Welcome back. Friday, I posted all about choice #1, the upstairs hall. If you need more information about this two-part series, please read that post first. Also, thank you for putting up with our technical difficulties. We have had small server issues in that past, but this is the first outage that was more of a major inconvenience. No matter. We are back in business, and I am ready to tell you about choice #2.

Choice #2: The Butler’s Pantry

The Butler’s Pantry is located between the dining room and the kitchen. Here is a little green glimpse of it in this dining room photo:

Visitors who enter from the street side see the Butler’s Pantry immediately when they enter the house. We drop the mail in this room, and it serves as the catch-all for household items such as batteries, flashlights, pet leashes, decorative items, etc. It is pretty much a disaster. Again, I am embarrassed to be sharing these photos with you, but admitting a problem is the first step towards recovery, no? The cabinet doors hide most of the clutter which is a good thing.

The Plan

The work in this room is mostly cosmetic. All of the shelves have flowery contact paper on them.  I will remove and make a plan after I survey the damage.

I do not know if the contact paper is decorative or if it is hiding a larger issue. There is contact paper on the uppers and lowers as well as on the open shelves.

On the opposite side of the room, there is a sweet copper sink that we love. That stays. However, I want to make new cabinet doors that more closely match the shaker style doors on the opposite side of the room. Since we have never made cabinet doors before, it will be a new experience. The new doors will have hardware that matches or coordinates with the original Eastlake hardware on the other cabinets.  We will also remove that corner shelving unit. It does not serve a real purpose for us, and it is not original to the room.

Here is a close-up of the copper sink. It has a beautiful patina. The wood countertop is also in excellent condition. It will not require much, if any work.

We will repaint the room in a neutral shade and make repairs to the walls as necessary. Also, the light fixture in the room needs to be restored. Presently, it is covered with sage green paint.

The last step will be to turn this room into Command Central. Right now, it is just a catch-all. It’s true that we will never have a butler, but this room is the perfect place to keep all of the essential items that we need as we enter and exit BHH.

For you list makers, here is the plan in list form:

The List

1. Remove contact paper from the shelves.
2. Paint the walls and the cabinets.
3. New Shaker-style doors and hardware on the sink cabinet
4. Restore the light fixture.
5. Create an organizational system on the shelves and in the drawers.
6. Remove the corner shelves.

Vote

So now you have the two choices, and it is time for you to vote. As you are considering your vote, please remember that there are no wrong answers. We will get to everything eventually. However, the One Room Challenge and our summer work are extremely targeted for various reasons. Once we schedule work from April to October, it remains pretty set. We revisit our schedule in the fall.

If you have any questions before you vote, please feel free to ask.

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Edited 12/16/16: The poll has closed, and the clear winner was the Butler’s Pantry. Thank you to everyone who voted.