Storage closet to food pantry project, DONE!!!!

Did I really start this pantry re-do back in November? I guess the time got away from me over the winter.

I can finally say the new food pantry is DONE!!!

Here is my first post about it from way back in November:

http://emptynestinthemidwest.blogspot.com/2012/11/turning-hallway-closet-into-kitchen.html


Quick re-cap of the project-

I started with this odd little closet in the hallway:

It needed to be emptied first. Most of the time this closet was kept pretty organized, but this is what it looked like the day I decided to turn it into a pantry. Cooking oil, my toolbag, my sewing machine, an extension cord..........these are all important things in my life.



I got it all emptied:

 I started with a few coats of white paint on the walls:

Next I taped the walls so I could paint stripes:

After making my stripes a little neater:

That was where I left off in November. This project didn't get much attention over the winter months. I had done a few rows of stenciling and for some reason I lost my mojo with this project. This pantry project sat all winter untouched.

I picked it back up in the spring and got my stenceling finished.

I did go back and do the stenceling on the stripe in the corner. I had to cut my stencil to get it in the corner, so I saved that part for last.

I LOVE IT!!!

The lines from my stencils are not perfectly perfect. I thought it added character to the design so I continued on with the "sloppy" look.
I'll write another post soon about my process with the striping and the stenciling. In case anyone wants to try their hand at this type of project, I may be able to offer a few tips about what worked for me (and what didn't work).

I really love the way this project turned out.

Next, it was time to put new tiles over the floor of the closet. We bought grey peel n stick vinyl tiles for about $2.00 a piece. We needed 6 tiles, and Home Depot sells single tiles so we didn't have to buy a whole box of them.

I don't think I took pictures of the finished floor, but these are what the vinyl tiles look like that we bought.

Next came shelves. Previously, there were 2 shelves in this closet, but we added a 3rd shelf for the new pantry.

I painted them white before we installed them.

Then we put the food in the new pantry.
Everything fits in here so well, with plenty of room for more food!

Tim bought this small battery operated light so we would have some light in there for now.

He has to do a lot of electrical rewiring to the house this summer, so he will add a hard-wired light in this closet soon.

This one works well for now. He installed it just above the door on the inside of the pantry.



And finally, we added a rack for spices to the inside of the pantry door. We bought this rack at Home Depot for about $20.00

So, (other than the light Tim needs to install) I can officially call this pantry project DONE!!!!!

For the fun of it, here are the BEFORE/AFTER shots:

BEFORE (craft closet)

AFTER (food pantry)



I have a new friend

We have a houseguest for a while!!!

Her name is "Mya". I'm really not sure how her name is spelled. I suppose it could be Myah??

Isn't she just beautiful???? I really love her!!!

She's an American Eskimo, and she's about 5 years old, I think.

I don't get to keep her, she's just visiting for a while. I'm not even sure how long she'll be staying with us.

She belongs to a friend of my son Allen. He offered to keep Mya while her owner is in between homes. He had her at his apartment for about 6 weeks but it got to be too much for him. He already has 2 cats in his tiny apartment. The cats didn't really love the dog, and the dog didn't really love the cats. Plus, everytime Mya needed to go out, he had to take her down 3 flights of stairs. That would have irritated me after the 3rd day, LOL.

Since Tim and I already have 2 doggies and a huge back yard, Mya came to stay with us. She fits in perfectly with our babies.

She's so sweet, she can stay as long as she needs to.

She's a very good dog. Perfectly trained, and she listens well.

Look at this face!!!!

She's been moved around a few times in the past year. I feel bad for her. She got REALLY attached to my son when she was with him. She was sad when he first left her with us about 3-4 weeks ago. She didn't want to do anything but wait for Allen to come back.

It only took her a few days to feel better. We made sure to give her extra attention and lots of treats. She figured out pretty quickly that our house is doggie heaven, and now she's pretty much taken over the house. She's the first one in line when we pass out treats, she follows me around the house, and she sleeps next to me at night.

Our other 2 dogs, Peanut Butter and Jack, seem to like Mya too. Our dogs are very passive, and Mya has quickly established herself as more dominant dog of the three. She's not mean, but she will shove them out of the way to get what she wants.

If I am calling Jack to jump into my lap, Mya will run past him and leap into my lap first. Then she will growl at Jack to stay away. She will also take their treats if we don't watch her. The girl is quick, and she knows what she wants in life!

She growls a bit to get her point across, but she has never snapped or tried to nip at anyone.

About the 2nd or 3rd day we had her, I was sitting on the kitchen floor passing out little pieces of cheese to the 3 dogs. It wasn't Mya's turn, but she took the treat right out of my hand that I was giving to one of the other dogs. I yelled at her, "no, we don't snatch treats here!"
So, she scooted forward towards me, and she licked my face. OH MY GOSH, I totally melted and she had my heart right then and there.
Sweetest thing, EVER, and she has not snatched any more treats from me. She patiently waits her turn now. She will steal from Jack if he doesn't eat his treats quick enough though.   

Here are Mya and my boy Jack hanging out together. They are exactly the same size, these two are perfect together!

She loves her belly to be rubbed. We do a lot of belly rubbing at our house these days.

See the wet spot next to her face on the chair arm? She sucks on things. It's so cute when she does that, I just want to hug her!!

Here she is, doing her sucking thing. She mostly does it when she's tired.

She also bites on her toe nails, which is a little funny. I trimmed her nails a few weeks ago, so she's not biting them because they are too long. I think she just has a few odd quirks.

She's such a beautiful dog!

Outside, this girl can run like the wind. I thought my Jack was fast, but Mya blows Jack away.
I'm waiting for the weather to warm up to I can take my babies to the park to play. I wonder how she'll do with a leash and collar?

I'll take some pics of her outside once we get a nice warm day.


I hope Mya gets to stay for awhile, we are really enjoying having her around!


I'll be back with more posts, I've been gone awhile, but I have some updates coming very soon!