Quarantine Reno: The Butler's Pantry/Laundry Room

Good morning everyone! I wanted to share with you a major renovation which Mr. Still Woods and I accomplished during the quarantine. I have been feeling a huge push to simplify not only my life, but our home as well.  I started with reorganizing room by room and donating items we no longer use. After that was accomplished, I began thinking. My husband says that my thinking is always dangerous and usually means a lot of work for him! So let me tell you how this all started. 

I have a large pantry in the kitchen with pull out drawers and deep shelves. While it holds tons of pantry items, I was always complaining because items tend to meander to the back of the shelves. When you need a flashlight to see what's in your pantry, you know its too large.  So I decided that I wanted to relocate our pantry into a free standing, shallow unit.  We sat down and drew up a plan we were both happy with.  As with most plans, our plan got altered along the way.  What was to have been a complete new build, became a merging of items we already had on hand.  Let's call it simplifying and creating something new from something old!

Where to put the butler's pantry was the easy part of this project.  Our laundry room is close the kitchen and was originally intended to have a second set of stairs to the upper floor. We already had a main staircase, so why need another? We had the builder remove the stairs from the plan and put in a laundry shoot.  Our cabinet maker built a cabinet for folding clothes, wrapping gifts, etc. So without the stairs, we had a lot of extra space. Here is the room before we took everything out to begin our project.

Several steps were involved, so to simplify (I'm beginning to see a key word here), I'm just going to list what we had to accomplish.  

1. Remove the refrigerator from the laundry room. See it on the left?  It was great for holding party platters, but stuck out like a sore thumb. It has a new home in the garage.

2. After we removed everything from the old laundry room, we gave it a fresh coat of paint.  I went with Sherwin Williams Alabaster.  It certainly brightened up the room!

3. Remove the bookcases in the dining room that served to display my milk glass collection.  This wasn't in the original plan, but during dinner one night I had a light bulb moment and the rest is history!  This required us to repaint the dining room, but that transformation is for another time!    

4. Remove the top section of our old china cabinet. It held my Christmas china year round and was either on top of the laundry room built in or with the bottom of the china cabinet and in the laundry room. 

5. Strain backs while carrying the lower portion of the china cabinet upstairs to begin life as another creation!

6. Paint the dining room bookcase surround and the upper section of the china cabinet white.  Leave the bookcase shelves stained.     

7. Build a center section to hold the upper china cabinet and bolt the bookcases to the sides of this unit. 

8. Back the pantry unit with bead board and build baseboard molding for one cohesive look. Hubby did an awesome job with the molding!

9. Build a seat in the area where the refrigerator was previously located and add a wall section with hooks for hanging coats, etc. Make a spot for our toy poodle, Mr. Darcy's daytime bed!

10.  Whew...I think that's the major points!

So we basically built one lower/center unit, combined that with the two bookcases previously used to hold my milk glass collection, topped the middle unit with our old china cabinet and FINALLY ended with one cohesive unit.  All thanks to the magical skills of Mr. Still Woods!

Here's a closer look at the pantry. I'm in love with it! I ordered labels from the Talented Kitchen.  The bin label holders were purchased at Really Good Stuff for a phenomenal price! The baskets came from Michaels Crafts during a half price sale. Everything is organized, labeled when possible and best of all... easy to locate! No dark void!

Everything was backed with white bead board, with the exception of the milk glass display.  I wanted to add a color that would contrast well with the white of the milk glass and make the milk glass pop. I selected  Raindrop by Sherwin Williams.  It is a beautiful, tranquil shade of  blue  Here's a closer look at the milk glass display. I selected just a few of my favorite items to display.

After the unit was built and painted, we proceeded to the area where our second refrigerator had been located. Mr. Still Woods used more of his magic and what was once a space for a bulky refrigerator is now... drum roll please... this adorable space! I couldn't get a photo from top to bottom, so had to split it up.  

Here is the top! We found the cute label hooks at Hobby Lobby. The top is trimmed out the same way as the window trim. I picked up the Silos bag on a trip to Magnolia Market in Waco last fall. I may have picked up a few other things as well!

And here is the bottom! The hand basket was given to me by a sweet friend and is very, very old. It has such character. I can imagine it being carried to the market to pick up staples for another pantry long ago. Since the pantry is so close, the seat is a good place to sit and jot down a grocery list.

I didn't want to clutter the walls, so chose slender candle holders to frame the window. The candles were purchased at QVC and are Luminara candles.  They flicker like a real flame and are controlled with a remote.  Love that! I have them in serval areas of the house. The window ledge is usually decorated for different seasons, but when I took this photo, it was bare. I can't wait to hang a swag of garland from the window at Christmas time. 

Everything went fairly well with the transformation. I did find out that you just can't move an electrical box! My request was met with a flat out NO! Who knew moving an electrical panel would be such a big deal? So, I removed the door to the electrical box and spray painted it white.  A few pieces of decor and wah-lah, I don't think it looks too bad! I picked up the rustic, wooden "trivet", located behind the bread flour, during a trip last fall to Roundtop Antique Show. Do you see my little, metal cheese board mouse by the candle? The water color of the beets is from a set of four, signed vegetable water colors. The other three hang on the wall nearby.

I also added a runner to the room, purchased from Boutique Rugs. Mr. Darcy loves his rug! The cabinet to the left now holds, items such as additional serving trays, flatware, candle sticks, etc.

The area above the butler's cabinet has a new piece of art made by a friend of ours from church.  She and her husband hope to adopt a child soon and she began making all kinds of awesome items to assist in adoption costs. I love the song, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, so asked her to create a sign with part of the song. It turned out perfectly! Above the sign is an industrial pipe clothes rack that I found on Amazon. We removed the longer clothes rack when we renovated.  This smaller, classier version serves me well. 

Let me just say that I am so happy with how our Butler's Pantry/Laundry Room combo turned out. It is bright and cheerful! My food pantry is well organized and I love knowing what food items I have on hand without using a flashlight to reach into the dark abyss that was my old pantry. The old kitchen pantry has been turned into a china cupboard and holds all my various sets of china, minus the one set that is displayed in my dining room. I'll have to show you the china cupboard later!

Did you do any home projects during the quarantine? Share and let me know! 

Blessings and Good Health,

Lynda from Still Woods Farmhouse