When Kirk and I were looking at our house, the owners had put two bookcases in the ‘mud room’, which sits off the kitchen and goes out to the garage. The bookcases were their attempt at a “pantry”. While in theory I could have out the food in our kitchen, it wasn’t convenient by any means. For one, I am short and the kitchen cupboards are up high. As well, I have a lot of kitchen gear!
Once we moved in, Kirk helped me put in two ugly, but working, IKEA Gorm shelving systems to get by on (now they are back in the garage, where they were before!). Kirk had an idea though, about what to put in back there! Something that would be gorgeous, functional and hold a lot.
Kirk designed the pantry using IKEA’s online software. We found we could fit two 24″ and one 15″ across the wall. The pantry goes from nearly floor to ceiling. We put in LIDINGÖ in Gray. The gray looks wonderful against the slate flooring that is in the room. I would have loved window doors, but they don’t come in the 15″ size. Ah well!
Now granted, IKEA stuff maybe easy to assemble (in theory), when building kitchen cabinets, I highly recommend you have real tools (which we do). For one, it goes a LOT faster, two, you will get everything a lot tighter. We had to have two people to do this project.
The funniest part (har-de-har) was having to remove the light in the room, so we could install the system. Oops! We replaced it with a very low profile LED setup, which is not only cool, it uses so much less energy. We have nearly all LED lightbulbs – and we were shocked to find two 100 watt old school incandescent lightbulbs in the old light fixture. No wonder it had been so hot in the tiny mudroom. We might as well have been baking an Easy Bake Oven cake while we worked!
The garage door is to the left, and opens up easily, as long as the pantry doors are closed. To the right, behind the doorway trim, there is a broom and mop holder on the wall, and where I tuck my step ladder against the wall:
I have always dreamed about having pull-outs for shelves. They are amazing!!
The upper left and right cupboards each have a pull-out wire shelf, with plenty of space under. The middle one has a fixed shelf.
A whole side full of baking and cooking ingredients….eeeeeh!
My final touch was to come up with a simple way to hang all my aprons (and Walker’s apron as well!):
I came across a Command™ Quartz Key Rail at a local store. The decorative hooks hold up to 2 pounds:
A simple cleaning of the wall, and following of directions – and an hour later I had cute rail to hang them on. With no nails or screw involved!
The only real problem is….I want the rest of the kitchen to match now! I LOVE the gray color. It is totally me! And that goes on my dream list 😉
I’m jealous!! That is gorgeous!! And so functional! Love the pull outs.