Pantry Organization, Vintage Inspired
Pantries don’t have to be ho-hum spaces. Especially since you and your family go in and out of it umpteen times a day! A pantry can be the perfect marriage of function and beauty, and be filled with some of your favorite things.
When I painted the chalkboard wall in our pantry the other day { “Chalkboard Wall in the Pantry“}, I explained that my inspiration for framing the wall in yardsticks came from the shelving side of the room. Now you’ll get to see this side of the pantry and I’ll share some of my organizing and storage ideas for this space.
For starters, give your pantry shelves some personality! We edged ours with vintage yardsticks and placed old porch posts as supports. I also like to finish everything off with a coat of poly to seal in any old smells and even out the wood tones.
Our pantry is a multi-use space. I use it to store off-season dishes and decorating items, it’s where our sweet and salty snack items live, our placemats and serving trays are here, and we even keep our printer in this functional space (but that’s for another post).
One newly purchased item that really makes a difference on my very deep shelves are some cheap Ikea metal risers. Par the course for Ikea, these simple risers can be put together simply with a screwdriver:
They basically double my storage space by using the height. I can put items underneath and on top. They work wonderfully for the back of my fairly deep shelves.
I mainly use them for my two shelves of food items. I’ve trained my family that sweet items go on the top shelf and salty/savory items go on the bottom food shelf.
I use vintage enamelware to corral bags, snack bars and small packages. Of course they happen to be in my favorite color;)
I roll my placemats and place them in an enamelware tray also. I stand my vintage trays behind, since we use them as placemats also. I can retrieve them so much easier when they’re standing.
On the bottom, less deep shelf of the pantry I use vintage refrigerator drawers for beverages and onions and garlic.
I also like to keep a stash of baskets here for serving.
The bottom 3 shelves are the food related work horses of the pantry. I put them down low because they’re easier for everyone to see and reach…and I’m short.
The top 2 shelves are where I place the least often-used items for decor and serving. These are mostly off-season items that I’m constantly swapping in and out for different times of the year.
I don’t use my silver stash very often, because honestly it’s a little fancy for me, but every once in a while when I’m hosting a shower, or around the holidays I will use something here. I do kind of like looking at it up on the top shelf, en masse;)
The other side of the top shelf are my large vintage picnic baskets and cake holders. I just love to look at their pretty aquas and greens, even in the off season.
To maximize storage, I fill all these containers with smaller items such as vintage flowerpots, little pitchers, etc. I recently had a friend who reads my blog say, “I just don’t know where you put it all!” She knows our house is square feet challenged, and she knows I like pretty things! No, I don’t have many closets, but we’ve added many cupboards and improved the storage through the years. And I’m a good shuffle-er!
You can see that I’ve placed my favorite colors at the fronts of the storage shelves-aquas, greens and yellows are eye candy for me any time of the year!
Because I do a lot of switching around of my decor every season, I group items that way. It just helps to have everything in the same cupboard or area when I’m retrieving all that cute stuff!
As I mentioned in my post, “15 Year House Anniversary, Part 2”, this pantry wall used to be the outside of the house. Because of that, when we broke into the wall, there was some awesome wood sheathing that I instantly knew I wanted to poly and keep exposed. I just love the old house texture it provides. No one would ever guess this pantry wasn’t always here.
And lastly, I hide the dog food in an old enamelware covered bucket:
Did I mention our pantry even has a window? I just think windows in closets is such an old house thing, so we added this one when we remodeled the kitchen. I picked up these cute kitchen towels at Ikea when I bought the riser shelves. I simply ironed them and clipped them with some clip rings to my Walmart rod.
And so you can see how this fun little space fits into our kitchen:
Yep, there’s even a little step up into it. Of which I have never got the final coat of stain on…such is life when you DIY, right?
Hope you’ve got some new inspiration for your pantry organization! Or maybe you’re even brainstorming where you could pop through a wall and create one at your home!
Sharing at these lovely parties:
Pantries i thought were so hard to organize, but not for you. It does make me feel good to know someone else uses enamel and old refrigerator drawers for storage containers. Thanks for these ideas.
Pantries can be fun when you use vintage to organize! Glad someone else enjoys enamelware and old refrig drawers, Marlene!
Lora, I love your walk-in pantry. You have given me a lot of creative ideas. I have been wanting and needing to organize and make look pretty and inviting our two small pantries and by gosh, I think it’s going to happen. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you got some helpful ideas, Joanne! Good Luck!
jIt’s wonderful when you can make a storage area beautiful and of interest! Most housework is so repetitive and boring, that being able to look at something you love as you do chores is so uplifting!
You are so right, Kathy! And it probably reveals that I don’t really love housework, so making it pretty definitely helps me;)
I love that you’ve created an old-fashioned walk-in pantry – it’s perfect. (I’ll be featuring your vintage pantry organisation at this week’s link party.) xx
Oh so fun! Thanks, Kate!
Looks great and I love that your pantry has a window! Thanks for sharing @Vintage Charm!
All the better to see our food with;)
Your pantry is amazing! Wish I had a pantry. I too use my collection of enamelware to help organize my kitchen cabinets. They are great for storing all my baking supplies like chocolate chips and nuts. I also like to collect vintage bread boxes and use them all over the kitchen to hide stuff.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I honestly don’t own a single bread box & was thinking I could use one to hide my many bread packages taking over my counter!
Love your idea with the yard sticks and rules.
Thanks, Jonita!
LOVE THIS! So beautiful.
Thanks, Cheyenne! Now if I can just keep it this organized…!