The Pantry & Coat Closet: Before & After

So, I may not have made ANY progress on getting the guest bedroom(s) fixed up- but we did get out pantry/coat closet all fixed up and fancy! The space before we did this was just a really long closet that was extremely disgusting. The house, remind you, was abandoned for well over a year. This closet had musty green carpeting, painted over wallpaper and rusty white shelving. The light bulb was just that, and so it was really just an unusable space. The whole story on this is that we hosted a Christmas party at our house and I wanted a place for people to hang their coats.... loads of money, time & labor later... we were able to do just that! (the coat closet is on the other side of the pantry)

Before

The fist time I looked at this house, I knew I wanted to revive this space and use it like a pantry/kitchen storage area. Our kitchen really doesn't have that much cabinet space + I have glass shelves, so I needed a place to hold all of Whit's kitchen gadgets and our Costco trip hoards. My vision for this space has always been to put up ship-lap and try our hand at tiling. So, that is exactly what we did! 

We used this ship lap from Lowes and this super affordable honey comb tile. The picture of the wood shows it going vertical, but it can also be put up horizontally. The grout we used is called Avalanche- if you want a true white grout, that is the color you need. The stuff called "White" is more like a light greyish color- we know from experience- side eye emoji. Since this was our fist time tiling a floor, we looked up some YouYube videos and researched how to tile a floor- we rely on the internet for almost everything we do. We put the grout on after we put up the shiplap but before we put on the final trim baseboards.

Notice the old white and wooden doors? Very dirty up close. 

So much cutting involved... and it was cold and we are kind of lazy, so the miter saw got put to use in our entryway... just days before our party, major eeek. 

After the ship-lap was up- everything got a coat of BM's Chantilly Lace. We then put on the grout to make sure we got all the edges tiled up- and lastly added crown molding, baseboards, quarter round to match the rest of the house and added a little light fixture. This space definitely has the country house feel- which I can't really do in any other rooms as the house is too formal. So I tried my best to max it out :).

Oh yes, the shelves! We picked up some "common" board from Home Depot. It is the quality of wood that isn't the most expensive but also won't give you splinters. Like there is a sign that says "common board" in the Home Depot I put a coat of my favorite stain, Early American onto the board before cutting and hanging. The brackets? A total score from Wal-Mart. I just sprayed them flat black and we picked up some already-painted-black screws.

After

The rug was a vintage find from one of my favorite places to shop in Iowa - Sister's Garden & Bloom.Yes, that is Frank's silver food bowl- #fancy. 

Best mineral water ever. 

Cutest little cordial glasses thrifted at Salvation Army during Christmas in Iowa. I love using this product to make old glass sparkling clean! 

Whit switched out the light fixture- I chose this to install, a total School House Electric knock off. Beware, the glass looks more orange online than in person. He also replaced all of the outlets to my favorite white screw less plates. Our house has some fantastic detailing, so when we work on projects we try and make sure we do to the standards that the house was built.

I love the look of how the pine and knots show through. I used one coat of heavy duty coverage paint. It does not fully cover unfinished wood, but that was fine with me for this project. 

Frank's food canister - I love this one, as it is actually air tight, perfect for gross dog food- I hate dog food/treats etc... gross. 

The Coat Closet

The "before" pics were not taken, but it is just the backside of the pantry and was in equally rough shape. We did everything the same, and I love how this turned out! Guest coat approved :). 

The closet door is just right inside our house to the left, it is easy to miss as we usually have the door the the great room always propped open. 

If you follow my insta-stories, you will recognize that awesome vintage Wrangler vest I scored for $6. 

I am seriously wondering if we will ever need these boots again, but they do look quite nice in here. Not shown? The matching Crocs my mom bought us for Christmas...

Umbrella basket from my fav local store, Eleven54 on Wood. 

So glad to be done with this project, it was actually pretty time consuming- but the results are fab, and really update the house. Now, back to those dang bedrooms... maybe...

Merry Christmas // Happy Holidays // Happy New Year

XO 

EJ 

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