New Shelves In The Pantry

Hi Friends,
What did you do this weekend? 
Did you watch the Super Bowl or just enjoy Super Bowl food?
I just care about the food not the game. 

I worked on a little project.
Our neighborhood was built for families. 

The houses are 4 and 5 bedrooms but

some of the storage in my house was not designed for a family with three kids. 

I realized the day after we moved in 

that the pantry shelves were not spaced far enough apart to stand up a large box of cereal. 

?

      

We had to turn the boxes on the side.

Well, you would think that our first DIY would be to rebuild the pantry. 

Nope.

It wasn't high on the priority list nor could we agree on the type of shelving. I wanted wood, he leaned toward an Elfa system.  

20 years later and we still had not resolved the cereal box dilemma until last night. 

We finally put our heads together to try to figure out a solution to the pantry problem. 

We went to Lowes. 

We decided to get old fashioned support rails and brackets to build narrow shelves on one of the side walls. Our pantry is not symmetrical. 
The left side has more depth than the right. (I never noticed before.)

We got Blue Hawk brand rails and brackets. They were $9.98 and $7.98 respectively. We only needed two rails. We got 8 brackets.
  

This is exciting!

Why? Why would we live with an inconvenience like this?

You know I had cereal all over the floor more than once in 20 years. 

The whole pantry got a sprucing up. 

I threw away the expired food. 

We had vinegar from who knows when. 

I found the chalkboard labels out at First Monday Trade Days. I spray painted the lids of my canisters red to match the gingham shelf lining. Just be sure to prime before you paint. Rust-o-leum in Regal Red is the color I chose.

I'm smitten with my baking shelf. 

I picked up the rolling pin at an antique store. 
I love, love the red handles. 





I return some duplicate wedding gifts and picked up the chicken canister 30 years ago. I had the whole set but this is the only one that survived. 
I think because it was holding cotton balls in an upstairs bathroom. 
The top needed a new coat of spray paint but now it's as good as new. These were all the rage in 1983.
I actually wouldn't mind hunting down the rest of the set. 

I replaced the shoe rack that I took out of here for the lower cabinet project.
It's perfect for holding soda, pop or cokes, depending on what part of the country you are from. 
Texans call everything coke. 
New Yorkers call it soda and my friends in Indiana call it pop. 
The shoe rack also holds coolers and lunch boxes.

We will leave the other side free of shelves so we can have some space to hang a few things. 




For some reason the door to the pantry is almost always open during the day. 

I wish it always looked like this. 

Sometimes it is the little things... 
Katie
   
Linking with,
Between Naps on the Porch 
Coastal Charm
A Stroll Thru Life
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Savvy Southern Style
French Country Cottage

Shelf Above the Washer and Dryer

I had to forestall telling you about my cute shelf in the laundry room because I was trying to get in all my Christmas posts. I still have one more room I'd like to show before Wednesday but it won't be the end of the world if I don't get it in.

Here is what the laundry room usually looks like.

It cleans up really nice when we hide the cat food and the laundry stuff. 

I don't know if he saw it on Houzz or on This Old House but Bill said we should put a shelf above the washer and dryer to hold the laundry detergent. 
Actually he said he would prefer that we rip out the existing shelves and put in cabinets.
The time to say that was 23 years ago when we had   
three kids and a family of five with lots of junk that we needed to hide but we were never really willing to spend money on the laundry room. There were always plenty of more visible improvements that took precedence.
 I wanted cabinets for years but at this point I don't care if we have them or not.  
We are almost empty nesters so there isn't as much laundry as there used to be.

I wanted to hide the pipes and outlets. I hid them for a few months with an old piece of faux ceiling tile.

It wasn't perfect but it got the job done.   
My outlets were pretty high so I had to mount the shelf several inches above the washer and dryer. I couldn't "rest" it on top. 
 I put my thinking cap on and realized that the shelf would work if I made a skirt to cover the stuff I didn't want to see.
I don't know why suddenly it became important not to see the workings of the washer and dryer but it did.

