DIY Pantry on a Budget

If you’re anything like me, keeping up with organization is key to staying consistent with routines in your life. If you’re exactly like me, then organization is something that gets put aside and you’re left scrambling in the morning trying to get you and the kids out the door.

Little by little, I have been trying to organize different parts of our home to make things easier and less time-consuming. I have spent timeless hours scouring the web for the perfect furniture piece, organization bins and baskets, or cabinets to make my life easier to organize.

Between not finding exactly what I’m looking for or the prices not fitting my budget, I turned to designing and building my own. The pantry was one of the biggest dysfunctional sections of the house. I have a very small kitchen and not enough cupboard space, so I bought this four-door cabinet years ago.

I know, I know…It’s a total disaster.

I contemplated building a freestanding cabinet, but who was I kidding. My house was built in 1901.There is not a level surface in the entire house. You will see what I mean in pictures. I learned that when I laid the tile for my floors. The cabinet would be leaning one way or the other and it probably wouldn’t fit my needs exactly how I wanted them.

The solution? Build a floor to ceiling pantry that fits all of my needs!

I started with measuring the area where I would like to have my pantry. I needed to leave enough space for my husky’s food and water bowl since this is his eating area. I also wanted a little space so I could hang things on the side of the panty such as a calendar without knocking them down every time I walk in the living room.

I decided to build the pantry from floor to ceiling. That way there would be the pantry section and then an additional storage area for things like bulk paper towels, unused appliances, etc.

I purchased all the lumber and hardware at Lowe’s. The door came from Facebook marketplace and it even came with the built-in door rack. I also have an awesome tool kit that stays in the house. It’s all pink so I know it will stay in the house. Link for the tool kit is at the end of this post.

The space ended up being 28 inches wide by 96 inches high and 18 inches deep. Not a huge walk-in pantry but it serves its purpose well in our household.

Here is a list of all the products I used:

• Frame- 2x3x96 whitewood studs
  • All wood was purchased at Lowe’s
• Shelf Supports- 1x2x8 whitewood
• Shelves- 1x10x8 whitewood
• Outer Walls- 1x4x8 whitewood
• 3-inch Drywall Screws Found here
• Standard 3-inch Black Door Hinges Found here
• 4-inch Strap Hinges Found here
• Standard Matte Black Closet Doorknob Found here
• White Paint- purchased at Lowe’s
• See my organization posts to get the link to the storage containers.

Now I can’t cut a straight line to save my life so, I recruited my boyfriend to help with the cutting and framing. Although, my crooked cuts and frame may have just gone along with the rest of the crooked house. You can see just what I was talking about with my house being unlevel in the first picture above. The frame is 100% level, but you can see the gap towards the top where that one wall is not level.

The walls are my favorite part. I took 1x4s and measured out every single piece to fit. That was my boyfriend’s least favorite part! I finished up with one coat of white flat paint and used a stiff brush to make it have an old barn texture looks to it. I added this Pantry Sign I found on Amazon. Sign is in the first picture on this post.

Yes, I know, the top cupboard is crooked. I’m going to fix that one day. I never said it was perfect. If you actually see it in real life, you’d probably notice all kinds of flaws. That’s what makes it so unique and mine!

This all took a couple of weekends to complete. We built it one weekend and then finished it by securing the shelves and painting. Cost overall was only around $125.

Be sure to follow me to see what other projects I’ve come up with.