Do you have one for those projects in your home that has been on your list since you first moved in but wasn’t a top priority?

Yes, us too. Welcome the pantry!!

We have lived in our home for 5 years and only 10 months ago we completed our much desired dream of remodelling our pantry. This was the first project I didn’t take you along for the journey, and kept the panry remodel a complete secret. And i’m certain I shocked you all with the spontaneous reveal on Instagram! Well, don’t worry I got all the juicy details of the pantry in this blog post.

Like most projects there are sometimes delays which are out of our control, especially when you embark on a project towards the end of the year!

Finally the time came for us to remodel. A home takes time, and it’s well worth the wait when you get what you want! To have a practical family of four built in pantry located in this space, (the only place it could go!) it required a bit of remodelling, rejigging and a bit of patience. When we got our home, a 1950s fixer upper having a built-in pantry wasn’t within our budget. So getting creative with a small growing family, we tore down the existing pantry and put up simple MDF shelves and painted them white. (ahhh the power of paint!) I love open shelves as you can display your pantry like art with glass jars and organisation. We loved it like this till the lower shelves became rather in-practical with a toddler. I then turned the two bottom shelves into ‘activity’ shelves for Florence, with play based learning games, so while I cooked she played. This also encouraged her to know the other shelves were ‘Mummy and Daddies’. We did exactly the same when Teddy came along and it worked for a while… but let’s just say he wasn’t the average baby/toddler and at 4 months climbed the shelves to reach for food, (heart in mouth moment!) So long story short, the food and pantry items just kept going up and up and up the shelves. It became very in-practical.

Before Pantry with Shelves

Original Pantry when we moved in.

Like most projects we do we keep it old school, and love to tape for a visual. It helps us get a clear understanding of what it will look like, spacial awareness, gives a good guideline and allows us to play with the options before biting the bullet and making the first cut. One thing we knew was the door and current fridge would have to be moved.

Our personal requirements.

Encourage kitchen flow to outdoors
Glass door to allow More natural light
Maximise the space between the kitchen and the pantry
Utilise the height of the ceiling to make a statement and elevate your eye.
Integrated large fridge freezer
Hidden pantry items with pull out shelves.
Top cupboards that lead over hallways walkway

Before with the location of Door.

The demolition phase was over the course of 3 weeks. Luckily my father in law was staying for Christmas and much like ben loves to keep busy. The removed the existing 1950s door, had brick cut out for the new custom Larger door (with glass to allow more sunlight) and made it water tight in time Christmas and ready for the brick layer to start post Christmas.

The pantry was custom made for our space, which with 1950s uneven walls was a great idea! Believe me it was trial and error for the kitchen company too!

Ben and his father starting the demolition.

We have an original 5 step cornice that is throughout the kitchen and we wanted to keep the original here. Ben removed this carefully prior to installation and had it assembled back on professionally when the pantry was installed. This cornice is no longer available and several companies refused to make it and only supplied us with ‘alternatives.’ We were not giving up! Our moto. It’s all in the details. It was well worth the 2 hours artistically removing it piece by piece and having it carefully installed by a professional plasterer.

My dream of an organised pantry and fridge came to life.

As a family of four and a lover for fresh food we needed a much larger fridge. This was such a good decision and is now constantly filled with food and meals. Best part, you don’t see it!! An integrated fridge has always been a dream!

Having lived with a semi impractical do what you can pantry, the details mattered to me for our new pantry.

Easy soft close pull out drawers, in different sizes to store out goods.

Now let’s take a look at the door and overhead. I will say I thought about this before jumping in. Again, my gut was to have the pantry cover the entire wall. The design was cleaner and compact. Though I considered skipping the overhead above the door. We had it drawn up (below) and it just brought more attention to the dead space above the door and too corridor like.

Even if you don’t think you will use a cupboard sometimes do it for the design! Once again go with your gut and initial thought of design, it’s always right.

The overhead cupboards store vases, extra dinnerware and glasses for guests.

One more thing we did, was remove the door to the hallway. It felt cluttered with the glass door and it was not getting used. Doing this created a better flow from the kitchen to the hallway. We now utilise the wall on the side for our daily calendars and schedules.

10 months on, if there was one thing I could change, it would be to have painted the inside of the pantry blue too. It was a design and communication error on my part with the company, I had assumed it was going to be blue on the inside. In design, don’t assume, think of every last detail. Can we change it? No, but lesson is learnt! And I adore our pantry!

Links and Sources below:

My favourite pantry organisation.

BPA free clear organising Bins- here

Beeswax food wraps- here

Glass Storage Food containers- here