What a fun spot!!! I love the hand painted ceramics! Very nice!

Wow what a great pantry. Love how colorful it is and so light with the big slider leading out to the lake too. Great space! Do you have photos of the rest of your home somewhere? I'd love to see them. And kudo's for finishing your home in such a short time. We've lived in our over six and are still not finished.

Oh Sandy - It's beautiful, charming, well-planned, am going to run out of adjectives! I LOVE your collection of ceramics! Ordinarily am not a big fan of primary colors, but you have used yours perfectly, and how they must brighten those gray New Yorky days. If I had this space I would just walk around in it, smiling and feeling insprired...

Love the ice fishermen! When we lived in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on the shores of Lake Superior, we would see the same sight every winter. Stopping now to go back and look some more...

Absolutely charming! Love the lighting solution for over the sink. The fridge is right where it should be - near the sink. I love the artful little touches that really make that kitchen sing.

Mr and Mrs Sandyponder, I love the new pantry! I'm also impressed by your turn of a phrase AND the fact that you guys took some sow's ears and turned them into silk purses. I liked your "paint alchemy" and the fact that you admitted to purchasing and using scratch and dent appliances.

I Love the bright blue sink, BTW. I'd use that in a heartbeat!

What a wonderful "outside of the box" concept...love the pantry...it looks lively and fun to work in. Nice use of materials on a wise budget.

Well, I don't know where to begin. What do I love the most? Hard to say...

Blue sink + Epifanes..totally yummy! Hooks, on the wall...Julia style! Mixed finishes on the cabs, especially the black interior of the glassware/bar cabinet. Beautiful use of color. Fantastic light fixture only rivaled by the faucet. All that glorious stuff at an arms reach. Whatapantry!

Now, about the tile...I had plain almond tile in my blue laundry room/pantry at the last house. I can't tell what color yours is, so maybe this won't work, but I colored the grout the same blue as the walls and it went a long way to help me not hate that tile. If bright blue doesn't work, maybe a deep brick red. At least it's set on a diagonal...that's fun.

Thanks for sharing. Always thrilled to see your spaces!

Great job and spectacular views. I remember seeing the views in summer too.
In my neighborhood of old homes circa 1900s(mine is 1923) many refrigerators are in the pantry- including mine.If you draw the traditional triangle- it goes right through the doorway to the refrigerator so its all good! I hope one day my pantry looks as nice as yours, it is still in the construction phase.

That's just fantastic!

So much to love...the black trim, colors, pantry, ceramics (please tell more). Hooks, I just love hooks, the more the better. And everything on a budget.

I had a house in Madison, WI that had the fridge in the hallway, just outside the kitchen. Everytime I'd open the fridge door, I almost fell down the basement stairs. Much safer in the pantry. :)

Great use of a smaller space.

Wow! What a great use of space! I love the ceramics, and the hanging pots and pans . . . so much more practical than digging them out of a cupboard.

And the ice fishermen? That photo is eerily like my view out the front of our lake home in Indiana. Makes me homesick.

Great job, Mr. & Mrs. SP

I love the idea of having a pantry off of the kitchen. You have executed it spectacularly! At the moment we are debating doing something in former laundry area space. Seeing what you've done inspires me to do a similar pantry, as the space is right next to our kitchen and similar in size.

The pantry space looks well thought out. Great use of space, very functional. You have room to store all of your barware. I have glasses all over the place and would love to round them up for storage in just one spot. I have barware that gets no use as we have to rifle through the cabinets to get to certain glasses.

Refrigerator fits nicely in the pantry. I like the idea of moving it out of the kitchen.

Can you post a pic of your kitchen?

Noticed all of your decorative elements, very nice. The pantry space is nicely lit with the full glass door.

Lastly, I really like the set of 3 pears on the window sill. Are are they pewter or brushed nickel? I collect pewter, and would love to add to my collection. Would you share where you found them if they are, in fact, pewter?

