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Pantry renovation!

  • Handymeg
  • Apr 15
  • 3 min read

I just love to renovate a pantry. Just as with the laundry room, the pantry is a space that is entered often. It should make you happy, not frustrated and sad. Well, here's the before...



The color alone would make me not want to go in there. The wire shelves are one of my biggest enemies. Maybe they're cost effective but they're not the best way to store everything. Then there's an empty bump out on the other side. The homeowner kept a small freezer there with a microwave on top. I knew we could do better than that! Anyway, I started with paint. I love the color the homeowner chose!



In my opinion, cabinets and a countertop make for a better flow in a pantry if you have the space for it. The homeowner wanted open shelves in the first two cabinets and the last one would be a tilt-out dog food bin! She wasn't excited about plain, white cabinets. One of my best tricks is to use these very inexpensive frames and then add trim to make it look more custom.



However, first it needed a countertop. Another cost saver was to make a countertop out of one layer of particle board with another layer of plywood veneer. Later I added trim to the front to give the illusion that it's a full, thick countertop. I also started creating very sturdy floating shelves that could hold a lot of weight. I used the same plywood veneer and trim to cover the shelves.



We wanted to maximize the amount of shelves but there was an electrical panel in this room so I had to stop this shelf here. It is sturdy enough but I wanted to make sure this weak spot wouldn't cause issues. This was an example of something I offered to the homeowner. She didn't like it so I picked something else. In this picture, you can see the layers of plywood on top and bottom of each shelf.



And here's the same space with the trim added to the front. The stain took differently on the trim than it did on the plywood but the homeowner said she liked the two tone effect so I stuck with it.



The top shelf wraps all the way around the room. There was enough room in that odd bump out to add a second shelf as well. I did not go all the way around the room with shelves because of the freezer and dog food bin. If there were shelves along that wall, it would be difficult to access these things.



Once I added the trim to the countertop and cabinets below, I told the homeowner to go ahead and fill the space up so that she could use it properly while I put together the final touches.



Here's the tilt-out in place. We decided to leave it unfinished before deciding what kind of finish it needed. We both thought that painting it green (like the walls) might look nice.



It did not. I pulled the front off and remade it, staining it the same as the shelves and countertop.



Much better!



Here's the bump out area with the freezer and microwave in place. I had one more idea for this space.



I made a pull out for brooms/mops/aprons/etc!



I attached it to the back wall with drawer sliders at the top and bottom. We don't want to scratch the nice flooring in there!


Here's the finished product! *I added trim to the front of the shelves inside the cabinets too.




Check out the difference in the before/after...



It's now a much happier space to be in!

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