Room by Room - The Little Pink Pantry

Storage.  Modern life is all about having enough storage to corral all your 'stuff'.  And thank goodness for my Little Pink Pantry.  Nowadays, she keeps everything organized and easy for me to see and reach.  But life wasn't always so rosy for Little Pink Pantry.

This is how Little Pink Pantry looked the last 3 or 4 months.  Sure she's got the pretty pink beadboard and she even has some shelf cleats, but alas, no shelving so everything's in piles on the floor (cue little teardrop).

Fortunately, during my woodworking class, I was able to use their table saw and cut a couple of sheets of birch veneered plywood for the shelving. I also routed the edges on about 75ft of 1x2 to use as edging on the shelves. This served two purposes - to hide the unattractive cut edges of the plywood shelves, plus add some structural strength to the shelves so they would be less apt to deflect under heavy loads. Speaking of deflection, if you've ever wondered whether your shelves can handle 100lbs of books or (whatever you plan to throw on them), check out this great "sagulator". After doing the calc, I also added some brackets because of the long spans (up to 90" on one wall).

Then lots of nail holes to fill, plus caulking and painting.
The pantry is 4'x8'. The shelves are various depths. I have one that is 16" deep and at counter height so I can use it as an extra desk. Other shelves are 8", 10" and 12" deep. Distances between shelves range from 10", 15" and 20".

Thank you Little Pink Pantry for keeping my life a little bit saner and organized!

Pantry: Beadboard/Wall paint: Angel Wings (1-1) Pratt & Lambert; Trim/Ceiling /Shelving paint:  Simply White (OC-117) Benjamin Moore; Flooring: Kahrs Houston 2-strip, engineered oak hardwood; Shelf brackets: Woodworker.com (also Home Depot); Stepstool: Cramer "Kik-Step" Stool .