Pantry Re-Do

First though, I have to share my mini plants.

Look mom, it's not English Ivy!  I picked up this sweet little vintage dish this weekend while thrift store hopping with some friends.  I knew immediately I wanted to use it as a small planter, I just didn't know what I would plant.  Then I discovered these guys over by the cactus section; I'm loving this little grouping!  Fingers crossed they're happy in their new teacup sized planter...

Now on to the pantry...  When we moved into this house a little over a year ago, we were met with some interesting challenges.  One of the biggest challenges that we still face is the issue of storage.  We moved from a relatively roomy apartment with walk-in closets and spacious cabinets to an older home with closets the size of an airplane lavatory and minimal cabinet space.  We have cabinet space for our cookware and dishes, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for our food.  So we improvised and made a makeshift pantry out of the small coat closet in between the living room and kitchen.  

The closet didn't have shelving (or a door), but some cheap plastic shelves were a quick and affordable temporary fix.  They weren't meant to stay a year, and I'm embarrassed to admit that they did.  But stuff came up with the house as it often does, so other projects took precedence over pantry shelving and this project kept getting bumped to the bottom of the list.  

And then we adopted Kenny.  

Kenny very quickly learned where the food lived, and it was just within his reach.  The day I came upstairs from the basement to discover that he had unearthed a box of powdered Jello mix from the pantry (and enjoyed his discovery all over the house) was the final straw.  We tackled the pantry build-out on Sunday, and I couldn't be more excited with the finished product!

Check out all that awesome storage!  We opted for L-shaped shelving to help maximize the space.  There are also two shelves that run the width of the closet towards the top: one is existing and the other we installed.  They're the perfect spot for my platters and other serving dishes that aren't used every day.  For the doors we re-purposed bi-fold closet doors.  We opted for these because they provided us with the height we needed for the door (it's not standard door size).  I didn't want them to slide open like traditional bi-fold doors because we'd lose a couple precious inches of access to the pantry.  So we separated the doors, and padded them out individually to give us the width we needed.  
Being able to access and see everything has made a huge difference and it almost makes me look forward to going grocery shopping just so I can come home and enjoy putting away the groceries!

And rest assured Jello mix will never find it's way into that pantry again - doors or no doors.