Bookshelves and a Pantry..

In the past few weeks I have talked about caulking, closets, pegs and Packers, but today I want to share with you a wonderful pantry that Bob made for me under the stairs. The space under the stairs is usually wasted or stuff is chucked under them, but I wanted a nicely organized pantry. One reason is because I have a very small kitchen at the cottage, and the other reason is because I like to keep food staples on hand.

First off, we finished this lovely set of bookshelves which were built into a recess in the basement wall. We planned and measured and painted and this is the end result. We are pretty happy with it since it was wasted space. I am sure we will fill them up fairly quickly.

So, over the course of a couple of weekends, we cut painted and mounted enough shelves to keep me happy. Besides the bookshelves, we made this lovely pantry.


This is the door under the stairs. As you can see it is not very wide and you can also see the bookshelves on the right.








Once the door opens,  it looks  like this: It has a tall thin shelf on the right with a wire rack, a plastic bag holder and wide wooden shelves below. I also put a little hook back there--no telling what I might like to hang.

The left side has a rack to hang towels, aprons or maybe even a bag of onions or potatoes. We put up another wire rack and were thankful to hit studs.

I am thinking I might get a narrow wooden bin for onions and potatoes and put it under the wire rack on this side.

The back is wonderful. There are three deep shelves that fit in the angled ceiling line where the stairs come down behind. The wire racks were some old nasty looking racks Scotty picked up somewhere years ago. They were from an old freezer and the thought I might like them. He was right.







I scrubbed them down and they fit perfect on the shelves. I am thinking things like bags of rice, beans, chocolate chips and so on would fit in them nicely. I can see what is in them and pull them out easily to see what is in there.

On the right side of those shelves, in the area that doesn't pull out, I think I will put my canned goods, like applesauce, spaghetti sauce and so on.

The thing that was important to me was to have something that had a lot of shelves and storage potential and still have enough room to move around. I had a closet once that had racks on both sides and I cannot tell you how many times I got poked in the head or shoulder because they middle area was just too narrow.

I figure we can also add another four shelf wire rack on the left if we want to. I want to live with it a while and see if I think we need it, or maybe another type of shelf will seem more important.

I liked this plastic bag holder. I stuffed it with old grocery bags after I took this picture and they stuff in easily and pull out easily too.

Bob took the photo below after the work was done. I needed a little rest. I can hardly wait to fill my pantry will all sorts of great groceries.

 

On a totally different note, I have two adorable granddaughters. Here are a couple of photos you might enjoy.

Allison and Uncle Scott, a couple of weeks ago

Bob and Elinor

Allison ready to go home in hat and scarf knit by Aunt Kari.

Eli chewing on wood toy. She is really trying to get some teeth.

Take care,
Jill