My elegant laundry room/butler's pantry is complete!
I'm am thrilled with the finished product. And especially proud that this has made such a huge impact on the house and didn't cost a lot. In fact, it was 1/4 the cost of the last contractor's estimate thanks to IKEA.
Now I don't mind with people cut through from the kitchen to our sunroom. Notice Digby cutting through.
My vintage venetian glass chandelier that I found at the Georgetown flea market for only $80 is the perfect size and color for this room.
I've seen similar new styles for over $500.
Turning it into a pantry makes it way more roomy and functional. My trick for saving A LOT of money and making more room was to use IKEA Billy bookcases with doors instead of kitchen cabinets. The color of the bookshelves is a perfect match with my kitchen cabinets and the bookcase depth of 15 inches gives me organization with out taking up a lot of room. There are a lot of inexpensive options to go with the Billy bookcase. They have several different door options. I chose this one with the top glass and bottom panel so I could see the pretty things and hide the ugly stuff.
Another option with the Billy bookcase is to add glass shelves which are only $10 each.
I added the glass shelves and lighting.
I love that I can see and enjoy my china, crystal and milk glass collections. I know I'm a geek, but I like to keep those lights on when I'm in the sunroom at night because I think it looks so pretty. I have to "style" all the shelves still, but already I know that I'll be using what I have in there more now that I can see and access everything easily.
My big splurge was my drawer cabinet with a granite top. The absolute black granite is what we have in the kitchen and I really felt like I had to do it in here to make it feel consistent and like a continuation of the kitchen.
The cabinet is actually a stock bathroom cabinet from Home Depot. I really wanted drawers for my napkins and candles and runners etc. And, I needed a place to put things that I would be taking out of the cabinets. This cabinet was unpainted and was the right width. It was too deep though. So, I had it cut down in the back. The hardware is the Martha Stewart line for Home Depot.
I think that I'll stay on top of laundry better now that this is a functional and accessible room to do it in. I'm still going to put up a curtain to hide the laundry area--don't know when I'll get to that.
For some reason this swing arm towel bar (also from Ikea) is getting a lot of oohs and aaahs from my friends and family. This is for air drying things. It tucks away when not in use.
So, let's compare the before and after
Before & Before with all the stuff in it
Same view with stuff AFTER
Before and what it really looked like