My Favorite Room

I just love our new home. Have I mentioned that lately? Because I do. And I feel so very blessed and honored to live here, and I thank the Lord each day for a beautiful roof over our heads. I walk into each room at least once a day and just enjoy all.the.space. Our last home (which was our first) was a beautiful home-when we got done with it anyway- but it was just very dark, and because of that seemed much smaller than it really was. Although it was not huge- just over 1500sqft. Our new home is about 2400sqft, with an extra bedroom, an extra dining area, and a much larger, well, everything! Plus we have a very nice two level deck for entertaining, whereas our last home had a very small deck with about 25 stairs leading straight down to a dirty and steep yard. So just having an outdoor space to enjoy has really helped too!

Now all that said, there is one room in this home that I am in LOVE with. And it really wasn't even on my wish list when we were looking at houses. Honestly, I never considered it all that important just because we didn't have one in our last house and we got on just fine without it! But now that we have this room, I am just in awe of how much we use it and wonder how we ever got by without one! That's right, folks! I am talking about our

PANTRY

In all honesty, when we looked at this house, I thought "oh cool! A pantry." and moved on. But from the moment we started moving all of our stuff in, I realized that this mystical room called a pantry would rapidly become one of the most used rooms in our house. And thus, one of the most cluttered. So I made it my goal, nay, my mission, to make sure that our pantry stay organized and remain the useful room that it was intended to be.

I do have dreams of making it a beautiful space. Pinterest has really spurred that desire along. But if you read this post, you know that the pantry is notably absent from my list of rooms to tackle this year. Hey, I have to have something to do in 2013!!! And besides, I need to have some time to either save up for all the wire baskets I will need, or wait for them to come down in price. (SHAZAM! Have you seen how much places like Tar-jay are charging for old looking wire and chicken wire baskets?!?! I.DON'T.THINK.SO!!!! And I am a basket freak!!!)

So while I do dream of pantries like this one (although I really doubt it looks like this all the time!):

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And this one (with it's gorgeous dark shelving and wire baskets, oh be still my heart!):

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 With fun features like this:

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 And a beautiful stenciled background wall like this one:

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 I am left to deal with this. This is my pantry, when it was empty.

And here is how it looked earlier today. Pretty bad, huh? I hadn't taken the time to reorganize in a few weeks, and it was starting to show! 

Here is the other side, to the left when you walk in (I am standing in the doorway). The can goods still look decent. Hey, that something!!! 

And here it is after I did a little reorganizing and cleaning. Much better!!! 

This is what you see when you walk in.

Bad picture I know. But this is one reason why I love my pantry: See the appliances down on the bottom shelf and my mixer on the floor??? Those LIVE there! So they are not on my counters or taking up cabinet space!!! Yes, I do love this room!!!



I will probably be working on a design plan for this space sometime soon. And who knows, I might just decide I need to add it into my 2012 goals. You just never know! ;) Thanks for stopping by!!!