If you recall, our kitchen has two closets, one to either side of the fridge. Their doors are what we turned into my beloved chalkboard doors a while back.
The closet to the right is a pantry, one that was crammed to the brim and becoming difficult to use, despite my best efforts. To the left were our stacking washer dryer. While convenient to use, they were also a bit of a nightmare. The floor of this closet is not level, and whomever installed the washer and dryer did not bother to level them. As a result, every time we did laundry, it sounded like a rocket taking off. Very inconvenient if you wanted to watch television or, say, have a conversation. So when our washer kicked it a while back, we decided it was finally time to implement the plan we'd been talking about for a while: move the washer and dryer to our attached garage and reclaim the storage space in the closet!
Sounds great, right? The actual implementation took a while, until we found handymen willing to do the work without charging us an arm and a leg. But eventually, we got them moved, and had a decently sized empty closet. Which, of course, I forgot to photograph. But closets are all the same - use your imagination!
So. What to do with it? I had already decided: turn the space into a canned goods pantry. Our guest room closet was crowded with pickles, jam and tomatoes, and they needed a new home. What better place than a secondary pantry? So I measured my space, mapped it out, and made a giant Home Depot run. Tom at our local Home Depot was invaluable, helping me find enough matching shelves for the space. I decided to run 24" shelves along the side walls, 10" deep. Doing this would give me 33" inches across the back wall, but Nick said he could cut the 36" shelves down without a problem.
Although this was basically my project, my fantastic husband was, as usual, fantastically helpful in making sure I'd mapped the studs in the wall correctly and assisting in the installation of the support braces.
Slowly but surely, with significant help (again) from the hubby, I installed the shelves, and then it came time to fill them! We decided to use both the very bottom and very top shelves as storage for various kitchen appliances and pieces of equipment that we use regularly but not regularly enough that they needed to be taking up space on the kitchen counter. The bread machine, for example, and our new juicer. We use them every week or two so we want them easily accessible, but they don't need to be out on the countertop. The remainder of the space I filled with jams, peaches, soups, tomatoes, applesauce, stock, and other canned goods. Some of it homemade, some of it storebought, but it's all together in one spot and I can find what I need! Hallelujah!
I have a shelf of pickles. No, seriously. A pickle shelf.
This is the peach shelf. Canned peaches & peach jam.
Tomatoes, anyone?
We love it! It's fantastic. I even have room at the top for my canning supplies - not counting the jars, which are out in the sunroom. Plus, the other pantry is no longer a hot mess:
Have I mentioned that I love my kitchen?
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