Small Pantry Closet Makeover

Before and after small pantry closet makeover. How to make a small closet into a functioning pantry on a budget and basic DIY skills. 

I finally am going to show you how I made over the small pantry closet right off my kitchen.  In my previous house I had a large double door pantry that fit everything from big bags of pet food, canned goods to paper products. It held everything I needed to buy from the supermarket and more.

I was a little spoiled by it and when we moved to the lake house, I missed having that large and highly organized pantry. I loved that I could open it up and see everything at a glance.

The problem with the lake house small pantry closet was that it only contained deep shelves that made finding anything that migrated to the back almost impossible. Plus, visually it was dark and dated with yellow plaid shelf paper.

As with everything I DIY, this makeover was very budget friendly. The most expensive item I needed to purchase was the solid wood door that replaced the bi-fold louvered door.

I even made a sign for the door to say “Pantry” to coordinate with the signs on the doors in the “hallway of darkness” that is just around the corner from this small pantry closet. 

• Here is the post on how I made the sign to look like a French enameled one.

Small Pantry Closet – BEFORE MAKEOVER

Here is how the pantry looked BEFORE – The small closet had a louvered door that I painted white the first year we lived in the house.

It worked, but was underperforming since the door itself could not hold any storage in the way of racks or shelves.

The inside shelves were well spaced, but the shelf paper was old and ripped. The wall paint inside was yellowed with age. I wanted clean, light and bright.

I looked into removing the existing shelves to add roll-out shelves, but that was too costly and I don’t have the carpentry skills to make them.

I also would have lost about 6″ of storage space on each side of each shelf as roll-outs could only be as wide as the door opening.

The inside of the closet is 12″ wider.  I came up with an easy and affordable option that I will explain further down in the post.

First up was painting the inside of the closet using Sherwin Williams Pure White in semi-gloss to lighten it up. I then removed the shelf paper and replaced it with white vinyl contact paper.

Replacing Bi-Fold Door with a Solid Door

Adding a Storage Rack to the Door

Next up was replacing the bi-fold louvered door with a solid wood 6-panel door. I painted it using the same paint I used to makeover my kitchen cabinets. A hollow 6-panel door would have been about $70 cheaper, but….

… the ClosetMaid wire door rack we were adding to the inside of the door, needed a solid door to hold the weight of the items that will be stored on it.

Adding the door rack also doubles the amount of food we can store in this small pantry.

I have linked to all the products I used for the makeover at the end of the post.

The wire door rack was very easy to install with screws on the new door. We did have to make one modification so it would fit the width of the door.

We had to cut one vertical rail that is screwed into the door so it would not be blocked by the doorknob. Once it was cut, we made sure the holes below the doorknob that hold the wire shelves were even with the vertical rail on the opposite side of the rack.

My plan was to add stick-on light strips that a reader had mentioned she used. I bought them, but where I wanted to place them to light up the entire closet, they didn’t allow the door to close. 

I was not too upset about this though since I was surprised to find after painting the walls inside and lining the shelves in white vinyl, the closet brightened up quite a bit.

Even with all the items stored inside the closet is quite bright now.

The shelves on the door rack can be easily moved and adjusted to your needs. I had to place each shelf on the door rack so that when the door is closed the bottom of each wire shelf is above the wood shelves in the closet.

Do You Need Large Pantry Ideas?

If you are serious about finding a way to store a whole lot of food in an organized way then you may find inspiration from the large pantry I created in my previous house.

You can find it here:  How to Make a Large Double Door Pantry

How I Organized My Small Pantry Closet

I mentioned earlier that I looked into adding roll-out shelves. I didn’t do this, but did find an alternative that I am happy with.

I used various sizes of clear organizing bins with handles to store similar items in. When I need something in one, I can simply slide the bin out. Also, since the bins are clear, it makes it easy to see what they hold.

To help me keep the bins organized, instead of labeling each bin, I decided to use clear shelf label holders. This way if I change the contents in one of the bins, I don’t have to remove a label on the bin.

Using the shelf label holders, the item labels can be simply moved, swapped out and re-sued.

The clear label holders will work on a standard shelf thickness of  7/8″.  My shelves were a tad bit thicker, but the holders still fit over the edges of the shelves with a little effort.

I reattached the two puck LED lights I had before. I figured since I had them, I would still use them, although since the makeover, I have not needed to turn them on since the white paint brighten the closet up quite a bit.

I also used the label holders on the edge of the canned goods shelf and placed one in front of each 3-tiered rack that holds each canned good item by category.

The tiered racks allow me to see even the items placed in the back of the pantry.

The shelf label holders can be moved or slid along the edge of a shelf where ever you want to place them. To remove one, you simply pull it off.

Below in the post I have two free printables of the labels I made to fit into the holders.

On the floor, I have two cardboard tubes where I stuff and store plastic supermarket bags. They come in handy at times. I have had the tubes for quite some time and even used them in the large pantry in my precious house.

They keep the bags neat, tidy and easy to retrieve. On top of the HVAC vent I placed foils and wraps.

The makeover did not take long to complete I did need Ed’s help to hang the door, but the rest of the makeover was simple DIY. Total cost was approx: $300.00. The solid wood door alone used up half of my budget.

Free Printable Pantry Labels to Fit Clear Shelf Label Holders:

Link to print: Clear Shelf Label Holder LABELS  – Filled In

Link to print: Clear Shelf Label Holder LABELS – BLANK

1. Print out either sheet of labels. One is blank that you can fill in yourself with a marker. The second sheet of labels has basic pantry items all ready filled in.
2. Cut labels out with scissors or paper cutter.
3. Place in label holder and place over the edge of shelf.

How to Make Labels for Wire Back of Door Shelves

For the wire shelves on the door rack I needed to use a different type if label.  What I found worked was a simple strip of paper with the name of the item written on.

supplies needed:

• Computer/Printer/Paper
• Self-Seal Laminating Pouches or sheets
• Scissors or paper cutter
• Small Brass/Silver Fasteners – found in the scrapbooking aisle in the craft store.

1. To make the wire door rack shelf labels, I simply typed out the list of item names I needed on my computer using Microsoft Word.  I left a space above and below each item name in my list as I was typing  them in to the document so that when I cut them out there was some extra white space on the top and bottom. I printed the sheet out and then used only the sticky side of a Self-Seal Laminating sheet to protect the paper.

2. To attach:  I marked the center of the rack with tape. I then found the center of a label strip and centered the label on the front of the wire shelf. I wrapped the ends of the label strip around the 4th wire from the center on each side.

3. On the label strip, I marked a dot where to place the silver fasteners. I removed the label strip from the shelf keeping the ends that wrapped around the wire, folded as I punched a hole in the ends of the label.  When I unfolded the ends, you will see two holes.

4. I placed the label strip back onto the shelf and attached with the fasteners by lining up the holes and placed a fastener in.

Products I Used (affiliate links) for Before and After Pantry Makeover:

• French Utility Clips
• Door Rack
• White Shelf Liner
• Wire 3-Tiered Shelf Racks
• Wall foil holders
• Clear Acrylic Refrigerator Bins – I used 3 different sizes. You can also buy these at Walmart.
• Clear Shelf Label Holder
• Schlage Bowery Doorknob
• Self-Seal Laminating Pouches

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