Probably the most used space in the house is the pantry in the kitchen. It's not really a proper pantry, but it's what I call it. It houses cereals, pasta, herbs, spices, baking stuff, and tinned food. It also tends to be a bit of a dumping ground, if I want to tidy something up quickly, it may well get chucked in the cupboard to be sorted out at a later date. I try to keep it tidy, but it often ends scruffy. A few times a year I empty it out, clean the shelves and check all use by dates and have a reorganise.
Over Christmas the pantry ended up looking pretty muddled. I always sort out at the start of the year, so I can write a list of staples that need restocking. This year I had a 'brilliant' idea of giving it a fresh coat of paint and making it pretty.
The plan was to use whatever left over paint we had enough of in the garage to use on the walls. Best laid plans and all that, there wasn't enough of ANY paint in the tins (what fool keeps using it all up?! *ahem*). So, we toodled off to the DIY shop yesterday and bought some new paint. The colour Gorgeous Girl and I chose was the brilliantly named 'Perfume', a pretty pale pink.
Once home, I emptied the pantry and gave walls and shelves a wash. I was in such a rush to start, I almost forgot to take a photo. Almost, but not quite. Here is the pantry 'before'. The walls painted a very dark burgundy, the shelves left natural wood.
This morning it looked like this:
The shelving is now ivory, the walls the palest of pink. If I wasn't in such a rush to get it all done, then I'd paint the ceiling too. But I don't have time for that right now. Once dry, I was able to start putting everything back in.
I want to track down some white wire trays to hold things on the sheves, but I'm in rush. I quite like that I can work on improving things as the year goes on. I need a little chalk board in there too, so I can note when I need to add something to the shopping list.The pinboard/moodboard/inspiration board on the door has been thinned out a bit too, it's somewhere else that tends to get cluttered up. see how I made the pinboard [here]
I made more bunting. Each time I make bunting, I make it slightly differently so I can find the easiest way of doing it. This time I've simply cut the shapes with pinking shears, then machined a hem along the top. Very quick and easy to do. 
I've added more bunting to the bottom shelf since taking the photo. I bought a selection of fabrics at the weekend, and I've also used some dotty and ditsy floral fabric sent to me by a friend. 
The bottom shelf is exclusively for baking ingredients. I treated myself to a beautiful book, and want to try really hard this year to improve my baking skills. Stupid as it looks in black and white, I thought that if I had a pretty, tidy and well stocked pantry, then I'd be more likely to feel calm when cooking and therefore have better results! 
Even if it doesn't improve my cooking skills, it's still nice to start the year with a pantry looking so fresh and bright. I'm also pleased to have found a use for the nuclear glow fairy lights I mentioned in my previous post. They are perfect to use inside the cupboard. It looks pretty when the door is left open, and gives a bit of extra light when searching for something.
Christmas may be over, and our decorations are down, but I've left fairy lights up in the kitchen. I liked having the lights on the underneath of the kitchen cupboards so much that I've left them there ~ all the way round the kitchen.
