Okay, here we go!
I've asked the question before -- why, in a house with over 5000 square feet of living space, do I find myself in that little place off the kitchen...
All I can say is, I really love it.
{We're going to go through clockwise, starting on the left there as you go in. Imagine me standing in there and turning from the left to the right, talking your ear off about my junk.
The above picture uses a wide angle to get the whole thing (mostly), which makes it seem big. Click for the vintage ironing board re-do.
Also, that floor is not mirror shiny, as this shot would have you believe. No, not at all.}
On the last housekeeping post, commenter Jamie made the point that wanting things to be pretty isn't a bad thing! And that housekeeping is most fulfilling if you think of it as a means of providing prettiness in everyday life!
And that is so true. That's what I've tried to do here, in my own way. Some little things the kids have made...my beloved enamel pots and pans...some holy cards...
Okay, below we have a "before."
Not a real before, however.
When we moved in, blogging wasn't really a thing, so I never thought to record the mold-covered walls (from a leak above), the huge dumb cabinets (some of which I did
repurpose in the mudroom above the washer and dryer), and the awkward door that closed off all that unusable, ugly space.
We pulled all that out, took down the door, fixed the wall, and painted with whatever paint was lying around at the time. But that white is too gray.
Beware of white paint that has gray in it. Just don't go there if you want to be happy and feel warm.
The white wire shelving system to the right of the desk was a yard sale find -- $7. It's a tad broken, but it works.
See the stool lurking there? See the 80s teak desk?
Don't forget to see the furniture redo.
I now have that white folding table -- see it under the window? -- in the den.
As you can see, I used to have my computer in the pantry. (Along with the food and the ironing...do you think I'm nuts to do all that in this little room? I sort of am!) I kept the sewing machine tucked in there (see, on the right?) and brought it to the kitchen or dining table to sew.
It made sense -- having the computer at hand --I do not think that the computer should be out of your sight once the kids start using it.
But let me tell you something.
I.
Was.
Cold.
Yeah, no heat. Nice in summer, freezing every other time. Especially because there's something about working at the computer that makes your right arm numb in the best of times, do you know what I mean? (I'm never that cold while sewing...)
But even with the ugly floor and the ugly paint job, I just did my best! If you want a little tour -- you know, if this isn't already much more than you ever wanted to know and you aren't off to do something exciting like clean your tile grout, check out
my clementine box hack video!
Because the computer needed to be close to the outlet, there was nowhere to put the food shelves other than to the right as you go in, which loses space in the corner.
Finally the Chief had it with me being frozen nigh unto death. He said enough to the numb limbs and made me move into the den where there is heat.
At the same time, I thought and thought about where to have a little crafting space...
It all came together when we redid the kitchen floor (also, my mother was praying for me to get a craft room, which was very nice of her).
The Chief, who was understandably worried about the expense and disruption of the floor renovation (to us, an almost insurmountable nightmare), tried to convince me
not to do the pantry at the same time.
Can you imagine?
Like
what.
People who hate remodeling so much that they live with ugly things for multiple years are going to have the guy come out
twice? And he's going to come back to do 77 square feet?
I don't think so.
I also re-painted while my sweet husband was on a rare business trip. He didn't want me to re-paint in here! Because it's too disruptive! When everything is already out of there because of the floor!
He's crazy.
I just did it real fast and he hardly noticed!
Again, I used the paint lying around, but this time I mixed white and yellow (good quality, too), and got something lighter than the kitchen but still warm and tidy.
Okay, enough blather. On to the clockwise part.
Here on the left we have the wooden shelves. Cookbooks, fabric, buttons and ribbons, and sewing notions (the red bucket holds ironing supplies and the plaid tin below holds un-aesthetic necessaries such as elastic, velcro, and seam binding). Crafting sundries in those baskets....
The poster is of The France, a large luxury liner that I actually went on from New York to Le Havre as a 14-year old, the year my father sabbaticaled in Belgium. I found this in a shop, very much marked down, and had to have it, but it's got a heavy poly laminate on it and I have no idea how to hang it. Well, I could make a little shelf for it, that would work.
But it's not high on the list to hang it, because it sits right there, only falling down behind the bookcase every once in a while.
I made that extra-large grocery-bag holder out of a skirt I once had, which I loved.
In this basket you will find paper towels and napkins, as well as old kitchen towels for mopping up spills.
Now, moving to the back of the pantry...you can see that those shelves fit in perfectly under that dumb useless soffit thing.
