EASY DIY PANTRY SHELVES + PANTRY ORGANIZATION

Apr 12, 2021

 Two words: Pantry Organization. Those two words make me so incredibly happy, and I'm hoping that my easy DIY pantry shelves and pantry organization inspires you to take on the project and get organized! There's nothing better than a beautiful and functional space.



As we were building our home, the pantry was one thing in our kitchen that was non-negotiable. They had tried telling us that our model didn't include a pantry...well, ya girl needs a place to store all of her carbs, so you bet they added in my pantry. Also, it was in our original floor plan, so thankfully I kept every single paper I was given.

Anywhoo, all I've gotta say is I may be thankful for my pantry, but I hated the way it looked. I don't know whose idea it was to invent the horrible white metal shelves that are literally everywhere in my house, but we are not friends. See below for the awful before...


Please tell me you hate that shelving as much as I do. haha! I felt like everything was falling through the shelving, they bend, and they were starting to come unsecured from the wall, and that was not going to fly with me. So, I did what any DIY addict would do, and I ripped them out.


The brackets and nails that hold the shelves in place are the worst and have their own special place in hell. They're a pain to remove and they leave huge holes in the wall because they have two drywall anchors built into each bracket.


If you're ever building a home, tell your builder not to install them in closets, have them take the price out of your build, and install your own closet systems after you go to settlement. I would have saved hours in labor if they had not been installed.


I filled each hole of course, and because the brackets ripped some of the drywall, I really had to work my magic and patch, sand, re-patch, and sand again. Luckily any imperfections are going to be close to where the new shelves were going to be installed, but I still didn't want to see any remnants of builder-grade nonsense.


Next up, we painted the inside of the pantry. Originally, we were going to paint it a white color that I had used for another project, because hello, free paint, but I ended up hating how the bright white looked and we used it as a base coat and then painted it all Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray 7029. Agreeable Gray is the color we painted 90% of our home, and it is the perfect "greige" color. It's such a calming color to me, and it matches any home decor style.


So Mom-Brain kicked in full force, and I completely forgot to take any other progress photos, but it's a super easy DIY project. Let me walk you through what you need to do.

Note: Our pantry width was 22 inches, our depth of shelves is 20 inches, and our ceiling is 9 feet.

First up, grab shelves from IKEA. Don't waste your money buying wood from Lowe's. I love Lowe's--it's my favorite place after Target, but the quality wood you need with a finished edge is super expensive, and I'm about to blow your mind with this hack...Okay, grab these shelves from IKEA. They are $10 or less depending on the depth you need! I personally used the IVAR 12" Deep Shelf for the top shelf, and I used the IVAR 20" Deep Shelf for the other shelves. I wanted the top shelf to be a little shorter so that I could easily get things in and out since it's super close to the top of the door frame.


If you clicked on the link of the shelves above, you saw it doesn't have a straight edge since it's technically used in an IKEA shelving system. I used a circular saw to cut off the metal edge. I just propped the shelf on sawhorses, clamped it in place, drew a cut line with a pencil and straight edge (I used the edge of my level), and then cut them free-handed. After I cut off the edge, I measured to the length I needed, drew another line, cut to length, and voila, a custom shelf. Repeat for all of your shelves and make sure you sand the edges so it has a smooth edge again!

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Pro Tip: When you are choosing your shelves at IKEA, be picky! There were over 200 to choose from, so I went through 25-30 shelves to find my favorites. They all have different knotting, coloring, and marks, so I found the ones that best matched the look I was going for.


If you look inside the pantry, you see 1x2 boards. They come 8' long, and I cut them to a length just slightly shorter than the width of the shelf. There is one on each side for the shelf to rest on and make sure you screw them into a stud at both the front and back. We used 2.5" inch black screws so that it would go through the wood, drywall, and into the stud to hold the shelf securely. It's a simple concept but makes a huge impact.


Once all of the side supports were in and the shelves were installed, it was time to decorate and put back all of the food. I have always wanted a huge pantry with all glass and acrylic containers, but let's be honest, that's not real life, so, I found a realistic happy medium so that I could have my pretty pantry and it be functional at the same time.


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I used a mix of these storage and organization items:


I was able to use the clear plastic organizers to for oils and sprays, packets, and more. I put a large marjority of my random baking necessities in one that is hidden behind the Magnolia wire basket. I filled the wire basket with the rest of my baking goods. I took all of my individually wrapped snacks out of their boxes and organized them in the clear plastic organizers and of course, the cereal are in the OXO containers. I love, love them!

I filled the glass containers with pasta and grains--I love the way they look in them. The bottom shelf I saved for boxes or containers I didn't want opened or for food items that I wanted hidden. No one needs to see my three boxes of Cheeze It's. haha! On the floor, I used a wicker basket for our breads and any other random/large items. I also have a fire extinguisher in the corner for kitchen emergencies.


I am in love with our pantry. It was an easy DIY project and I am so happy to have been able to throw those old wire shelves in the trash. haha!

What do you think about that IKEA shelf hack?
Amazing, right?!

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