Make Your Own Kitchen Pantry

I'm linking up this post to IHeart Organizing today.... and although the theme this week has been closets, I think that creating your own "closet" in the kitchen counts, don't you?

Welcome to all the IHeart Organizing readers!

Notice anything new?

 When we bought our home in August 2010, I loved the kitchen.  I blogged about some simple updates here, although there are still many more things to do.  One of the things I wished for was a pantry, but I didn't have one, and there was no space for one.  I felt so amazingly blessed to be in our new home, that I couldn't find any room to lament the fact that I had no pantry.

So, we stored all our food in the cabinets under and above the bar area.  The cabinets are spacious, well placed, and deep, but it wasn't a pantry.

"Pantry" storage above the bar... notice how we throw chips and other items we don't want the kids to eat up there!

Previous pantry storage.... food mixed with crockpot.  Nice!  

I was trying hard each week to meal plan based on what we already had, but the problem was that I had no idea what was in our pantry because I couldn't see it!

Is that a bottle of ketchup back there?

I was constantly coming home from the grocery store and realizing I had purchased something we already had, but I couldn't see!  Ugh.  Not good for the budget or the family morale.  

The "secret space" that is going to change  my kitchen!

This space between the wall and refrigerator was perfect to implement the roll-out pantry storage idea I found via IHeartOrganizing.  I showed it to my husband, he was excited, and we went to Lowe's.  We built this amazing piece in one night- maybe about 6 hours???  

Our new pantry pulls out perfectly between the fridge and wall

We made a few adjustments to the original plans we found, but it fits our needs perfectly.  With the casters, it measures 62.5" high and 9.5" wide.  

We have five total shelves, which measures 8" deep.  The 7/16" dowel rods help to make sure no cans of spaghetti sauce fall on the floor!

Eight inches deep is the perfect depth to hold many cans, boxes of cake mix, pasta, and baskets or storage containers.

We designed it to be this depth so that my canisters of flour, sugar, oats, etc could fit inside the new pantry.

I love that I was able to incorporate storage in baskets and canisters in this space. 

We used 2" non-swivel casters x 4.  It's important that they don't swivel so your pantry can only roll two ways- forwards and backwards.  :)

The long, modern handle was from Ikea.  You can find similar handles on Amazon (link below) if you don't live near an Ikea.  

I could go on an on about this project!  I'm not only amazed that it was so easy, but also the amount of space it has added.  Meal planning is so much easier now, too, since I can see everything I have on hand before heading to the store.  I almost forgot to mention the obvious- I chose to paint the back panel a bright pop of yellow!  It adds a little fun element to this hidden storage secret!

Here's a few helpful links:
Inspiration Post with Plans
IHeartOrganizing Post with more details
Brushed Nickel Hardware on Amazon
More photos of my kitchen

Anyone else out there without a pantry?  How do you survive? What organizing solutions have you found?