Pantry area before, during, after (lots of pix)

14 years ago

I finally 99% completed my pantry project. You'll see the transformation. My mom's husband custom made the cabinet doors and molding around the upper cabs. I found the pantry frame & the base at the Habitat for Humanity thrift store, the upper cabs and butcher block top came from Ikea.

This is not my dream kitchen, by any means. But it suits my personality and was all done DIY on a VERY tight budget. In order to get a better, custom kitchen, it would require major reno on the house and it's just not worth it for this house. Maybe in my retirement home...

This is what it looked like right after we bought the house:

{{!gwi}}

during

{{!gwi}}

and the final after

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Please bear in mind I'm a crummy photographer. The grout is actually black, but appears light gray in these photos. The new pantry is a dark espresso, in daylight it appears closer to the color in the photo. I'm debating about adding a black glaze, but I'm kind of liking this espresso. The wallpaper is more red, with copper accents. I've got to finish the top piece of molding on the doorway there (it's the bearing beam, so we had to keep it) and paint the wall behind the pantry. Our waterheater is on the far left, hidden by the dining room wall, so I had to make the base cabinet moveable. It's not attached. I am very happy with how it all turned out. It's not nearly as glamorous as the kitchens posted on this forum, but it's mine and it fits my style.

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Comments (10)

teacats
14 years ago
Wonderful transformation!

Very warm and charming and welcoming! :)

Well done! :)

Jan at Rosemary Cottage (where my kitchen is also not "glamourous as the kitchen posted on this forum")
User
14 years ago
I think you did a really great job!

Are the upper doors glass? They're neat. I like the black counters against the red paint. There aren't any doors on the pantry anymore are there? Looks good.

I think it looks warm and honestly I think it's refreshing to see a kitchen not look like the cookie cutter norm.
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Thanks Karin. I don't have too much of a problem with things leaning for the light, partly because the house side is largely planted with Beacon Silver and White Nancy lamium. It's so dry on that side that there isn't a lot of options for what will grow. I planted the lamium about 18" from the house wall so it would have a better chance of getting moisture when it rains, and then waited to see if it would spread into the dryest area against the house. It did, and completely and rapidly filled the dry area. I like the silver as a 'carpet' under the other things that grow there. It enhances everything nicely and lights up an otherwise dark area. It probaly helped with the establishment of the lamium that I dumped potting soil (from pots I used to grow peas) as the top layer of 'lasagna' the fall I created the bed. The potting soil had 'water crystals' in it and the peas would have provided nitrogen. I watered with soaker hoses in the first year but haven't watered since. All the columbine that is in the bed comes from seeds I scattered from plants growing elsewhere in the garden. I think they establish better re drought tolerance that way, so they have filled in back to the house as well and, because they are quite shade tolerant, aren't prone to leaning. The Eupatorium 'Chocolate' was planted, not seed grown, and I wasn't sure if it would be too dry there for it but it seems to be thriving. It certainly billows but I wouldn't say it leans. It's fairly shade tolerant too. Essentially I planted the alley with things that are either shade lovers or shade tolerant to various degrees so I think that was the key to avoiding the leaning problem. I'm always concerned about evergreens outgrowing their space and, since the space is so limited, I didn't include any. The alley isn't visible from anywhere in the house and in winter it gets completely buried in several feet of snow usually (except for the snow-blown path) so evergreens for 'winter interest' was not an issue.
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Any particular reason you put the sink across from the range? There was a pretty exhaustive discussion of why not to do that in Small Kitchen & Dining Room thread, and also in the thread about what ranges are safest for kids (link below) (the title of that thread was sarcastic--the point was that kitchen design, not range choice, is what influences whether you have accidents/burns happening). The basic problem is that if the range and sink are across from each other, you are designing a kitchen in which accidents are waiting to happen because you force yourself to walk across the kitchen with hot water and hot and/or dirty pans. It's especially dangerous if you have pets or small kids or if pets/kids are ever guests in your house, but the danger is only reduced, not eliminated, if pets/kids are not an issue. A galley or modified galley like you're proposing is fine, but it is MUCH SAFER to put the sink and range on the same side, and the fridge/freezer on the opposite side. There is no safety advantage to putting the fridge on the same run as another fixture (i.e. sink or range), but there is a major advantage to putting the sink and range on the same run: you can empty your boiling pasta water, take pans to the sink after you use them, etc., without ever walking across the open floor. So there is no opportunity for kids or pets to get underfoot or in the way, or for you to slip, and drop hot things on kids/pets/the floor. Given your constraints, I would suggest putting the sink on the same run as the range and the wall oven on the fridge run. Putting a wall oven there is way less dangerous than putting the range there, first off because using a wall oven never involves pots of boiling water, and second because usually when people take things out of the oven the first thing they do is set them on the counter to cool--so stuff would come out of the wall oven and be set down beside it to cool; stuff would not be carried, hot, across the kitchen. But I think what would actually make the most sense here, since you have a longer run on the bottom, is to put DW, sink and range along the bottom, and move the fridge and freezer up to the top. They should probably go on the end where the wall oven is shown, so put either a pullout or a couple of feet of counter between them--from right to left it would go freezer, fridge, counter or pullout, wall oven, more counter. Here is a link that might be useful: Thread on burn-safe kitchen design
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Daisy, Aunt Barbara was a WAC. She is very proud of that. I do love her dearly. I've been playing around with The Gimp (it's similar to Photoshop) and fixed that photo of my aunt and the one in the back of my mother. I threw them in the bookcase Thursday night when I was rushing around. I also have one of my father who was an Sargent in the Army in the China Burma India Theater. I miss him terribly. I am sorry about the loss of your stepmom. You can hyjack my thread any time you want. :) Parma the legs in #1 are kinda weird. I just wanted to see what the two looked like posted together. :)
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Thanks for the responses! They looked good to me, but I needed some other opinions. That tea table does look weird, now that I've seen it in a photo. This is what that area looks like with a table: The actual dining room has always been too small for the china and table. I think that the front area will probably go back to being the dining room and the smaller area a study/lounge/whatever (the two matching wing chairs are headed for CL). We don't have a formal lifestyle and I'd like these rooms to be more than just wasted space. Before we got the secretary (from CL) I don't think anyone had ever sat on the sofa. Anyway, I'll get some rugs and matching drapes and then work on the furniture arrangement. The Serapi/Villa combo is lovely, btw!
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desertsteph
14 years ago
great! i also love the red with the black - and the lighter cabs! does the expresso cab hold your pantry supplies now? I like those doors. great to have the mw - looks like bread box etc over there now and off of your 'working' counters.

