PANTRY | BEFORE & AFTER

Sometimes things need a little refresh... was our pantry a mess or what? And a scrap of chalkboard contact paper was just what I needed to get me motivated.

Little backstory, when we moved into our rental, we were pretty excited to find such a spacious pantry. It's very similar to the one we had in our last house. I was all excited to organize it and fill it with yummy ingredients. I envisioned covering the door with chalkboard paint for writing out grocery lists, and making the inside all neat and tidy. However, once we moved in and found that the drawers kept falling off the rails and dumping their contents everywhere, the motivation turned south.

We ended up just stashing things in there haphazardly, stopped pulling out the drawers all together, and low and behold, it turned into a hot mess. (surprise, surprise.) That mess certainly did not inspire anything good. However, it did result in awkward over-buying, hello three jars of dill weed. 

So despite my vision of a well organized pantry covered in chalkboard paint, none of that happened. 

Until one afternoon, when I found myself with an awkward sized piece of leftover chalkboard contact paper. I wondered if it would be enough to cover the drawer fronts, so I measured, remeasured and then just started cutting. Cause when inspiration strikes, I say just go with it.

After getting the pieces cut to size, I carefully applied them to the drawer fronts, making sure to line it up straight at the beginning and smooth out the surface as I peeled of the backing to keep those stupid bubbles at bay. I started by peeling back an inch or two of the backing, positioned it on one edge of the drawer - then checked to see if it was lined up well and then pulled the rest of the backing off slowly. Patience my friend, patience.

Then take a chalkboard pen and label the drawers accordingly. I've found that chalkboard pen is actually a bit difficult to wipe off. So for a project like this that is going to get touched, it is perfect because it won't get all smudged.

As for the wonky drawers... I very gently took the curved end of the hammer and bent the rails back in just a bit. Worked like a charm! Sure wish I would have figured that out sooner. 

I'm pretty happy I got this all cleaned up and organized, just in time for all the holiday cooking too. What about you guys? How do you keep your kitchen organized?

Supplies Used: chalkboard contact paper, chalkboard pen