Pantry Makeover

This Pantry Makeover is proof the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  After spending some time on Pinterest the other day, my 16-year old daughter was so inspired, she asked me if she could spruce up our kitchen pantry, and if I happened to have any white paint.  My answer to both those questions was an absolute YES…followed by, “Would you like it in eggshell, satin, or semigloss?”

With that, my daughter got right to it!  Just like the tree she fell from, this apple had no time for devising a plan.  I could hear an immediate raucous from the other room.  It would have been a really proud moment for me, except for the fact she forgot to take a Before picture with all our stuff still in the pantry!!!  She remembered once it was completely empty, so you’ll have to take our word for it.  It was a mess!!!  Expired foods, hundreds of plastic grocery bags rolled into a giant ball,  and tea bags….an insane number of tea bags!  At this point, I won’t need to buy tea bags until the winter of 2027.  Now that I think about it, it’s a good thing there was no Before picture to show that.  These grimy shelves make a bad enough impression on their own.

It took a few hours, but my daughter got the pantry all painted, rolling a layer of crisp white paint on top and underneath each shelf.  What a relief!  At this point I’m thrilled with how clean and bright everything looks.  My daughter, on the other hand, now has to scrub all the paint off her hair!

We let the paint dry overnight and went shopping first thing in the morning.  We found this beautiful turquoise print contact paper at Walmart for about 5 dollars a roll, and were able to cover the entire pantry with just three rolls.

Although, our beagle, Miley did an awesome job supervising, I jumped in to lend a hand at this point.  My daughter cut, I peeled and pasted, and Miley played tug-of-war with the discarded backing.

We recycled and donated what we could, and still threw away a ton of stuff.  And we only put back the essentials, designating a place for everything.  While at Walmart, we had picked up a couple of glass jars for the flour and sugar and stuck chalk labels on them.  We also got some stackable white containers at the dollar store to organize all the tea bags.

With everything neatly in its place, I was not only proud of this Pantry Makeover, I was proud of how my daughter shares my love for all things D-I-Y.  Now, if I could just get her to help me bring in the groceries without complaining.