Oh man, I hope you all are as excited about this as I am! My sister was supposed to get a new diy pantry makeover for Christmas, but she and her husband are incredibly busy people, and by March, it still hadn’t happened. Back in December I had a family emergency, and Kelsie dropped her life to drive 9+ hours to help us through it and take care of Emme for us and stock our freezer with meals. (Hello best big sister ever.)
So anyways, as her birthday neared I knew I wanted to give back in a big way and decided my own 9+ hour drive to surprise her was in the cards. The toddler and I showed up and I got to WORK! Her husband Josh enjoys projects, he just has trouble starting them and finding time to work on them. So I came with the vision and plan and over-the-top motivation and we knocked it out together in about 3 days. Then I went ahead and renovated their fireplace on a whim since I had time on my hands, LOL. I do not know if my brother-in-law will ever let me back into his house but it was all so worth it, ha! Attached is a fun video reveal of the transformation and details on the before and after!
DIY Pantry Makeover Plan
Kelsie’s biggest grievance with her pantry was all of the visual clutter and the kids not being able to access what they needed. (see below, it’s cray) The shelves were all a consistent height difference, and tall items like her cereal containers had to sit on the ground which is obviously less than ideal. So I knew we needed to carefully plan our the shelf heights, and designate kid-accessible spaces. (And also some kid inaccessible spaces, lol). She also had a bunch of unused upper cabinets sitting in the basement, and we both loved the idea of those getting used to hide some of the clutter. PLUS she is a very organized person and therefore has LOTS of pretty containers.
What I came up with was using two of the cabinets on top of a platform, then ripping down a butcher block counter to use on top of the cabinets and also as a shallow shelf all along the side wall. Doing this allowed me to then reclaim a corner space as the “kids corner” and get cereal up on a countertop. The kitchenaid fit there too which we hope encourages Kelsie to use it more.
DIY Pantry Makeover Build + Materials Sources
I started by removing all of the shelving units, then repairing the wall before Kelsie repainted it. Next came taking off the necessary baseboards. I asked Josh to put together the frame for the cabinets while I started measuring for shelves. I put some 2×4 braces along the wall to bump the cabinets out another 1.5″ since they were only 12″ deep uppers. That way I could cut my counter to about 15″ and have the necessary 9″ I needed to fill the gap on the right wall. Math was in my favor for this project!
With the cabinets installed, we moved onto ripping the butcher block down to size and getting it in the wall. The right side shelf is supported in the back by a scrap 2×4 and on the visible portion by an inexpensive gold shelf bracket. Both of which are of courses into studs. From there we used my floating shelf technique to create 5 different floating shelves. 4 of those shelves connect at the corner. All that was left then was the kid cabinet and that came together easily with all scrap wood! The last thing I did was replace all of the trim and then Kelsie painted the cabinets and I installed the hardware.
DIY Pantry Makeover Organization Sources
So you’ll notice in the makeover Kelsie has some GOOD containers so I want to list the sources to those below because who DOESN’T need those cereal containers in their life?! Amazon Affiliate links below.
- Cereal dispensers
- Pop top Snack containers
- Extra large snack containers (great for big bags of chips, veggie straws, popcorn, etc)
- Bamboo lid jars
- Clear plastic bins
- Gold wire wall baskets
- Bottle storage
MORE DIY + ADVICE
If the idea of re-doing your pantry sounds like a dream but you just can’t envision it, star with a list of what is NOT working. Then a list of what does (maybe you already have containers or baskets you like for example). Then start brainstorming what could make the not working section, work. Or, if you’re like me and are just wishing you had a walk-pantry like this, fear not. I will be covering my own tiny pantry makeover soon, and hope to share some great ideas for making better use of tiny spaces! For other DIY projects, check the list below or explore the blog tab and “DIY” section.
- DIY Paper Roll holder
- DIY Floating shelf
- DIY kids art display
- DIY Wooden Dollhouse
- Playroom Makeover and Built-ins
- Half Bathroom makeover
- Sensory table turned light table