and hey - I already have a pic of that beautiful dog in my pic file... it confused me a bit because those lower cabs are light like your other 'new' ones. but they are dark now, aren't they? the pic i have is your dog in front of light cabs from last spring!!! for your flooring. i looked at it just last night, as I'll be going to the flooring store in a few wks and want to see what they have close to that.

my future kit won't look like most of them here either. it'll be me. probably more like some of the 'befores' I've seen here - lol! but, I like some of the things others consider outdated, plus i need to adjust for my limitations - that includes little to none in the cooking dept!
justgotabme
14 years ago
Pesky1, normally I don't care for painting good wood. Staining it darker yes, but the changes you made are awesome. I really like it all. You should be very happy with your accomplishments.
neetsiepie
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you everyone. My tiny kitchen is finally working for me. I didn't repaint the light cabs...just changed out the old, ugly white formica for the black tile. It made the cabs a bit warmer. The soffits and the door to the garage are also the same paint/glaze. But I did a plaster finish on the soffit/upper wall when I removed the plastic white bricks.

The cabinet doors are not glass, they're actually plexiglass that I sprayed frosting on. I had a wood & wrought iron decorative wall piece I liked, so I laid it over the plexi, then sprayed the frosted spray paint. Then I used liquid leading for faux stained glass, where the wrought iron was. For fun, I glued a red glass gem on.

I'm considering changing them to beadboard since some people seem to dislike them. I'm not in love with them, I'd prefer seeded glass, but I don't want to spend the $ for these cabinets. I'm going to repaint the light cabinets in a similar warm ivory color, but not sure if I'm going to glaze them again. The first paint job was done a couple years ago and I was in too big a hurry to do it right on some of them, the paint is chipping. I'd never match them, so they're going to be redone. Luckily my kitchen is postage stamp size, so it won't take too long.
vampiressrn
14 years ago
Wow!!! You did a great job...love the black and red, really pops. Nice work on the plexiglass/etching and the faux stained glass...looks fabulous. Thumbs up. ;-)
parma42
14 years ago
What a great job!

Night and day.
stinky-gardener
14 years ago
It may not be "glamorous" but it's better than glamorous, it's personal, unique, & fun! Glam kitchens make me nervous. Yours looks comfy, cozy & very stylish, & I think you were smart (Very smart) not to rip out the cabinets, but to work with them instead. You got a big change without over-spending...good for you! So glad to hear that it's now a place you love to spend time. Great job!
cooperbailey
14 years ago
awesome job pesky!
JennaVaNowSC
14 years ago
I think you did a great job Pesky. I love the cabinet fronts. Wow! I personally think that decorating to suit your OWN style is the way to go, not the cookie cutter, everyone must have granite and stainless mindset.

Pantry area before, during, after (lots of pix)

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Pantry area before, during, after (lots of pix)

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