The Pantry Project...

I love the lay out of our little house. It is old, (built in 1907) and quirky, but generally very livable. There is a small space off the living room that we turned into my husbands "office" when we moved in. He put 4 large book cases in there, a huge "L" shaped desk, file cabinet, and other office type items. And he painted in dark red. I am a white paint kind of person, and the red hurt my feelings every time I looked at it. The office became a clutter catch all, and when my husband got a laptop and sent his desk top computer off to the Goodwill store, he did most of his work at the dining room table. For several years I've kept the door shut on this room and tried to pretend it wasn't there. I won't post a "before" photo, it was too awful. Then my husband and I decided it would be wonderfully nice to have a pantry. We both love to cook, and enjoy the feeling of having a good bit of food put up so we always have what we want or need on hand. We decided the funny little room would make a dandy pantry. Little by little my sweet husband has been whittling away at his office, moving things out, thinning down his stuff and tossing a lot of it. This weekend my sweet, SWEET sister came to "visit." Sunday morning we were up bright and early. We pulled out the remaining items from the room, washed the walls, and went to work with paint brushes and rollers. We gave the ceiling a nice fresh coat of paint, then freshened up the white trim work and with great glee painted over the offensive red. After we got one coat on everything we took a little break and popped into a local antique shop, had a bite to eat and then came back and attacked the room with a second coat. Once that was done we put all our tools away, and scrubbed the floor on our hands and knees, getting up the paint splatters. We are NOT tidy painters! While the floor dried we assembled a wonderful wire shelf, then with a measuring tape in hand wandered the house looking to find what other items would be handy to have in a pantry. My husband and daughter had seen the look of determination in our eyes and had scurried off to a movie before they could be roped into helping. They are smart! Next we moved in the storage shelves and then carefully organized canned goods, flour, rice, corn meal, oil, squash, onions, etc. We moved kitchen tools that are not used every day out of my poor, crowded cabinets and arranged them neatly. China and glassware and spare flatware all found new homes. At the end of the day we were tired but imbued with the feeling of a job very well done. There is room to put our spare refrigerator and our huge chest freezer in here, so those will get moved soon. Now when I look in the room and see the neatness and order I feel so very happy.