The Pantry Reveal

At a pretty early point in our renovation (like, when we bought the house) we knew we wanted to add a walk-in pantry. So when we were turning the corner of living room into a bathroom we wanted to save some room for a pantry too.

You're probably sick of this picture by now but here's a reminder of where we started

And here it is framed out. The pantry is on the right--with the trash barrel in it.

And here we are today:

It's hard to tell but that's a reed glass door. We haven't had anyone in to see the house yet but this has been a big hit with our contractors! They all love it (and I do too!). We have three doors in that area--the bathroom door, the pantry door, and the door into the living room (which is a pocket door). I was worried it was going to be too many doors so we wanted to switch things up a bit.

We painted the pantry walls the same color as the bathroom (Silver Sage for those who've asked--and I love that too). We then added the shelf bases.

And I painted and painted and painted the shelves.

And the worst part? Painting that chest. For some reason I didn't want shelves that wrapped all the way around the pantry, and our kitchen designer Paula agreed with me. Jeremy and I thought about building something fancy but in the end we decided to buy something instead. We found this piece at a furniture store in Rhode Island. It was made by the Amish (this makes me really happy for some reason).

So, for those keeping track, I drove to Rhode Island to pick this piece up (2.5 hours round trip), then I primed it (2 hours), and then I painted it (2 more hours).

And 6.5 hours later, we added it to the pantry...and I hated it! But it's staying put and it's actually growing on me now that we've filled up the shelves.

So here it is with the shelves filled:

My favorite part of it? (Besides the fact that the cabinet was made by the Amish... and my reed glass door... and my Silver Sage paint.) Being able to keep all of my appliances and over-sized serving platters out in the open. These were in their boxes down in the basement this past year and I hardly ever used them.

But now that I can grab them quickly I see myself using them more often.  Eventually I want to Real Simple-ify this room...I envision mason jars, canisters, and baskets that hide our paper towels, gatoraids, taco seasoning, etc. 

But until then, I'll just enjoy what I've got, Amish cabinets and all.