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This pantry remodel has been fun and has made our pantry sooo much more functional! As you can see in the above photo, I added drawer fronts and a new floor! I wasn’t sure if I’d add drawer fronts or not because I really liked the look of the drawer I saw in this post I found on Pinterest. But every time I looked at it in my pantry, it just looked unfinished to me so I decided to add fronts to them made out of 1x3s. I used the same drawer pulls as I’ve added to the rest of my kitchen cabinets. As for the floor, it’s peel and stick tile and super easy to install and really durable!
Here’s the reveal video of our pantry explaining everything in detail in a VoiceOver.
And now here are some satisfying before and afters for you! This is a very small space so this post won’t be super long.
As you can see in the above picture, there was a lot of stuff in there! A lot of people ask what I did with everything that was in there before when they see the after, but with the exception of the dog food container on the bottom, the grey containers, the fancy panz, and a few expired items, everything that was in there before is still in there. The drawers are REALLY helpful at maximizing space! For us, the 2ft deep shelves weren’t very functional, things would get lost behind them and go bad. But with the drawers you can pull them out all the way to really see what’s in there better. More on the drawers in this post. Having drawers, 2 12in shelves and 1 18in shelf up top for larger items is way more functional. Side note, it is very hard to take decent pictures of small spaces so bear with me.
As you can see in the before picture, there were wire shelves on the wall inside the pantry on the right but not on the left, there were also wire shelves on the back of the door. I removed all those wire shelves and inside the pantry I created 2 shelving units between the studs by cutting into the drywall. A taller one on the right side and a shorter one on the left since the light switch was in the way on the left. I knew there was no wiring going down behind the wall because my stud finder shows where electric is running, mine goes up into my attic, which is why I went below the light switch with my between stud shelves vs. above it. These shelves are also where a lot of our pantry items went. More on this in this post.
As far as the wire racks on the back of the door, I removed them and the whole door and built and installed a Murphy door. A Murphy door is a hidden door, often disguised as a bookshelf or cabinet. Some of the things on the back of the door went into the drawers and some things went into the front of the Murphy door. More on the Murphy door build in this post. You can also see that I added shiplap to the walls, this was partially for design purposes and partially because I’m terrible at repairing and texturing drywall! More on that in this post. The paint color I chose is Pewter Green by SW, the same color that are on my kitchen cabinets.
What do you think? Would you want a Murphy door as a pantry door? I will say, since my pantry opening was only 25in wide to start with the Murphy door did take up about 10in of space making the opening to get into the pantry only 15in. We are pretty thin in our house and fit sideways with no problem. We also don’t use our pantry constantly so it’s not a bother, although I’ll most likely expand the pantry one day another 6in or so now that I know I can successfully build a Murphy door!
Another thing I often get asked is, “Where is all your food?”. Well, we don’t eat/keep a lot of processed dry food in our house aside from a little pasta, canned goods, seasonings and snacks for my daughter. Most of our food is in our fridge and freezer.
Here is another view of the outside because I just can’t get enough! Now, where else can I add a Murphy door?!
Do you think a small pantry like this deserves to be pretty? I think every space in your home deserves to look nice! Even the small areas like this, and personally I think they are the most fun to design!
Up next, I’m rebuilding my expandable island in a different, more vintage/traditional style! More on the original one in this post.
What was the size of your pantry to start?
Hi, it is 4ft deep and 3ft wide and 9.5ft tall.
What do you put in the drawers? Ive debated on adding drawers, Im afraid I wont use them!
Oh we use them all. In the top right we have baking supplies, like sugar, melting chocolate, flour, ect. Next down we keep ziplock bags and foil and plastic and wax paper, things like that. The next one down is party supplies like paper plates, plasticware, napkins, etc. Top right is snacks that don’t go bad quickly. next down is Mac and cheese and things like that for my daughter, easy meals, not necessarily healthy but easy. Bottom right is bigger plastic containers, but I might get rid of those because we don’t ever use them and I can add something else to that drawer. Hope that helps!