From Great Beginnings
If tidying your pantry fills you with dread, take inspiration from Adelaide blogger Iryna Federico, who has taken organisation to the next level.
Her dream pantry, a veritable lolly shop in a cloud of pastel, has taken her two years to complete.
Iryna started designing the space “before the builder even broke ground” on their house.
“I had our builder remove any shelving and ended up with a blank room. I then found a local cabinetmaker here in Adelaide who brought my design to life,” she explained.
After spotting a pretty pastel pantry on Pinterest, Iryna decided she wanted her pantry to feel like a lolly shop. She started with a pink KitchenAid mixer and never looked back.
The pantry is ordered to perfection, using matching baskets and containers for a consistent look.
“I am a firm believer in using big baskets to organise my space,” she said.
“I hate clutter and I hate packaging even more.”
While Iryna’s pantry is filled with delectable ingredients and designer appliances, her storage solutions were mainly inexpensive.
She used Ikea’s Pluggis baskets to store most things in her pantry.
“They’re nice and deep which means I can hide all the ugly and messy packaging of items like chips and biscuits, and the space always looks tidy,” she said.
Iryna’s one splurge, however, was on Oxo Pop containers. “I love them because they are BPA free and completely clear – they seal really well and are very easy to clean.”
“Being fairly pricey individually, I bought mine in bulk sets from Costco and did a bunch of 50cent surveys to be able to justify the cost to myself,” she said.
Kmart was her other go-to source.
“I love Kmart for all their little organisation tools that make a nice addition to any space, in particular their three-tier shelves. They lift items from the back and make them easily reachable,” she said.
Iryna spray-paints many of her Kmart items to match her pastel colour theme, including the three-tier shelves which store all of her condiments, cans and cake decorating items.
She also hacked Kmart’s tilt jars by spray-painting them to match.
“Everyone is always very pleasantly surprised that you can get them from Kmart and they only cost $4 each,” she said.
“I also used the $3 hanging pots from Kmart’s garden section to store the pens and markers under my command centre, as well as the tube vase, which is where I keep my straws.”
Iryna’s best buy? Ikea’s $4 spice racks. “I painted those pink and added my cook books and cooking utensils and it really brought the whole space together,” she said.
Custom-designed labels completed the look.
“I ordered labels from Pretty.Little.Designs and they made everything look so neat and tidy. They’re completely dishwasher safe and are easy to apply and remove if anything were to ever change,” she said.
For more information about Iryna’s organization tips, head to her blog.
This article originally appeared on Better Homes and Gardens.
