While "redeveloping" the kitchen, we went ahead and developed a new pantry space. This was something we had planned to do eventually but not necessarily at the same time as the kitchen. Since one thing leads to another, we didn't really want to lay new flooring until the new pantry space was done. Because we wanted this all to end, we decided to jump on in and get'er done. Building a new pantry space also meant repositioning the HVAC intake vent. That was a task I was really dreading to undertake. However, this particular project ended up being a piece of cake, not as difficult as I had expected. I moved the vent all by myself and it was surprisingly easy!
Here is part of the original space where the new pantry is. It served as our "kitchen" throughout most of the remodel. Yes, a microwave, toast and chocolate milk were staples there for awhile! :-) This part of the original space had a buffet-banquet-like space with about five drawers. It was really terrific...if you had 142 placemats, tablecloths, and 14 sets of silverware you needed to store. Needless to say, it appeared pretty useless to us. We had better plans for this cubby. I was able to yank it out in it's entirety and may use it in the garage for something.
To the left of the cubby (above) was our old pantry.
Really, it was a 2x3 closet we turned into a pantry by adding shelves.
By removing the cubby drawers and demolishing the existing pantry closet,
we gained about a 3x6 amount of space.
This is the HVAC air intake that used to be located directly above where the microwave sat in that cubby. I was able to remove one piece of ducting at the seams allowing it to rest perfectly where I needed it to. Look profesh, right?!
Here are the beginnings of the MDF shelves and pine supports.
After some research, I learned how wonderful MDF can be...notwithstanding certain parameters. This particular project required that the MDF shelves to have some additional support. Oh darn, time for a new
toy tool! I found this dowel jig at Harbor Freight (which is like the Dollar Tree of Home Depot). FYI - This exact same "jig" was nearly 3x the price at Sears. EXACT.SAME.JIG. Just sayin'. What this allowed me to do was to add those little dowel-and-hole siteeeations you come across when you buy do-it-yourself furniture. I felt pretty cool having the capability to do this on my own! How cool is that?
Anywho, here's a piece of the process...
...and here is the finished product after tending to the "certain parameters" part as mentioned above. I had to add addition strips of wood in the corners and front for support. I'm pretty sure these shelves aren't going anywhere anytime soon! :-)
Voila! It's the the biggest pantry you've ever seen. However, it is about three times bigger than the original. It feels so good to have everything all organized and siteeeated.
