The Piece de Resistance!

As I have shown this week, we made lots of changes to our pantry. I organized, took down shelves, and added a spice rack here. And then chalkboard panels on the door here. I love these updates but the real winner for me is today's addition. This is another vision that I have had floating around in  my head for months now but they always take me a bit to build up the courage to complete them. And then I kick myself that I waited so long!

We are very lucky to have a nice sized kitchen but with so many gadgets, utensils, and cooking tools it's often hard to find what you are looking for easily. Check out our utensil stand and cooking drawer. Impossible to easily find anything...

And so with my newly cleared wall in the pantry I knew just what we needed! A pegboard in the pantry!!! It sounds a little far fetched but wait until you see the end result!

2 foot by 4 foot piece of pegboard 

the empty wall in the pantry... 

a nifty little box of pegboard accessories (including mounting spacers) $11 at Home Depot

2 quick coats of chalkboard paint... since I already had it out! Makes labeling super easy though! 

Chalkboard conditioning... 

A quick wipe down (while hubby recounted his love of erasing chalkboards in grade school) 

To mount, you use the spacers and basically screw it into the wall. We used 12 spacers. The package only came with 4 so make sure to buy extras. Also, it is helpful to glue the spacers to the back of the pegboard and then screw them in if you are working in a tight space or using a large pegboard. Otherwise, you are trying to contort your hand behind the board to place the spacers!

Hanging and ready to load it up! 

Are you ready to be jealous??? I must say that I love this new addition. It is by far my FAVORITE aspect of the pantry redo! I now have an empty drawer, some cleared up counter space, and more room in my kitchen cabinets in addition to being able to easily see all of my kitchen tools! LOVE!

We moved this nifty little gadget to the other wall. It holds your plastic grocery bags for easy storage and access. We have one in the pantry downstairs and one upstairs in the laundry room. A definite must have!

PS. I linked this project at Serenity Now and Our Fifth House Organize It Linky Party

A Chalktastic Idea!

Now that the organization is up and running with the pantry, it was time to focus on something a little more fun. Oh yes and quick too!

I have the Rustoleum Chalkboard paint sitting in the garage for nearly a year now! I have no idea why it took me so long to finally bust it out and tackle this project. I guess that I just needed the push to get moving!

A quick cover of painters tape, 2 coats of paint, an overnight dry, a chalk conditioning, and here we are....

A chalkboard paneled pantry door! I love the way it looks and that we have an easy place to keep our grocery, Target, and Costco lists. Snap a quick picture of the list with my phone and I am ready to shop!

However, it seems like someone else likes the new door even better than I do. Can you guess who that might be?

I have had 2 wonderfully peaceful nights of dinner preparations thanks to our new door and a box of pastel chalk. Now I am really kicking myself for not doing this a long time ago!

Think this is great? Just wait till tomorrow!

Working on the Pantry

Lately, I have been trying to focus not only on the decor of the house but also on the organization. Its an area that I strive to become better at! I have resolved myself to dedicating at least one of my weekly posts to this topic so here is the first of many Manic Organization Monday!

My pantry has been a source of frustration for as long as we have lived here. It is a large space but the set up wasn't exactly the best utilization of the space. The fact that it is a walk in is nice but it is a small square shape so you lose a lot of functionality in the corners. Below are some before shots (and this is not nearly as messy/disorganized as it has gotten before!)

So I started off by taking everything out of the pantry.... about midway thru I ran out of counter space! I also threw away alot of stuff. We had 3 jars of pickles that were expired that have been hanging out way in the back for over a year! Yeah - it was a mess!

Once the pantry was empty I looked at the layout a little closer. The shelves to the right are not that long and since we have the trash can in there too there are only three of them. I made a rash decision and pulled them down! This left me with 2 free walls and access to all of the remaining shelves! Finally, I was getting somewhere! I grouped like items together and started putting the pantry back together. What an improvement!

Now taking down those 3 shelves meant that I needed to do something with all of the stuff that was on them. The top shelf was paper supplies and cups. So that was an easy move to the kitchen cabinets where I keep my entertaining platters and such. Duh! It is so nice to have all of my party stuff together! Then taking a hint from another pantry project I saw recently (if only I could remember which blog!) I moved all of my baking supplies to a rattan box that keeps everything together and makes it super easy to just pull the box out when its baking time.

The second shelf housed several lazy susan's filled with spices and seasonings. We use these often and it is one of the areas that gets the most disorganized. I found a very easy solution that I love. A three tier wall mounted spice rack at Home Depot! Now our spices are easy to access since they are all visible (and alphabetized!)

Snacks were moved from their cardboard boxes to glass canisters. Easy to see when they are empty and easy to quickly grab when we are leaving the house in a hurry! Extra boxes are placed behind the canisters for easy refills!

All of our baby and kid snacks are grouped together too!

The bottom shelf holds our canned goods and extras of bigger items such as juices.

All in all - this change has made a HUGE change in the feel of the pantry.... but there are 2 more changes that really take it to the next level! More on that tomorrow and Wednesday!