Ikea Pantry Hack

My First New House Project!

Check out my IKEA pantry hack! I was worried that when we bought our house, that there wouldn’t be any projects to undertake. But we hadn’t even been here a month and I was already working on my first project.

If you read my post about our new home  you know that one of my wish list items that we didn’t get was a PANTRY. If I had gotten my way, I would have the huge walk-in pantry of my dreams. But buying a house always requires compromises, and so, now I am left to fend for my own pantry 😉

Choices, Choices…

One of the factors in choosing a cupboard solution was that I wanted some display space, in addition to pantry space. So after much thought and some on line sleuthing I went with IKEA’s Billy Bookcase and Oxberg door combination. Which gives me both of those things. The Billy bookcases are 11” deep, which is deep enough for both a stack of dinner plates, and a box of cereal. My plan is to use the upper section with the glass doors for display of my favourite dishes and glasses. Also I’m a hobbit, so I prefer my dishes at a manageable height. and the bottom section will be my fabulous pantry. There is a LOT of room in there for canned goods, dry goods and maybe even some candy 🙂 Yeah, there’s always room for candy 🙂

I have to give credit where credit is due, it was Greg that came up with the plan for where this should go. I was saying that we didn’t have as much cupboard space as we did in the previous place. Although the layout of the kitchen is very similar, we have  a window in this kitchen, where we had about 3 additional cupboards in the condo. He pointed to the blank wall across from the kitchen and said “We could put cupboards over there” To which I replied “You are brilliant!!!” We have a very wide walkway beside the kitchen island, so losing 11″ won’t even be noticeable.

Shopping from Afar

The hardest part of this project for me is that I had to order online from IKEA and wait for delivery. Because the closest store to us, is an expensive ferry ride away, it’s more economical to order and wait for delivery. The waiting kills me!! If you are not near an IKEA, You can order one here

Once it finally arrived and I went to pick it up, I could barely fit it all in my truck. Here it is in my less than tidy garage… If you want to see some of my garage updates click here for my DIY workbench, Recycling station and here to see how I added some personal flair to my garage.

I am one of those people that really LOVES putting together IKEA furniture. Although, I think I may be in the minority here. At least they don’t give you extra pieces, like the LEGO Advent Calendar! The only piece that slowed me down a bit is that my baseboards are taller than the cutout in the back of the cabinet. So, I had to saw the cabinet. Happily this meant I got to use my new Ryobi circular saw that I got for Christmas!! Weeee. Unfortunately, I am not the most experienced carpenter, and my cuts were not perfect. Fortunately, most of these things can be remedied with caulking!:( I just need more practice. note to self to start cutting up more things around the house 😉

It’s all About the Similarities

I am very fortunate that the Billy bookcases are quite similar to my existing kitchen cabinetry. Which is really your standard builders grade cheap cabinets.

 

And here is the Billy/Oxberg combo:

We used the same Brushed Nickel Cabinet Pulls to help make them look like they belonged. I even let Greg assist, which I don’t always do, since I can be a bit of a control freak about my projects. But he does drill straighter than I do, and he is amazing at caulking, since he’s a plumber.

Next Steps

I am also planning on mimicking the trim that is on the top of the kitchen cabinets. It shouldn’t be too difficult, it’s basically a piece of melamine cut at a 45 degree angle, mounted on top of another piece of melamine, in an upside down “L” like this:

Lights

I intend to install lighting in the cabinets, with either Strip Lights or puck lights.  I can install the lights in the cabinets, but will need to bring in an electrician to do the wiring as there is no outlet on the wall. So this piece will have to wait for a bit.

Update

Did you read what I wrote above? I held off on lights for quite a while, because I was waiting to have an outlet installed. But you know what? you don’t need an outlet to have a light! I recently discovered these awesome lights that don’t need an outlet. They are so cool! They are compact, and come in a pack of 2, and can be recharged when needed. They attach super easily as they come with a metal plate to attach them to. Just use the double sided tape to attach the metal plate where you want your light to go, and  the lights attach magnetically. I put one in the front of each cabinet. They have a motion sensor setting, which is how I have them set. The first couple of times I walked by the cabinet and they turned on, I whooped! which scared the cat…AT first I was worried that they weren’t working, but they don’t come on in motion sensor mode if the lights in the room are bright. Greg now thinks we should ‘install’ these all over the house. Oh sure, NOW he’s on board!  I wish I had known about these lights about a year ago. But hey, I know now! Also, they are in the kitchen corridor near the fridge, so serve as a night-light when one of us gets up for a drink of water in the night. And they’re pretty affordable too, I suspect we’ll be buying more of these. I started out installing them further back toward the center of the cabinet, but I didn’t like that you could see them, So, I moved the up to the very front, aligned with the front edge of the cabinet. I LOVE these!!

More to Come!

And in true D9 fashion, I now think I need to add a finish to the back of the cabinet, similar to what I did here with my Billy bookcases that I used in my craft room. So maybe this project is not yet finished. Honestly, are they ever really finished?  Hang around, or pin this post cuz I’ll probably be updating this again soon

If you want to see all the AMAZING storage solutions that I came up with to keep my food tidy and organized check out this pantry organization post.

So here is my finished pantry cabinet. This was way cheaper than it would have been to install kitchen cabinetry here.  It was a great solution to my storage needs, and even gave me some additional display space. And you can do these anywhere, doesn’t just have to be in the kitchen. Maybe on either side of your fireplace or in the bedroom. An Ikea Billy Hack is such a great affordable storage solution.

 

Come check out how well I fared with the pantry organization

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