Pantry Restoration & Renovation – ORC Week 2

We are deep into the second week of the One Room Challenge™ (ORC). Well, technically it is already the third week, but we are blogging about the second week. I feel the impostor syndrome rearing its ugly head. The official participants are in a league of their own, and the 249 (!) guest participants have such ambitious and inspiring projects planned. I kind of feel like I’m just little ‘ol me armed with a hammer and a steel wedge tearing stuff up and putting it back together again. I plan as I go. I do not have a mood board. I have enough trouble managing my own moods. I hope that my project sparks your interest and you will have patience with me as I learn not only how to fix our home but how to make it beautiful too. This is my first ORC, but I plan to participate in many more in order to faciliate my growth as a do-it-yourself-er and decorator.

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If you did not have the chance to read the week one post about our pantry project, you will find it here. You will find a link to all of the guest participant projects by clicking on the logo below. Prepare to be impressed.

Week two in our pantry was demo week. It went off without a hitch. First, Andy and I removed everything from the pantry and moved it to the laundry room which is also adjacent to the kitchen. We used the opportunity to declutter unnessesary items and move things that were best kept somewhere else in the house. We are still recovering from unpacking in this house two years ago, and we found items in the pantry that we did not even remember that we owned. Moving from a 1700 square foot house to a 4000 square foot house was very confusing for us. During that time, we found ourselves stuffing everything into a few rooms instead of spreading out in BHH. In our heads, we still lived in a small house even though our reality was quite different. We continue to adjust. Old habits, you know.


As kitchen minimalists, we did not have too much in the cabinets or drawers. We had the whole room emptied in about 30 minutes.

Be sure to watch the video at the end of this post for a fun fact about this groovy drawer liner paper.

On Monday, Andy went back to work, and I completed the demo. First, I removed all of the shelves on the left and right. I was so relieved to find that they were not nailed down. All I had to do was lift them carefully and slide them out. I measured each one and jotted their measurements down in my project book. If there is one thing I have learned about this house it is that there is no guarantee that anything that looks uniform will actually measure out that way. Everything in this house is essentially custom and the settling over the past 125+ years knocked anything that was ever square out of its geometric perfection. This proved to be true in the pantry. On the left side, the shelves were actually the same size. Surprise! However, on the right side, the measurements varied by 1/8 to 1/2 inch from shelf to shelf. That may not seem like a lot, but if the measurements are not precise, the shelves could either slide off the anchor pieces because they are too short or tear up the wall as they are slid into place.

As I jotted the measurements down in my project book, I labeled the shelves so I would immediately know where each one fit accurately. I used L for left and R for right. Then, I gave each shelf a number.

Although I did label them with plans to return them to the pantry, I think I have decided to get new shelves altogether. The shelves I removed are in terrible condition. They are covered with stains, chipped paint, and thumbtack holes. There is likely lead paint under the yellow too. I could spend hours trying to make them look nice and remediating the lead paint hazard, but I do not think the painted finish would be durable long-term in the pantry. I think that our time could be better spent on something else. The longer I do this work, the more I believe in the cliché that time is money.

At my home away from home, Lowe’s, my son and I priced new wood for shelves. I intend to stain the new shelves to match the existing wood cabinets, and I will add a nice thick coat of polyurethane for durability.

On the left side, I removed the diagonal triangle shelving completely. These shelves were nailed down all over, and it took a bit of time and a lot of smashing with the hammer in order to loosen the shelves and gently pry them off the walls. The shelves were nailed down with 2 1/2 inch finishing nails. That section of shelving was solid. It put up a good fight, and I have a few battle wounds on my arms to show for it.

It made such a huge difference in this room, though. The room was instantly brighter. Before the removal, the top shelf was just inches from the only light fixture in the room. That shelf eclipsed the light making it difficult to see the contents of the drawers and cabinets.

I love this Art Deco wall sconce, and I am happy it will be more noticeable now. It is a little out of the time period of BHH, but It will definitely stay in this room. I think it is adorable.

I created this short video in order to share some of the neat decorative elements in the pantry and to explain the scope of work more in-depth. I love sharing pictures, but sometimes a video can show so much more, especially in a tight space such as our pantry. (One thing I did not make clear in the video is that although I will remove the hardware in order to clean it, I will be putting it back on the cabinets and drawers.)

Tip: Use the fullscreen view to watch the video. (Click on the four arrow icon on the bottom right side of the video.) I had no idea that the imbedded video would be monster-sized. I have so much to learn.

I am already looking forward to sharing week 3 here on the blog. In the meantime, please be sure to check out the ORC featured designers and the amazing projects of the guest participants too.