the tray I portioned loose leaf tea together: dandelion root and raspberry leaf (both really good for women’s health).
These are old OXO containers I have collected over the years. Their roll is to store our baking ingredients.
The crates hold things we stock up on like ketchup and taco bell sauce. Items I do not want anyone to eat because it is part of a recipe I am making that week. Produce we don’t care to eat cold like avocados and pomegranate and all the root vegetables.
The square shaped containers have been discontinued and honestly I have a guess as to why. My first order arrived with many of them shattered in the package. When they sent a replacement those too arrived shattered. I was allowed to keep what did not break at no cost but I gave up on them arriving in one piece. I think they did too.
Our container flow is this. We have staple items that are always in our pantry and those go in the containers. We do this because we buy several bags at a time and can consolidate those bags into one container. Having the clear containers at eye level allows us to see right away when we are running low. For example: Chocolate chips. Three bags fill the container and we always have them on hand because they are Rob’s choice of a snack at night and you never know when you need a good chocolate chip cookie. Another example is we buy a huge bag of baking soda to take detox baths, scrub the showers, wash our clothing and bake. We need a small container to keep a portion of it in the kitchen. Other small containers store things like mineral salt and whole peppercorns to refill our salt and pepper grinders.
Now I don’t really want to take the time emptying one box of food into another container for display, hence the big bins at the bottom to hide the not so aesthetically pleasing things. What I do do though is after I open a bag of let’s say walnuts for a recipe and I have just a handful left, I will take a small display container and fill it with the left over nuts. This way I do not have an almost empty bag getting lost under the large bags of chips and other snacks. Especially if it is something I do not use/eat often like walnuts.