So I hung two little gingerbread brackets that we have had since the 90s.  
I found some wood in the garage. 
It was the perfect width but not the perfect depth. 
I found another thin board to sit behind the thicker one and cut it to the correct length. I love it when we have scraps in the garage. I really do.
I painted the shelf. 
I made a ruffle out of drop cloth using my ruffle method.
I stapled the ruffle to the bottom of the shelf and then drilled the boards into the brackets.

Oh my, 
I think it is cute.

Laundry soap and button and clothes pin jars look adorable sitting on the shelf. 
I always like to have rags handy so I found a basket for them. 

My favorite gingerbread creation brightens it up for the holidays. 

I love that all the workings are hidden.

I'll show you the revamped sewing table in another post.  
Katie 

Linking with,
French Country Cottage   
The Charm of Home   
Savvy Southern Style

Laundry Room Brackets

I wrote about my laundry room shortly after I started blogging.

The post has had a total of 11 readers. :(

Not a big surprise though, I only had about 6 followers at the time.

I was happy with how it looked in real life, but somehow rooms look different in photos.

Of course now I know all kinds of new tricks about taking pictures but I still thought it needed more.
This room is a beast to photograph.
I always wanted to have cabinets. Our builder didn't splurge on the room by any means.

My plan was to find a cabinet, mount it in the middle above the washer and dryer and re-install shelves on either side.

I love the idea of some hidden storage and the rest display space.

Bill and I saw these shelf brackets at Hobby Lobby back in February.

Hobby Lobby Shelf Brackets

We thought they would be wonderful to redo the shelves in the laundry room. They were only $4.00 a piece because it was half off metal week.

Have I mentioned how much I love Hobby Lobby 50 percent off sales?
Bill bought the wood to redo the shelves, but I could never find the cabinet.

I thought I saw one at the restore, but Bill said it was way too heavy to mount on the wall. 
It must have sat on a counter in another life.

I came across the brackets a few weeks ago when I cleaned out my fabric closet. I decided to at least mount them in the interim until we find a cabinet.

I screwed the brackets to the wall in front of the support braces. Here they are just decorative.

It was a pretty simple project and totally do-able with some basic skills with a drill.

I had a hard time with a power drill at first, 
but I just kept at it. All it takes is a little practice.

The trick is mastering the forward and reverse function, so that you can drive the screw into the wood or the sheetrock. If you have trouble, make a little pilot hole with a small drill bit. You don't want too big of a hole or the screw won't fit tightly.

Laundry Room Shelf Brackets: Hobby Lobby

 I replaced the brackets that were in the middle. I noticed they didn't even match. The middle brackets actually support the shelf so use anchors if you don't have a stud. 

I had forgotten that Bill added the top shelf shortly after we moved in.

That shelf wasn't screwed in on the ends so it nearly fell on my head when I took the middle bracket off. :/

I picked up this old iron at the thrift store. It reminded me of my mom. I love the black of the iron brackets and the black of the antique accessories.

I can visualize my mom as a little girl playing with her toy washboard.

I got the old pot at a junk store and put the stickers on it.

The locker basket came from Round Top, Texas.

  A few vintage items for the other wall.
I rescued the old school clock from work.

Bill bought me the Vera Bradley shopping bag.

  We made the wall hook from a piece of architectural salvage and some vintage hooks.

A few of my aprons. I don't like to cook that much, so they don't get used too often. :)

My $5.00 chandelier.

Clothes pins.

Having a cute laundry room helps make the task a little easier.

New brackets make them feel like new laundry room shelves.

They are still the same old shelves and they could 

use a coat of paint. 

I just love this vintage iron. I remember my mom had an old coke bottle with some sort of top so she could sprinkle water on the clothes when ironing. I wish I had one of those to complete the look.

One of my readers reminded me of how blessed I am to have a laundry room inside the house.
Our first house had one in the old, nasty, scary garage.
I locked myself out of the house barefoot and pregnant with my
 firstborn. 
When I called my husband to come let me back in the house, he couldn't get away. I didn't know that until he sent his boss with the key.
I was not happy!!

Do you have any fun laundry room collectibles?

Katie
Linking with,
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style 
A Cottage Style Linky Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage
Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage 
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage 
Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors