Have you been watching the Hoarders TV show on A&E lately? It really motivates you to clean up and clean out doesn’t it? That is how I felt about my pantry. It was a mess and so unorganized it drove me crazy! These pictures are embarrassing and I can not believe I am showing you them, but I am so proud of the end result it just wouldn’t be the same if you hadn’t seen how it looked before. 
I thought that the producer of Hoarders might be calling me soon if I didn’t do something about it. 
You know how it is, so many things to do and so little time! I just put it on the back burner for that a some day project. A couple of bloggers got me inspired when I saw these posts
And this post
Aren’t those amazing! But I had other projects to complete before I started this one. Then…we had a visitor. A visitor you don’t want to see, the kind that are uninvited but show up anyway. I won’t show you any disgusting pictures, it wasn’t that bad, but it was enough to get me motivated to halt all other projects and get this pantry into tip top shape.
Since this is just a pantry, I decided this would be a good time to attempt something that I have been wanting to try. Putting fabric on the walls using starch.
I have heard of people doing this, but wanted to see how it really worked and if it was hard. They say that you can take it down easily when ever you want, and it doesn’t leave any marks on the walls. You can wash the fabric and re-use it for another project when you are done.
Of course if you know me, even just a little, or just cruise my blog, it won’t surprise you that I used a damask fabric print. And this one was such a pretty teal blue. It gave the room such a nice airy feeling. I used Behr paint that matched perfectly.
The actual process of putting the fabric on the walls with the starch wasn’t hard, but my pantry is a funny shape and the cabinets are deep, so it made it a little more challenging. Using starch on fabric is just like applying wallpapering. I used a brush to apply liquid starch on the wall and also on the back of the fabric. You put the fabric on the wall just as if you were wallpapering, matching your seams. I will say, the starch isn’t as sticky as wallpaper paste, so I would just use blue tape to hold the top edges while you smooth out the bottom half.
I even had to pull down a piece the next day when it was dry, and it came off very easily. It is truly a fun way to spruce up a space but not feel too committed. I wish I would of taken pictures during the process, but I pretty much was on a ladder the whole time, either painting or putting up fabric.
I choose not to put my baskets back up on the top shelf, I liked the view of the fabric better.
I used a coordinating fabric and chalk vinyl for labeling the pull out shelves. I just hope my family will read my labels and put everything where it needs to go, they have promised they will. I purchased various containers at Wal-Mart, Home Goods and The Container Store to organize the various foods on the shelves.
Much better don’t you think? I can not tell you how much expired stuff I threw away!
Oh and I couldn’t just put back this useful but boring gray dog food bin
So I gave it a make over too. I had just enough of the left over fabric to Mod Podge the fabric to the outside of the bin. I made a ruffle with a coordinating fabric {even though my dog is a male..shhh}. I wanted to mimic my labels but didn’t want to use the chalkboard fabric, so I sprayed chalk board paint on the lid and used a chalk paint pen to write “dog food”
Flows much better than that gray one don’t you think?
Here is a before
And the after
No more hoarder pantry. Thank goodness.
Now that I see that I actually have some open wall space, I think a pantry subway style sign is in order.
