Pantry: room-by-room redo

The pantry is the first room you walk through into the house. Well, that wouldn't be entirely true if anyone ever came in the front door! But I love that everyone from strangers to close kin enters through the pantry, because it connects to the kitchen. And really, isn't that where everyone wants to be?

The pantry in the old granny smith apple green

It didn't used to be the "pantry" room. It used to also be the repository for the washer and dryer- hence you walked past those, plus any heap of clothing waiting to be washed, as soon as you entered. That was much less nice. We had absolutely no money for about the first decade of our marriage and so frugality was the order of the day. Still is, to be honest. It takes something incredible to make me want to splurge when I could thrift :). Anyhoo- moma had wallpapered her kitchen with a fruit sprig country themed paper. She had enough leftover for me to do the tiny pantry. But after about 8 years it lost it's luster, and its adhesiveness. I tried everything under the sun to remove the paper, but it had decided to become one with the sheetrock. My Pop came to the rescue by installing bead-board for me. The room is all doors, so it only took two sheets. Then I bought a tiny bucket of Granny Smith Apple Green paint. 

The old color and old rug

I thought it was wonderful, so bright and cheerful. Years passed with many repaintings of the same color. This year, as I waited at the doctor's office for my hubby to finish his cancer treatments, I decided to repaint it some new, reviving color. I needed some change.

At the store I intended to go straight to the paint chips and bring home a handful. Then I walked down paint aisle. Normally there are only whites and creams premixed. But on that day I spied a beautiful ocean-y blue already mixed and ready to take home. I grabbed it and ran. When I got home I found that it matched the blue milkglass knobs on my cabinet exactly. It was meant to be.

found it at Wal-mart

I dragged stuff off cabinets and took things off the wall. I had to start immediately. Then my mom called and said my grandmother had had to be admitted to the hospital. I dropped everything and went. I got back home about 8:00 that night to a wall partially covered with a first layer. I gritted my teeth and picked up the brush. By midnight I had two thick coats on each wall and had touched up any of the trim that needed it. Success! And when I opened my bleary peepers the next day I was amazed at how the room was transformed. Before it was tired and faded, now bright and happy. And looking from my butter yellow kitchen into Bermuda Blue is a treat!

Sage green living room, butter yellow kitchen, Burmuda blue pantry. I like color!

The next day I sorted through all the mess that I had tossed off shelves and walls and decided what I wanted to put back, or put away. Everything was scrubbed and put in its place. That made me feel so good that I cleaned out the wooden pantry that my Pop made me to fill a very awkward opening in our house plan. I rearranged everything. It also gave me a good chance to count the jars of canning I still had from the winter months.

Pantry my Pop built in, filled with food and my home-canned goods

I know it's amusing that I have fair ribbons hanging in my cupboard. The boys and I have enjoyed entering things in our county fair for years, and I have been delighted to win some wonderful prizes. The boys chided me for years for keeping them tucked in a drawer when I worked hard to win them. But it made me think of Mrs. Hoggett in the movie Babe the Pig!! It is such a sweet movie, but the lady of the house always cleaned up on ribbons at the fair and then came home and put jar and ribbon into a giant open cupboard so that all you could see was a wall of congratulations to herself. It always made me laugh at the vanity of it all. But I have finally decided that I will put some of my more special ones in a place where only I will see them. There are times when I truly need a boost to the soul, and it helps to remember that total strangers have deemed your work worth rewarding.

Old picture of the hutch before I painted it. Orange stain, beer-bottle-brown "glass"- YUCK!

This was my hubby's grandparents china hutch. When they passed away, no one wanted it because it was so hideous. It is extremely well-built with dove-tailed drawers and thick oak that makes it weigh a ton. I knew I could so something with it. When we got it home I knew I would have to paint it to cover the horrifying 1970's burnt orange stain. It was then that I realized what I thought was awful beer bottle brown glass was actually sheets of acrylic. Great, plastic can be painted! I originally painted them cream, like the cabinet, but the inserts faded away. I gave them a wipe with some turquoise craft paint and loved the effect. Having spend nothing on the redo (I already had all the paint from the house) I asked hubby if I could splurge on glass knobs for the drawers and doors. He said yes, and I found a place that sells milkglass knobs (white, pink, Jadeite green, blue) for much cheaper than anyone else. It's called Look in the Attic and is online. The new paint matched my knobs!

The door below delights me. I have raised three boys in this house and this was the shoe closet through all those years. It would become such a mess, threatening to explode out like Mt. Vesuvius, that they would open it a crack, throw the shoes in and slam it shut with a foot. The first door was hollow and got a foot put through it and had to be replaced. The second wasn't much better and they pulled it off the hinges. (disclaimer- they are really great boys with a wonderful respect for nice things in a home. But they were boys. And it was the shoe closet of terror.) I took the door off and for a time I hung a wonderful crewel work curtain. But without the wooden barrier the shoe mountain would begin to bulge and then explode out from under. My hubby said, Something must be done.

Old color...but a great door my boys built

  So, I enlisted the boys to make a door. One that was stout enough to withstand them. They did and even hung it. My youngest took a piece of cast iron that I loved and welded a handle for me. Then I took some of my 1800's newspaper pages and decoupaged them to the front. I love it, hubby- not so much. But it was done, stout, and he hadn't had to so much as lift a hand. So it remains.

newspaper from 1889

And while I was sprucing up, I decided to put a little cheer inside. I took some gift wrap that I had and cut it to fit with razor knife. A mix of Elmer's glue and some water brushed on the wood stuck the paper down. Why did I put it in a closet that no one opens now but me? Well, that's the point isn't it? I open it, and the flowers make me smile.

It's the little things, folks. A bucket of paint, some wrapping paper, a little rearranging and cleaning. Nothing big, nothing expensive, but what a difference it makes to me!

"Home. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." ~ Unknown