I wanted to share my mini kitchen pantry makeover with all of you, because I just can’t contain my excitement. Above, you can see a little diagram of my mini-kitchen. It’s homey and cozy and the size of a postage stamp. Which means that storage is a problem. And see that pot rack that hangs into the walkway? Also a problem.
Enter this handsome fella.
After a decade, and a few dozen whacks to the head by the aforementioned pot rack, he agreed to help me swap some things around in my kitchen. My vision was that the pots could go in the cabinet over the stove, where my spices currently live. And the spices and storage jars in my cabinet would be out of reach of a certain small Viking that lives here if they were up on a canning shelf along that long stretch of wall that is currently sort of useless.
SO he built THIS for me!
I’ve always had a thing for glass jars, and vintage tins. So now I can enjoy looking at all of my lovely jars and can easily find exactly what I’m looking for and take a quick visual stock of what I’m low on. This has REVOLUTIONIZED my relationship with the cabinet where all of this was stored. 
A quick tour: lemon muffin in a mug mix, sea salt jar, erythritol in a vintage french sugar canister, oat fiber, coconut flour, almond flour… 
Mama’s treat jar, chocolate mudslide muffin in a mug mastermix, vanilla extract, and a couple of big jars of beans & brown rice. Some of these items get used weekly, and some I use very rarely. But I love being able to see all of my baking and ingredient possibilities.
See that cute plaque next to the oat flour jar below? It’s one that my daughter made in VBS last year. I loved it, so I glued it to the side of one of those cheap photo storage boxes from Michaels, and filled it with an assortment of teas. So now it’s my tea box. I should do a tutorial on how to make a decorative box too. 🙂
What you don’t see is my spices. For one thing, the jars took up most of the space. And for another, the shelf was just not going to be a good solution for little spice jars, since there would be so many of them all crammed and layered up there and it would be hard to see what I was looking for. *sigh*
But this is not where the makeover ends! Really, the best part is next.
My Spice Rack Solution
A few weeks ago, I went shopping with my daughter to pick up some last minute gifts. We saw a lovely old looking wall cabinet at Tuesday Morning, but alas. It had a sign taped to it to hold it for pickup later that day. We admired it anyway.
A week later, she and her Daddy went out to shop for a gift for me. She grabbed a couple of things that she knew I would like and turned around to find her Dad staring at THE cabinet. It was still there! She said, “Dad, Mom LOVED that!”
“What would she use it for?”
“I think she said spices or craft stuff.”
“Sold. Let’s go.” (My man doesn’t love to shop and browse…so he was delighted to get it over with that easily.)
And this is what I unwrapped a few days later (Amazon affiliate link):
*swoon*
Technically it’s some sort of reproduction mail sorting deal like an old hotel would have had. But in my life, it’s the coolest spice rack EVER.
It’s made of cedar and has tin drawers, and little tin label holders. Each cubby can hold 3-5 normal sized spice or herb jars, so I can sort them (poultry spices, sweet spices, blends, hot & feisty…) and see exactly what I have without digging. Which is to say: I am in love.
And with this piece finally in place, I was able to move ALL of my spices out of the cabinet over my stove. Which, by the way, is the WORST place to keep spices, because they are heat and light sensitive.
My pots & pans now happily live right over the stove, where they’re easy to grab, and I get to enjoy and admire the loveliness of my mini kitchen pantry makeover. And the brain banging pot rack is now gone. Here’s a little visual of my NEW postage stamp kitchen. 
SO much better.
Thank you my darling!
What’s your favorite thing about my little makeover? What would you do differently?
I love THE Cabinet. He was so clever to take your daughter with him!
So good to organize like you have- it would make me want to cook!
The daughter to shop deal is definitely working in my favor now! 🙂
Love the cabinet and your small kitchen! Looks so cozy and inviting. Thanks for sharing Gwen!
Thanks Sheri! 🙂
GWEN! I LOVE IT! What a great gift! It is absolutely beautiful…. Love the stud finding pic’s too! LOL!
Hahaha! I wonder how amused he is by my cleverness. 😉
Your kitchen looks so great!!! What a great idea about the cabinet for your spices.
Thank you, Angela. 🙂
Cute kitchen! love the color and the cool vintage things. I hope to someday have all my thm things in a readily reached and easy to see what i have in stock for now a list needs to do. thanks for the great post
I’ve loved having everything in sight and easy reach!
What a great cabinet! We also have a small kitchen and organization is key!
for SURE! And small kitchens are quicker to mop. 🙂 The upside.
Terrific Makeover! I just love the “spice cabinet”. BTW, you have been such an inspiration to me during my THM journey. I made your Chocolate Covered Cherry shake/smoothie last week and it was absolutely the BOMB! I made the S version and had it for breakfast and took the leftovers with me since I was going to be gone till suppertime. WOW! I was so full all day long from that one smoothie–plus, every time I took a sip, I really got the taste of cherry and chocolate–I felt so decadent! Thank you so so much for all your work and support on the THM front.
Oh, I LOVE hearing these happy success stories, Patty! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
You’re right, that is the coolest spice rack ever! I’d love to find something like that myself. 🙂
Thank you for featuring my Top 10 Posts of 2013! I LOVE your new spice cabinet.
I really loved that post: tips AND recipes! Right up my alley. 🙂 ♥
I would have swooned as well….it is beautiful!!! I love how you labeled your final kitchen diagram… lol “Awesome canning shelf” “BEST spice rack EVER” lol WHich, I have to absolutely agree with… 😉
Agreed! The spice rack is very cool! I love the idea of being able to sort them by type! I have two shelves of spices and I kinda do that: savory and sweet (garlic and onion powder, pepper, etc and cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice. etc). Happy for you!
The sorting thing makes me ridiculously happy!
love the makeover…love the new cabinet and all the jars too…. I have an actual pantry but it is in dire need of organization
I dream of owning a real pantry one day. 🙂
Love your kitchen and your vintage style! Someday I wanna go thrifting and Tuesday-Morning-ing with you!!
I would LOVE to!
I love your spice rack…what a clever idea! I enjoy your site sooo much! It’s like “you’re real”…like me! Small kitchen, big plans:) I wasn’t able to open the chocolate peanut butter pudding above and it looks like something I need to try!
I’ll check the link on that one. Thank you for letting me know!
Love it. All of it. And my kitchen is that color. 🙂
I LOVE this color!
I love the color of your kitchen. That’s such a pretty shade of blue. Your husband did a great job.
Thank you, Sara!
It looks so homey, what a great idea!
Thank you! I am really enjoying it. It’s slightly ‘busy’, but very practical. 🙂
The stevia to go looks like a little container of cocaine (lol), but a really great idea! I looove the cabinets and the shelves for your jars. I’m feeling getty about a mini- makeover now too! Great ideas, I just love the rustic coziness:)
Love it!
I, too, have a postage stamp kitchen, and I’ve been trying to come up with a creative way to make a place for all my THM stuff. My cabinets are FULL, so that’s not an option. You’ve given me some ideas. Thanks!