Pantry Overhaul

 

In the spirit of continuing on our kitchen redo, I tackled the pantry over the last two weeks {I didn't have huge chunks of time, so I spread it out...which left my kitchen quite chaotic the entire time}.
You may remember, I was going to stencil the walls, however our walls proved way too textured to handle stencils. Bummer.

This was the before....not awful, but not great. It had certainly gotten messy since the original organization over four years ago.

The small boxes my oils and stuff were in weren't practical...they weren't deep enough, so I used so many of them...making it look super crowded.

Oh, ack. This was the baking area...along with the bento stuff in the baskets that attached to the shelves. You can see they didn't fit and spilled onto the shelf above.

Started with paint...kind of rough since the shelves weren't removable.

I used my same "Oops Blue" that you've seen allover lots of projects in my home. 

I also painted the shelves white and used a laminate shelf lining to cover them for extra protection.

My dad and I built crates {six for less than $30}. Click here to see the full tutorial. This is a project anyone could tackle!

I also painted and weathered them. 

I labeled the crates. You can download these same labels for free here.

After the crates were in place, I reorganized and refilled the pantry.
The above two crates were full of Bento items. I use them so much that I wanted them easily accessible.

I used empty Crystal Light containers for all of my cutters and other Bento supplies.

On the floor, my baskets have larger items and overflow Ziplocs/wrap stuff.
The bottom shelf houses baking and breakfast supplies.

The baking supplies are in the crate, while my flours {coconut & almond} are behind the Oatmeal and bars. {Along with marshmallows and bulk oats}.

Besides the crates, most of the items I used to organize I already had on hand. Those little baskets for the breakfast bars and oatmeal were purchased years ago from Southern Living at Home. They make it nice to instantly see what we need.

I did purchase the clear cereal boxes for this makeover. I bought the ones from Walmart that were less than $4 each. That little basket on the left with pancake stuff {along with its matching companion one on another shelf holding pasta} were from Gooseberry Patch, about ten years ago.


The "Biscuits" container holds overflow bars....we LOVE Trader Joe's, but the nearest one is 2 1/2 hours away in Fort Worth, so we stock up when we go! Those Peanut Butter & Oat Bars are my boys' favorites!
The container itself has been with me for nearly 12 years...that and the "Bread" ones were both from Restoration Hardware {I think they were purchased at their first store that opened in Austin}.

Canned goods on shelf risers from Dollar Tree! So cheap and so functional.

Since the risers were from Dollar Tree, I doubled them to make sure they withstood the weight of all of those cans!

I kept my snack containers in the same ones from before...it's a system that works for us. These were purchased over four years ago, also at Dollar Tree.
The longer crate at the top is for chips and snack overflow.

Another new addition is the two Lazy Susans. LOVE these!! They're perfect for all of my bottled items. I bought the BIG ones over at Bed, Bath & Beyond {they're the 18" ones}.

The "Bread" box at the top holds all of my paper goods.

At the very top, towards the right are my crock pot and ice cream maker. I moved the cookbooks to the spare bedroom's closet {with the diet we're on, I don't use too many of those anymore...no point in keeping them there}.

So far, this is functioning great for us!

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