The pantry is about 12ft by 6 ft. The first thing you see is a pair of French doors. Those doors came out of my grandparent's first house - the house my grandmother's father built for them. We have had them quite a while, knowing that one day we'd be able to use them.
I spent a million hours looking at kitchens in books and on the internet. When looking at kitchen styles, I started noticing that the kitchens I liked best had something about them that was a little unexpected. Most of the room matched, but there was always some element that was a totally different color and style. Sometimes I'd cover that element with my finger and try to imagine the room without it. Without the fun element, the room seemed boring and a bit lifeless.
I knew I didn't want my grandmother's doors to fade into the background. They were going to be my fun element. These doors are now painted in a color that I love - a color that exactly matches some old turquoise Universal Ballerina bowls that came from her. Every time I see the doors, I feel happy just thinking of my grandmother. I really miss her.
We have some glass knobs that will be put on the doors as soon as my dear hubby (Dr. Doolittle) can get to it. Right now there are a zillion higher priority things on his to-do list.
When you open the pantry doors, the first thing you see, centered across from the doorway, is an old hoosier. I have two hoosiers. The other is in our laundry room. Hoosiers are so functional. When I bring in groceries, I can pull out the metal counter and put the bags there while I put things away. Plus, I have a ton of storage inside the doors. I should probably do a while post on my hoosier one day.
The rest of the Hoosier wall is filled with shelves. Right now the shelves are just the basic wire shelves, but one day, I hope to have built in wood ones. Dr. D is actually feels even more strongly about this than I do, so my chances of actually getting them built are high! I love open shelves. I love that I can glance about and quickly see what's there.
I love using baskets and bins to contain things. The fact that they look pretty on the shelves is a bonus.
We also have some appliances in the pantry. We have the freezer and microwave. As soon as I find the perfect shelf unit (or get one built), we'll have the microwave, dehydrator and breadmaker on the wall opposite the freezer.
Lately, Dr. D has been encroaching a bit in MY pantry. He has moved big bags of dog food and dog bowls in. At first they were on the freezer and I could ignore them. Now, he's starting to shove my stuff around to give him even more room. I know a minor hissy fit would not produce desired results, so I'm going to have to come up with a nice way to contain these things that we both will be happy with. Any ideas?