Small Spaces: Mini Pantry

When you have a small space, you find a way to fill every nook and cranny. With the quest to find more usable space in the kitchen, we found another little nook that could be utilized. You may remember from our floor plan that there is a door in the kitchen that leads to the stairs to go to the basement. The door opens to a very small landing at the top and at first glance, it seemed too small to be usable for anything. But I was not put off! I knew I could squeeze something in that space!

mini pantry before

At first, all we had there was two bowls for our cat. Don’t you just love how she has to make her way into photos?! I guess she’s just wondering what I’m so interested in and has to see for herself :)

mini pantry work

After measuring the space, I realized shallow shelves would fit just perfectly there. We had about 10 inches from where the door swung open to the wall and so I bought 7″ x 24″ shelves at Ikea and they were perfect! I was so glad I didn’t have to do any trimming whatsoever!

mini pantry

I could have added one more shelf close to the floor but I had visions of our cat knocking everything off and watching as the items made their way down the flight of stairs. To be on the safe side, I just went with four shelves :)

mini pantry

And then the fun part, I got to fill them up with stuff! I mostly have baking items in here like flour and sugar and, of course, the cat food for our little buddy.

mini pantry

All usable space, is good space :) And the cat made her way into another photo…

mini pantry

The good thing is that I can reach all of the items on the shelves except for the top row. But the top row is mainly small appliances that we don’t use often and then I just get a stool.

Another small space utilized!! Now I’m on the hunt for more…