Kitchen Pantry

When we bought our house in 2014, there was a lot of remodeling to be done. In addition to new floors, demoing walls and painting, I discovered we needed a kitchen pantry. I decided to build a free standing pantry for now until we could redo the utilities closet into a more permanent food pantry.

I found the perfect solution on Ana White’s website. If you have never checked out her site, now is the time! She has so many amazing free plans and ideas for DIYing your own furniture. I made some adjustments to this plan for a Jelly Cupboard to fit my idea for a kitchen pantry.

The original plans call for the height to be only 48″ tall and only 4 shelves total. I obviously needed more space so I adjusted the height to 83″ and added 2 more shelves for a total of 6. I had to change my wood shopping list accordingly.

What you need

• 3 ~ 1″ x 12″ x 8′
• 2 ~ 1″ x 10″ x 8′
• 8 ~ 1″ x 3″ x 8′
• 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood or beadboard backing
• Chicken Wire
• Handles and Hinges
• Miter saw
• Jigsaw
• Kreg Jig
• Staple gun
• Nail gun

Frame and Shelves

First, cut your wood. Use the 1″ x 12″ boards for the pantry frame. I cut mine 83″ for the sides, 35″ for the top and 32″ for the bottom shelf. Attach the frame together using a Kreg Jig. If you need a reminder of how to use a Kreg Jig, check out my post on Easy DIY Step Stool.

After the frame is together, start putting those shelves on. I cut 5 shelves out of my 1″ x 10″ boards at 32″ long. Use the Kreg Jig to attach them to the frame on each side. I didn’t space my shelves evenly, as you can see, because I wanted a really tall one for cereal boxes and a short one for cans. Think about what will be going on those shelves so there is no wasted space.

Backing and Face Frame

Once all the shelves are attached, put the backing on. You can use beadboard or 1/4″ plywood for this. It just depends on the look you want. I first put on this white classic beadboard, but decided to use a white wash wood looking beadboard instead. Its okay if you change your mind about something halfway through; that’s the great thing about building it yourself! Cut the board to the size of your frame and use a nail gun ( like my Ryobi Nail Gun) to easily nail the back on.

Now its time to put a face frame on. This is made of 1″ x 3″ boards and goes on the front of pantry. This is what we will attach the doors to. I cut my boards at 33.5″ for the top and 80.5″ for the sides. I also used my Jigsaw to cut a small angle accent at the bottom of the side boards for a “leg” look. Attach the face frame boards to the frame of the pantry with a nail gun, keeping the edges flush.

Paint or Stain

The main part of the kitchen pantry is done! Now is a good time to paint or stain. I wanted a country look so I painted mine white.

Doors

The doors are easy to build and are basically rectangle frames held together using the Kreg Jig. The measurements I used for cutting my 1″ x 3″ boards were 72.5″ and 14″. Keep your screws on the inside of the doors for a more flush look. Paint or stain your door frames.

If the measurements confuse you, don’t worry! When you are changing existing plans, do your best to estimate how much wood you need and then measure as you go along to make sure everything will fit.

Now carefully cut your chicken wire the size of the door frames. Make sure you use sharp wire cutters and wear thick gloves! Attach the chicken wire to the inside of the door frames with a staple gun.

Here comes the fun part, attaching your hardware! I picked out these awesome hinges from Amazon. And found matching door pulls, too!

And there you have it! A wonderful customized kitchen pantry that is pretty enough to display! I decided to line my shelves with a rustic wood looking contact paper.

Well it’s been 5 years and we still haven’t gotten around to converting that closet into a pantry. I’m so glad I built this kitchen pantry and it has held up really well over the years. Don’t be intimated by plans and measurements! If you have a vision of something you want, go for it!