Transformation

Waaay back at the beginning of the summer we decided to do a few home improvement projects. We did finish 1 of them and I haven't had a chance to share it yet! Sadly, there are still a couple of half done projects around here waiting for us to find the time to finish them, but, at least this one is finished!


Most of you know that kids come with stuff. The more kids, the more stuff. For some reason this fact escaped me when we built our house! Granted, we didn't have children then but still, you'd think it would have dawned on one of us somewhere along the construction phase!.

Anyway, we had a large, walk in pantry right off of our kitchen between the garage and our master bedroom. It was great! It could hold so.much.stuff!! But, once the kiddos came along, our kitchen and bedroom sort of became the dumping ground for all of their stuff. ugh!


So, I decided I wanted to convert our pantry into a mud room! And since our kitchen is large enough, with tons of cabinets, we could reorganize and find a space for everything that was once held in the pantry.


I told my dad about my project when I decided to go to Lowes and purchase a saw. I had no clue what kind of saw was needed but I figured it would be much easier to build what I wanted if I had one. Ha! After that conversation my sweet daddy offered to come and do it for me!! YAY!!! Since he has worked in construction his entire life I knew the project would go a lot smoother if he did it rather than me!

Daddy above

Hubby below

Sadly, I was so busy with the hustle and bustle of everything I completely forgot to take before pics of what the pantry looked like, but you can see it's size pretty good. It's about 7 1/2 ft. wide and about 3- 31/2 ish feet deep (see why he offered?!?). It was lined with wire shelving from top to bottom and it was FULL!

Here is a semi-before. This was taken after my dad left. We had the "bones" in but I still had to fill in holes, prime, add molding and paint.

Trying out my new, unexpected find at Hobbly Lobby. Clearance baskets that were exactly what I wanted! And, they fit perfectly too!

At this point the bi-fold doors were still on.

Here is the after with Puddin! She LOVES this room! Often she uses the bench as her stage... crazy girl!

Now we have a place for shoes, diaper bags, backpacks, extra diapers, wipes, cameras, jackets, winter stuff, and inside the seat I have large appliances that I don't use everyday, my toolkit and extra vases.

On the wall directly in front of the bench I decided to paint it with chalkboard paint and have a giant message board. Also a big hit with the kiddos.

I am so glad we decided to do this to this space- it is perfect for us and just what we needed!

Thanks Daddy!