Hello friends! This blog post is so over due and I apologize for not getting it out sooner. I finally decided to just sit down and get it done. YAY!

Summer has been flying right on by and I cannot believe August is almost here. I hope you all are having a great summer and enjoying it with friends and family! We have had a really expensive summer because our furnace went out on June 29th. It was out almost 2 weeks. Without the blower on the furnace your A/C does not work so I will say it really gave me a whole new appreciation for central air.

I actually am fine during the day and could handle the box fans blowing. But come bed time this girl cannot sleep if its so hot nor with the noise of loud fans blowing. My family thinks I am crazy, because they think that noise is soothing, but oh no not me! lol

But anyway our 23 year old furnace went out the door and now we have a brand new one. Not something I like spending so much money on nor did I get excited about it, but that’s home ownership, right!

From Coat Closet to Pantry

Lets move on to something I am excited about and EXTREMELY giddy about. But honestly, was years over due. lol Yup, as long as we lived in this house our front closet as you enter the house has been a coat closet because thats what it’s suppose to be right?

Well, it really was a fairly large and nice walk-in closet but let me tell you, it also had a way of collecting so much junk and being our drop zone too. Often it became a huge MESS. When guests would come over we never once used it to hold their coats. So we certainly did not need it for that.

See in the photo below, the front door is on the right and the other door is a walk-in closet.

So standing in the kitchen in this next photo its really not to far off the kitchen.

Leave it up to me to come up with this brainstorming idea to make that closet a walk-in-pantry. Yup, I thought we have a first floor utility room where all the coats in the closet can go. All the other junk in there can either find a new home, donated or make its way to the garbage. I really wanted a nice large pantry where I can house all of our food. Along with all the small electrical appliances, serving trays, party supplies, paper towel,etc. You know everything that did not fit in the kitchen and was just scattered in other closets in the house.

Prepare yourself for the before!

Hubs was on board and made my dreams come true! But let me prepare you…..this closet was really bad and out of control. Lets be real, I am human too and not everything can be perfect all the time, right?!

Seriously, is that bad or what? It even had a really outdated odd shaped window in it. But look at the mess. I did get it clean from time to time but in this photo it was the final straw. So, before winter last year hubs removed the window. He then covered it all up on the outside with siding to match with the rest of the house. My idea did not include a window so we did not have to buy new.

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Once winter came hubs took on the indoor project and wow it far exceeded my expectations.

My idea was to have it be a beautiful bright white with pretty walls, tons of shelves and great storage. He ripped the drywall out so he could properly insulate the two outside walls. He also tore out the floor so he could continue the floor from the kitchen and entryway. My bad, I did not take many photos along the way but will share the few I did take while he was working on it.

Time to get to work!

I decided on this faux white brick paneling and it worked perfectly for brightening it all up.

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Laying the floor went fairly quick with no problems. He also removed the door and trim so we could match all the other doors in the house.

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Next it was time for all the shelves. I thought long and hard on that and we decided to go with fully adjustable ones just in case down the road we need more space between something. Ya just never know right! So he went crazy on the shelves but I am NOT complaining. It was exactly what I wanted.

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Before you know it he had it all done and I was so excited to start loading it up. My envision was all the same matching of everything but once I went shopping the prices of everything scared me away and decided to use much of what I had along with some new containers.

Ta-Da it’s all done and I could not be happier!

I ended up with a mix match of storage containers, baskets, and a whole bunch of crates that I already had. But thats okay who really sees the pantry anyway but us, right! Someday I plan on painting the dark crates on the floor to white so they match the others. But here is my finished pantry.

Here is the left side packed full of all the small appliances and in the crates on the floor are all my serving trays and supplies that again, are not used often.

On the right I still have so much space for much more but I love how clean and organized it is now.

Yes, my modem and router are kept in here as well because I don’t like them out in the open.

I did go with these chalkboard bins and baskets that I found at Michael’s and being able to write on them as needed is so nice. But am finding I may not need to change them ever so I may paint the words on in my free time, lol.

This spinning turntable that I made worked out really well for the corner.

As for all my other containers, I pulled out my handy dandy label maker and went to work. I love this label maker because it goes so fast and makes everything look so much nicer!

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Truth is…..

Okay, now you maybe wondering about all the Pepsi. Well the truth is my hubby has a Pepsi addiction. I don’t drink soda but he drinks it like water. I love the man to death but I do NOT like his PEPSI and SWEETS addiction.

He loves that he now has a ton of room for all his pepsi and agrees the pantry was the best thing ever only because he loves all the room for his pepsi! 🙂

One of these days I want to make some tags for the crates. I think that would look super cute as well. Those crates on the floor are the ones I will be painting white in the future to match the other ones.

So there is my new pantry. I have been enjoying it soooo much. I hope it gave you some inspiration for your own space.

Always know in a home you can go against the rules of what the norm is for closets. Think outside of the box and do what ever fits your family needs better! I really wish I would have done this years ago because I was always lacking kitchen space for all the food we had when the kids lived at home. So many closets can be turned into a pantry so get creative!

Time to tackle the next project. Keep following along and see whats next!

I hope you all have a great rest of your day.