My pantry was in a sad state people, it needed a major pantry refresh. When we first moved into our home 5 or so years ago I painted my house. Like, A LOT of my house. There’s not much easier a thing to change the mood of your whole house. Especially when the color of your house started off as a mustard yellow all over. Don’t get me wrong, I love to wear
mustard yellow, a lot. But having it all over the main part of my house, accented with all those reds, it was too much. It was too dark. And most of all, it wasn’t me. Pretty much every room got a new paint job..
Except closets. I’m not sure why. Laziness? Maybe we ran out of paint and didn’t want to buy more? Whatever it was, my poor little pantry stayed white. For 5 years (plus the other 10 years the previous owners lived here). After 15 years of neglect… it was GROSS.
With having already simplified and organized it, I decided to put in the bit of effort it would take to finally do the job. And the difference was phenomenal.
pantry refresh: step by step
step 1:
Empty your cupboards, again. If I had properly thought this through I wouldn’t have had to empty and refill so many times. But there I was. And the contents lived on our peninsula for…. longer than I thought they would.
step 2:
Remove shelving. For me, this involved white wire racks that I found out in the process were made by Rubbermaid. While removing the shelves, I managed to break almost all of the little clips on the back of the shelves
that helped support the weight on them. This was probably the most annoying part of my pantry refresh. But I conquered in the end, they were all removed.
step 3:
Clean the heck out of those walls and floor. Saying they were gross was an understatement. And it wasn’t until I took literally everything out that I could see it all, staring me in the face. Soap, warm water and a washcloth took care of all that would come off. There were still scrapes and black marks, but that’s why I was painting.
step 4:
Paint the pantry. A fresh coat of paint has to be one the quickest and not too expensive ways to refresh a space. I used a roller
and some basic paint roll covers
for the bulk of it. And an angled brush
at the edges. I didn’t tape because I’m lazy and I knew paint would come off easy from our molding (as learned in previous experiences). Plus it was inside a pantry and no one is ever going to look that close at it. At least until the next person paints it.
I bought the paint at lowes. I went with the Valspar Ultra Semi-Gloss
in the color “Boughs of Pine”. Semi-gloss seemed the appropriate choice based on just how dirty the wall were before. The white paint was flat and hard to clean. A semi-gloss will be much easier to wipe down. It took a bit to decide on the color I wanted. And even though most people liked the other green “Billiard Room”, I went with my gut and I am so happy I did! It ended up being the exact color I had imagined in my head. I know all the cool kids of instagram are doing a green with a blue hue to it, but I do what I want.
step 5:
Put those shelves back in. Make sure and clean them before you put them back in. Another trip to Lowes secured some new shelf clips, which is how I found out that my shelves were Rubbermaid. It’s a very specific clip. And I wanted to use the same kind as I already had holes ready to go. Byrdie helped me put it back together; she loves helping with the projects I’m working on and I love having the time with her.
step 6:
Put that food back where it came from or so help me (so help me!). And so my food was organized, yet again. I did end up buying two more sets of containers for my pantry. Not necessarily needed, but I loved having it match my other stuff. Plus, I have a container problem :). After trying out all the lids on all the containers at Wal-Mart, I came home with this set. They were pretty, the lids worked well, and it came in a set of 3 for $15, which is really a good price for this kind of container. I also found the set that I have already that have lasted for years. It comes in 4 different sizes and is only $8. This is probably the best value for containers I’ve seen. And I know they hold up after using them for near on 10 years. I found them in store and you cannot buy online for some silly reason. So you’ll have to make the trek to your local Wal-Mart for this deal.
small project, big results
In the end I spent $14 on paint and $6 on new clips for this pantry refresh. And the rest of the supplies I already had. For $20 I added a lot of personality to a usually looked over space. It seemed like such a small change. But it made a huge impact on not just how it looked, but how I looked at it. It’s amazing that a simple coat of paint can help you love your space again, even if it is just a pantry.
Have you given any of your spaces a little refresh lately? Is there a neglected spot that could use a little love or update? It doesn’t have to be a big change, or an expensive change, just a little change to make your home feel more like your
home.
