Pantry Remodel - Shiplap, Shelves and Paint!

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When I removed the shelves from this wall I knew I’d add some kind of wall treatment because I’m no good at drywall repair! Plus all my inspo pics (like this one and this one) had vertical shiplap, so that was the look I was going for! But let’s go back a step, I first had to remove everything from the pantry that wasn’t in the drawers and side shelves to remove the rest of the 2ft deep shelves. I used my trim puller and a hammer to get those off.

Side note, we used to have the dog food container in this pantry, but now with the drawers in here I didn’t want to have to roll that out each time I needed to open then drawers. I had this cabinet that mostly had junk in it, so I removed all the junk and installed a slide out drawer to keep the dog food container in. This works out because it’s closer to the dog food bowl!

This has worked great for us!! I will say, the drawer doesn’t come out all the way so the lid doesn’t open to our dog food container all the way but it opens enough for us to get a scoop in and out with dog food in it with no problem!.

I took measurements of the back wall to see how wide I wanted the strips of brown board that I was going to rip down with my circular saw. I wanted them about 5in wide but I also wanted the side pieces to not only be half a strip, if that makes sense? I used my brad nailer to nail it to the wall with 1/2in brad nails, starting from the center and using an actual nickel to create a nickel sized gap between the boards.

I had to go around the in wall shelves I created too.

You’ve got to remember, it gets worse before it gets better!!!

The inside of the door had the old builder trim on it, and while I doubt anyone would ever see it, I didn’t have it in me to leave it like that! So I removed it and added the 1×3 primed pine. Then I continued the shiplap on that wall around the doorframe.

As you saw above, I did install the shelves. I wanted corbels but I didn’t want to pay the expensive pricing for them, especially when I could make them myself pretty easily! I had a scrap piece of wood in the garage that was wide enough for what I needed, so I drew a corbel shape on it and cut it out with my jigsaw while the board was clamped down to my miter saw table. Then I used the one I cut out to trace on to the next piece so they were all about the same shape. Not pictured, I used my router to route the edges to make them more decorative.

Then I used 2 pieces of 3/4in plywood to create a thick shelf so it would be more sturdy and have the thicker look I was going for. The corbels hold up the sides of the shelves and I used a 1×2 and screwed it into the back studs to support the back of the shelf.

Because I don’t want the plywood edge to show, I found this PVC trim to go on the front of the shelves. I just attached it with my brad nailer. You can see in the below photo the top shelves are white and not plywood, that’s because I was using what I had on hand and the white pieces were the shelves that were previously in here and they were the same thickness as the plywood I was using.

And because we are going fancy in here, I added some crown moulding!! This isn’t your typical crown so it was A LOT easier to cut and install! It actually lays flat on the wall and doesn’t go on at an angle. For this small space I thought it was the perfect touch!

I didn’t want to add the top shelf on before painting because the top one will be about 18in deep where the other 2 are 12in deep and it would be harder to spray above it. But I did install the shelf supports for the top one before painting. I’m just using 1x2s for this because I didn’t want HUGE corbels and the short ones wouldn’t be long enough. But I did round the edges on the 1x2s using my jigsaw and sander and put them together with pocket holes before installing them to the wall.

I put painters tape on the counter so I’d know where the studs were just in case the stud finder wouldn’t read through the brown board.

Turns out it did still work! But this was helpful because I set this shelf support on the countertop and predrilled some screws into the support so it would be easier to install by myself making sure it was level.

Once all that was done, it was time to fill all the nail holes, caulk and bondo some of the seams of the brown board. Since my ceilings are 9.5ft tall and the brown board pieces were only 8ft long. I like to use spackle to fill nail holes.

You can see in the first photo below, I tried painting the shelf green with a brush, but it was taking way too long so I desided to spray it instead! I used this painters tape with the plastic attached to cover the counter, the drawers and the floor, everything else was getting sprayed in a color drench style. This is my paint sprayer and it’s awesome! It’s pricey, but if you spray often it’s 100% worth it! It’s easy to use and clean, and it goes on in a buttery smooth finish as opposed to other, cheaper paint sprayers I’ve used. I did have to fill the paint bucked twice for this space. I used a shoe cover for my hair and feet, goggles and a respirator for safety along with some old clothes.

It looks kinda crazy here, but I’m loving it! You’ve got to trust the process! I didn’t spray the whole ceiling because I didn’t tape off the light and I figured I’d just roll the rest of it when I do the top shelf and touch ups. Also, the second picture is a more accurate representation of the color, the light makes the color look way more bright green than it actually is. I used Pewter Green by SW on the inside of my pantry but at 50% strength. Pewter Green is also on my kitchen cabinets.

Tyler put in a new prettier light switch for me but then 4 days later I decided I wanted a motion censored light in here instead so he had to switch it out again. lol! WORTH IT! Sorry the photos are blurry, he sent me a video of him complaining about it and it didn’t come through well.

Once that was dry I got to work adding the top shelf. I wanted this one to be deeper for our larger appliances that we keep in here, but not the full 24in that it was before, plus I was working with scrap plywood without having to buy more. I went with 18in ish for this shelf and also did it double layered. I didn’t mention this before, but I did glue the 2 layers together to make sure they were nice and strong along with some brad nails to make sure they were tight while the glue dried.

I also added a front trim piece to this one as well.

Then I got the shelf and ceiling painted and it was looking sooo good!

I mean, can you see the potential??? I’m still not sure if I’m leaving the drawers without draw fronts like this post or this post or with them like this one.