Pantry Makeover!

Our pantry is combined with our washer and dryer. So as many times as we do meals, snacks, and laundry around here I end up walking in and out of this room about 400 times a day. Ok, ok, only 359 times. When we moved in and I painted every other room in the house I didn't do the pantry walls so they were still the ugly yellow white color that the builder used.

I spent a little over $100 of my Christmas money and way more time than is reasonable doing a pantry makeover. It sounds silly, but when you add up all the times I now smile going in and out of my pantry all 350 times it starts to add up into a really good idea. One night after the kids were asleep last week as I was standing in the panty with a paint roller and tiny kids paintbrush in hand painting around all of the annoying wire shelf brackets, Collin walked in and said, "Now, why are you doing this again?"

I replied, "This pantry is like my office honey- so I'm just upgrading my place of work." That, and a good understanding of the unreasonable nature of "project Jennifer" seemed to be adequate explanation. There is something soo wonderful about doing projects I'll walk in that pantry to start a load of laundry that will pretty much be dirty again before the week is over, and I'll get my meal or snack ingredients to be eaten up by growing boys who will be hungry for a snack in thirty minutes. But, that paint will stay almost just the same, the curtain will still be hanging there, and the cute pictures of the boys will be smiling back at me. Thats the draw of projects at this point in my life, something I can accomplish that stays accomplished. Its the best.

The plastic bins are $3 each from Ikea. I think it helps to have all the same style of container rather than mix-matched ones. Plus they are the exact depth of my shelves which works out great. 

The curtain is fabric from Ikea. I hemmed the edges and made a little pocket at the top for a shower curtain rod to slide through.

The pictures frames- from Ikea again- (can you tell where I spent my $100?) They are sitting on some extra white shelves I've been wanting to put somewhere in our house. Those shelves and pictures were the last thing I did and they are my favorite part!

I love these labels. I do not love the hours I spent making them. I used some pinterest labels for the concept and then made my own version in publisher so that I could fill in my own words. If you would like labels and do not want to spend countless hours of your "post-children in bed evening" making them I'd be happy to email you the file. :)
I printed them, covered them with clear packing tape, cut them out, and sprayed adhesive to the backs so they would stick right onto the boxes.

A Few Other Pantry Makeover Tips:
1. When painting in multiple (naptime length) sessions, just cover your roller and brushes with saran wrap and you can use them again the next day without them drying out or having to clean them each time.
2. Do not waste your time taping anything. Just use an angled brush and a stepladder to get really close to the edges and paint carefully to make a straight line. It takes practice but actually turns out better than with taping anyway.