From the “Love the Home You Have” series:

Maximizing Your Small Spaces

Like most home buyers these days, we were looking for an open-concept home. So when we renovated our newly-purchased midcentury gem, we took out most of the cabinets that were closing in the kitchen. The result was a beautifully open space where the kids can play next to us in the family room while we cook, and guests can sit at the counter jabbering while we finish up those last touches on dinner. 

The downside to all this magic? Where to store all of our food…

We’ve been using the garage as a make-shift pantry for  years now. It’s been on our to-do list to find a better solution, but you know how life is - other things rose to the top of the list. We had imagined it would be an expensive renovation. When we realized the solution could be as simple as a <$200 shelf setup from Ikea, we hit the ground running. 

We traded the door - which admittedly cuts out laundry noise while watching tv - for more shelf space. Totally worth it! Now that the space was open to the rest of the house, we got to work making it more pleasing to the eye, with new luxury vinyl flooring, an updated light fixture, and upgraded baskets (thanks Home Goods!). I brought a piece of the Ikea shelving to the paint store, where they matched the color for a more built-in look.  (my fav is Sherwin Williams where we never pay full price because their paint is on sale more often than it isn’t). 

The result of this small space renovation has felt fairly epic. Having all of our food in the same place allows us to keep track of what we have. It makes dinner planning a breeze, requiring only a brief glance at the pantry instead of digging through deep shelves and baskets full of mystery snacks. We’ve cut down on overbuying because there aren’t multiple cans of tomatoes hiding behind a Costco-sized stash of mac and cheese. 

The thought of a larger kitchen with more storage space will always be enticing to us. But in the end, we love our little home - even more so now that we’ve created a new way for it to work for our family. 

Where could you be maximizing small spaces in your home to create more spaciousness? Want some help brainstorming? Don’t hesitate to reach out!