Great job! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you so much, all, for the lovely compliments, I'm so glad you like it. We're pretty pleased, and the only thing we have that we simply could not fit in is a warming drawer, a Frigidaire scratch 'n dent special, so it wasn't expensive, but it's just sitting in the barn. Maybe I'll put it in CL, but I'm still delusionally holding out hope that I can find a way to use it.

To answer your questions, the stuff hanging on the wall is mostly plastic (melamine, I think), the only exceptions are the fish on either side of the sink and one or two of the stuff on the wall over the slider door, they are hand painted ceramic. I know that TJ Maxx is routinely derided on this forum (for good reason), but most everything on the walls is from there, collected over a period of years, some of those pieces are over 15 years old. You can find good quality, unique pieces at the TJX company of stores, you just have to pick through and pounce when you see something you like. There are also several dollar store numbers up there, as well as a few vintage things. I am all about fun and colorful stuff, and while I try not to buy a lot of made in China stuff, I don't especially care about the retail provenance of things.

Now to the questions. justgottabeme, below are a few more pics of our house, and I think I mis-typed, we're not almost done, I think that was wishful thinking, we're kinda, sorta almost done with the downstairs, we still have a whole bath and a lot of work in our 2 upstairs bedrooms...

amysrq, thank you for the tip on the tile, I may look into it. We really wanted Marmoleum, but I damn near fell off my chair when we got the quote(of course, ahem, it was for a pattern with one of their cool edge treatments). The next day we were at an auction, this tile was there, I paid .25/foot, and we installed it. My first, and last, experience with tile outside of the bathroom, we detest it, it's too hard and cold for us.

workinprogress08, I don't think the pears are pewter, they are some kind of milled metal (made in India), and they came from Marshall's (hem). I love pewter and brass and have a few vintage pieces of both, it's common to see them at my fav junque haunts, they aren't popular (at least in these parts), so the prices are excellent.

I'm glad you liked the icefishing pic, it's funny, people fish all summer, but 10x as many fish in the winter. One of our dogs roams the ice looking for treats from friendly fishermen. She eats well out there.

Here are some more pics of the main entrance and mud "area". We're too organizationally and house cleaningly challenged to have a mud room with a door, it would be a total disaster, so we created the mud area by our main entrance. The wall color is BM Med-evil Times (mixed in Aura matte), trim is BM Navajo Red (Aura semi-gloss) and the white is BM White Marigold (Aura matte). The stuff on the walls is mostly from our local junque shops.

Looking from the kitchen:

From kitchen, looking up the stairs (just fixed the nail pops, gotta touch the White Marigold, yikes!:

Coat areas (yup, we have two), the shelving unit is part of a display, painted in BM Buttered Yam (Aura, semi-gloss):

Bench (CL special):

Looking down:

Yes, that is laundry drying, we have 2 indoor lines set up:

Message center (metal office thing, came from Kodak in Rochester, NY, free from my cuz):

Entry way to kitchen:

Cabs are BM Bainbridge Blue (Aura semi-gloss):

My poor topless range, someday I'll get her a lid:

What she really needs is a nice Modernaire, but mr. sandyponder won't let me sell the kid:

More cabs:

Bainbridge Blue outside and Med-Evil Times inside:

OK, I think I have bored you all enough for one post. Of course the kitchen isn't done yet, but the entryway mostly is...one small victory.

sandyponder

Your house is so cool! It has so much personality. I love it all. Could I ask how you created the area in the pantry where the dishtowels are hung? It looks like horizontal panel boards with space for the hooks.

The indoor clotheslines did it for me! It is a true lake house. warm,personality plus, cozy and down to earth. I want one.

I have to quote what you said about Oakleyoak's house and tell you that your new kitchen is truly "Ick"! Said in a joking manner, of course.

organic bama mama-

I'm pretty sure I said oakleyok's house was fugly, not that her kitchen was ick. I don't say "ick", that's oakleyok's word, but I sure do say fugly.

artlover13060-

The dishtowel hanger is one of those old fashioned, tri-arm jobs (think The Waltons era) rendered in stainless steel. I got mine at TJ Maxx, but I've seen them in Lowe's or HD, in with the kitchen cab organizers.

sandyponder