Transformation Tuesday #54: Kitchen Pantry Catch-All

It's been a minute since I've posted some transformations and these next few weeks, I'll be sharing some of my favorites!

I had the opportunity to collaborate with my friend, Krista Kenner, and work on her family's catch-all pantry in their beautiful cliffside treehouse in Bellingham.

We had been chatting earlier this year, sharing ideas on what has been helpful in building our businesses when we decided to collaborate on one of her own spaces. Krista's in the business of helping people get into the right home. I'm in the business of helping people streamline and love their home. Her New Year's resolution was to get more organized. Yet once again, she found herself unorganized in February and was ready to get the help of a professional to get started. We knew this was going to be a fun exercise!

Before I arrived, we talked about what she wanted for this pantry and she sent some pictures so I could see what I would be working with. She described it as a catch-all closet. It's a great, huge space - most people would kill for a central closet like this in their home! Yet it was filled to the brim, with no system to keep things in their place, it mostly just stressed her out. 

The first step to every project is to clear out the space. We completely emptied it, spreading everything out on the kitchen table, island, and floor, leaving some walkways to navigate around the piles. We categorized everything, quickly identifying what needed to be easily accessible like the everyday items of snacks, paper goods, cleaning products and supplies. Some of the less frequently used items stayed up high like vases, platters, staging materials, and gift wrap.

Krista was so ready to edit down this closet's contents. As we sorted and organized, she was able to see shelves open up with more white space around what would be going back in. When you are in that mindset of simplifying, many of the decisions are easier to make. We talked about the difference between doing it on your own and bringing in support to work through it. In her own words:

"Having a plan, and the experience behind tackling a project like this, was super helpful. I tend to just stare at a mess, get stressed out, and walk away thinking 'I'll deal with this later." But having someone who was like "First we're going to do this, then this, then this," was extremely helpful. Because once we got started, we were on a roll and it was pretty simple."

Since we refreshed this space, she says she has gained confidence that to tackle other unorganized parts of the house. She used the same approach on her daughter's bedroom, which is turning into a play space now that her daughter is sharing a room with her older sister. Krista took everything out of the space - old toys, clothes, stuffed animals, baby stuff - and went through it all before it went back in. She got rid of a LOT of stuff. She now has an organized blank slate in which to reimagine, and is focused on making it a really usable space for the girls.

I loved every minute of this project! Plus, we had a couple of helpers who decided to pose for the camera :)

Not only did we have a beautiful space and plenty of storage to work with, Krista was excited to make the change in streamlining her home and we had it all documented by the one and only Ted Zee. Check out more pictures here in my new-and-improved project gallery. 

If you want to keep up on real estate trends in news in the Bellingham area, check out Krista's blog and follow her adventures on Instagram.