4 Ways to Create Your Own Pantry

While we may all dream of a spacious walk-in pantry with rows and rows of carefully organized spices and baking supplies, for most of us pantries are a luxury we simply do not have — at least in the traditional sense. Whether you’re a condo dweller, an apartment resident, or you’ve recently moved into a new space that lacks a formal pantry, making room for your food is no problem with these beautiful and clever storage solutions.

Arranged creatively, your dry goods can become a part of your overall decor, so no need to shy away from open shelving. Elsie Larson’s spices and dry goods above camouflage so well into her shelves that they are hard to pick out. Ensuring your jars and containers fit in with the overall color scheme of your kitchen and the items on your shelves and countertops will have everything working together in harmony.

Your pantry does not need to be built in and there are many different options when it comes to reimagining a piece of freestanding furniture. As seen above in Melissa and Sonny’s home, a formal hutch, or a credenza can double as a pantry with some simple modifications. A quick Craigstlist/Kijiji hunt, a can of paint, and a bit of elbow grease and you’ll have a space for all your pasta and canned foods. (And even MORE space for things like cookbooks, cutlery and linens using the drawer space!)

Get out of the “kitchen” section online and start searching for other options. Perhaps your best bet is to hack a wardrobe into a pantry? In the example above- Brittany Makes hacked a simple IKEA PAX wardrobe into a fabulous looking custom built-in pantry. A coat of Cyberspace paint by Sherwin-Williams, and the addition of some sophisticated brass pulls, and you would never know this pantry wasn’t already built in.

If you’ve got the space, you can always add in a kitchen island, and dedicate some shelf real estate to pantry-related items. Have your most commonly used items at the ready for simple convenience, like your favorite spices and sugars. The image above is actually from my own kitchen. The island is IKEA’s STENSTORP.