Pantry Organization

I always see such beautiful pantries across blog land.

I've been really wanting to do something about my horribly cluttered and quite frankly, pathetic excuse for a pantry since I moved to this house 4 1/2 years ago.  About a month back I finally got started.  

You'll see that it's skinny and deep. It's stuffed to the gills and pretty much a pain.  Well it was.

 

I threw out lots of old food.  Sad I know.  I always bought random things that I didn't end up using before this project. 

 I took anything that was still good, and knew we would eat, but don't on a regular basis, downstairs to our food storage.  

Once the pantry was empty I found scary stains and other nastiness.  

 I have to admit that, that guy was there when we moved in but I was too lazy to get rid of it.  I know, gross.  

After lots of scrubbing I gave it a coat of paint (left over from the walls in the kitchen). 

Then I picked up a few things to help organize and give more space to the shelves. 

The stainless canisters I already had (from Costco).  

The shelves, skinny plastic bins, glass jars, and plastic containers were purchased at Wally World. I'm still not loving that the cook books and the box of garbage bags look cluttered up there.  I think I will get some magazine holders for them.

I would have to say that these plastic cereal containers are my very favorite thing. I could have done without the bread box but it does make it look nice and orderly.

  

The stainless plastic sack holder and the yellow and gray bin I found at Lowes.  I use the bin to hold left over cereal, cookies, chips and other snacks.

I used my vinyl cutter to make all the labels. Man that thing comes in handy sometimes. 

  

I really love my new calm and clean pantry. It's not as spacious as I would like, but I do the best I can with what I have.

My husband on the other hand, said "It looks sad, like we don't have any food". 

Men.

I am Number Four

This movie looks good. I found it on Parents.com, goodyblog today.  

I see that the girl that plays Quinn on Glee (yeah I'm a Gleek) will be in this movie as well. I'm excited to see it.

I need a Mirror

I need a mirror in my dining area....and a new light fixture.  But today I'm talking about the mirror.

I do have this one that I purchased a while back.  

 A coat of white paint would make it fab, but 

  

Caitlin Creer clued me into this one from Lowes a few months ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It's shape is perfect.

 

It's quite a bit more expensive than my $3 find from the thrift store though.  

This star burst mirror caught my eye today at Isabella & Max Rooms.  

A cool DIY project that won't break the bank and gives lots of impact. 

 All three are awesome, and each would give the space a different feel. So which one will I choose? 

Please stay tuned.

Cornice Box Help and the Sliding Glass Window Treatment Trick

I've had a few requests for more info on the Cornice Box I put up in my kitchen.  I was going to type it all out for you but, hey Design Gal has already done that for us.  She's pretty freakin great! I love her.  So click on her name up there for detailed instructions with pictures and everything.  She has wonderful tricks, like hot gluing and using an existing curtain rod to hold up the box.  So clever.  Thanks Design Gal.

Now the sliding glass doors in my kitchen have been a thorn in my side. I would leave them bare but unfortunately we live in close proximity to other people. Don't you agree that it's creepy looking out into the black night, wondering if your neighbors are checking out your life?  So here's my cheap fix.

Roller shades. Two mounted over each side has done the job nicely, with some sheer panels for softness.  Now we have privacy at night and can roll the shades out of sight during the day.

Oh Camera! Where art thou?

Well my camera has been MIA for about 2-3 weeks now.  It was last seen in the hands of my not quite two-year-old. Ahhh, yes how could I be so foolish? I'm guessing that she threw it away. She does that....often. So today I did something I've been wanting to do my whole life. I bought myself a really great camera.  It's not the most expensive Digital SLR but I'm just fine with that. It was plenty expensive to me.

Check her out.  

Isn't she a beauty? 15.1 Mp with a video mode. YES! Mmmm, I can't wait to get her next Friday.  Just in time for my sweet girl's second birthday.
 

The Kitchen Reveal

 I've been promising a reveal for a while...

The Kitchen isn't completely done, but I just couldn't wait.

 I got the inspiration for my striped wall here, from Three Men and a Lady. Have you seen Michelle's striped entryway? It's AMAZING! Her blog is a "must follow". When I decided to change the color scheme to grays and whites and have a pop of yellow, Three Men and a Lady came to mind. I knew stripes would be awesome.

Here's my bentwood chairs painted and recovered (a future post to explain the details).  Remember what they looked like before?

New granite countertops and subway tile backsplash! This is a dream.  I can't tell you how much I love these new additions in my kitchen.  I don't want to sell my house now.

This bench was a plan from Knock Off Wood. Thanks to the wonderful Ana and all her amazing designs, my nephew and I built and painted this bench in one afternoon.  I decided I needed a bench when one of the chairs I bought was beyond repair and we needed more seating. It's perfect.  A cute cushion for the top is in the works.

I put a cornice box above the sliding glass door to give it a more clean and modern feel. I absolutely love the way it came out. I made one for my bedroom quite some time ago, but this fabric makes this one by far my favorite.  I'm planning on making another one for the other little window above the sink. I found the idea for the cornice box here from Little Green Notebook.

BEFORE

AFTER

There are still some things to do, but you get the idea. It's almost done. Hooray!

Some sneaks...

This blog is beginning to look like a recipe blog.  Sorry about that.  Recipes are good, but I need to switch up the posts.  I'm working on it.  I promise.  Here are some sneak peeks.  I can't wait to show you the final reveal.