Wait! Not true! It has a use! It funnels the frigid air in from outside. It used to be a vent of some sort. One day as I was huddled, clothed in multiple layers, at the desk, checking my email, I realized that torrents of freezing air were pouring down upon me. So my dear husband plugged it all up. Still.
{Go read about
how to hack your clementine boxes!! See them there? I've updated my instructions to include using the front panel that you take off to make a support for the exposed bottom.}
Here you have the window, which is a blessing, don't you think? I even cleaned the window!
{We actually do need those lanterns...the power goes out quite a bit in these parts. Maybe I'll find a place for them in the mudroom at some point....}
Most of my house has no nooks and crannies. Just wide open high-ceilinged spaces...so I never have a place to tuck little things for display. They end up here!
Rosie loves any kind of paper craft, and one Thanksgiving she made those little origami boxes to hold place cards for the whole extended family.
Everyone forgot to take theirs home! After doing that thing where I had them in a basket, shifting them around the craft closet for quite a while, I got the idea to string them in a sort of colorful garland.
And the banner was from Joseph for a long-ago birthday...maybe he was 11? How sweet is that? It was meant to be a flag, hence the staples on the left ;)
The rest of my house is so big, with such demanding spaces, that there is not much scope (or perhaps too much intimidating scope) for this kind of frivolous exhibition. I find it safe to throw things up here.
Couldn't resist this metal aqua storage shelf at our local antiques (really, junk) shop.
Too bad the only place to put it (under the window) means it's not visible unless you're well into the pantry.
With our back to the window, let's look back at the wooden shelves, okay? I moved the ironing board out of the way ;)
Okay, turning back, I'm not absolutely sure what to do with that big basket of yarn...
So, do you want to see more? Who doesn't want an interminable tour of a tiny room!
We are now on the right wall of the pantry as you go in.
Remember, it has taken me 30 years to get to this point, the point of "not as good as a lot of the pictures that inspired me in the first place," but good enough for me to feel creative, peaceful, and not in a constant state of annoyance at not having space to work. I bet you could be much faster!
I love a sewing machine, I realized, because it doesn't need to pre-heat, and you don't have to do anything other than toggle that little switch! You just turn it on and go! You can take three stitches and walk away from it if you need to. Nothing will burn...what you're working on will just sit there until the next time.
Basically, my "sewing room" is a desk with my sewing machine on it, and some shelves for fabric and other crafting necessities.
But it looks like more than that, doesn't it?
I think it's because of putting things up on the walls.
The wooden hangers, embroidered linen towels, and many of the sewing notions -- many many of them -- come from my mother-in-law's vast stash, which I inherited after her passing. Some of them are so old that they are fun to look at. It's a pity to get rid of them or put them away!
The orange paper star is leftover from
Rosie's wedding decorations.
I didn't "decorate" this, you see! It's just the stuff that I have already, and some other stuff I can't resist at yard sales or junk shops.
What do you have that you could put up? Or arrange in a pretty way? You could get started. It can evolve, right?
I keep some thread -- upholstery, quilting, and silk -- out in those little cubbies, but the rest in the plastic box under the top of the desk on the right. In the last post I said that thread kept out will deteriorate (if it works for you, then by all means, ignore me!) -- and I
had wanted those pretty spool holders....
The yard-sale shelf is now in the corner, a position more felicitous as to space usage. It holds more fabric, paper, and mailing supplies.
And piles of stuff on top.
(I'm going to make candles, but first I have to find a pot at a yard sale to melt the wax. I'm not paying $17 at Michael's for a dumb pot!)
I like to clothes-pin things to my shelf...
...if they inspire me!
Now we're inside looking back out towards the kitchen. At some point, long ago, the door on this wall -- on the left there -- led outside. But now it's quite blocked off, so I just keep adding coats of paint to it! As I told you in my
nailing the broom to the wall post, we are the kind of people who just paint over a bitten up piece of molding, I guess.
One must have one's broom and one's air gun handy. Dirt and squirrels...the enemies!
Contrary to what you might think, I do have a place to hang the ironing board out of the way. I can tuck it right there, between the wire shelf and the wall!
I rarely do, though...
Since taking these pictures, I found a cute vintage red clock to replace that chrome one (which I got for free somewhere). It had just stopped keeping time!
Since the cord is so short, I had to move things a bit, and in the process, found a place for this darling little drawing that has been sitting around, forlorn, because it's too small for anywhere else.
And that's it! I really think that's it for the pantry!
But if I think of anything else, I'll let you know!
