Country Style Kitchen and Pantry Storage Reveal

Since moving to the farmhouse three years ago, I’ve been coveting a butler’s pantry that’s streamlined, matching, and organised. While the butler’s pantry has become a reality, our current kitchen and pantry storage is a mish-mash of items collected over the years. Some came back from WA with us. Others were used as storage in other parts of the house.

I love the look of glass storage and we had quite a lot already. The problem was none of it matched. This made the pantry look messy and disorganised. Many items were still in their boxes so I could never see what I was running out of unless I looked inside. A lot of the space was wasted because the jars were too short.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve updated the containers, added labels, and generally made the pantry look more beautiful and more functional. Because the shelving of the pantry is open to the rest of the area it was particularly important to me to have it looking neat and well presented.

The History of me as Cook

The history of me, as someone who likes to cook, is short and sweet. As a busy mother of two who worked full time and was a single parent for two-week stints, I became the queen of the fifteen-minute dinner. I didn’t have time to fuss with fancy. Our dinner prep went something like this. . .

(Driving home from school with kids)

Me: What do you want for dinner?

Kids from back of car: Anything

Me: Tell me and I’ll make it.

Kids: spaghetti bolognese and veggies

Which would then involve me swinging into the very expensive little fresh food market where the carrots were prepared for cooking and grabbing ingredients.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking when we have visitors and I have the luxury of time. It’s just that I didn’t have this luxury often back then so our pantry was never anything to brag about. Mostly I would buy things as I needed them. It was a mess in our pantry, and every now and then the cleaning lady would feel sorry for me and reorganise it. You can imagine how long that lasted with teenage children who ate all day long.

Fast forward to our moving to the farm. Being empty nesters and now with a kitchen I love, I’ve become more interested in cooking and baking. It’s only fitting then, that I move past the compilation of crap I call my pantry and into the world of the country cook in the making. (ha). You can see (above) how much of a challenge this might be. No Insta beauty there.

What I Chose for Our Kitchen and Pantry Storage

1. Chunky Glass Canisters

It was a no-brainer. I love the look of those chunky glass canisters that have been all over Instagram for a while. The only snag was the fact that they can be VERY expensive. Especially as I wanted to ditch the old canisters and have everything matching.

After much googling, I discovered that both Spotlight and Kmart sell the style of canister I was after. And the price was a steal. $10 for the largest, $6 for the medium, and $4 for the small. These canisters come in three sizes which fit perfectly on our shelves. They are tall and fill up most of the space, maximizing storage too.

2. Spice Jars

Before the reorganisation of the panty, our spices were in two baskets. The bottles used to fall over all the time. Gavin never put them back where they belonged. We use a lot of spices in cooking so there was a need to have these better organised and visible.

For the new kitchen and pantry storage, I looked for small jars. The jars I chose, also from Kmart, come in sets of eight at a cost $5 for a set. I bought two sets plus a stepped bamboo riser to make it easier to see what is in each bottle.

The spices are now housed next to the stove for ease of use. We are loving having them right on hand. The labels I made were too large for these jars. ( Yes, I guessed the size.) So I’ve used a permanant marker and wirtten what is in each bottle on the bottom where it can’t be seen.

3. Using Scoops as Part of the Kitchen and Pantry Storage

This is a new idea for me. Until now I’ve used measuring cups or poured out what I needed. You can imagine the mess. I found this set of six little brass scoops at Temple and Webster. They are the perfect size for the smaller jars like sugar or coconut. For the bigger jars I popped a willow pattern cup into each to serve as a scoop. I had three of these cups in the drawer that had no saucers. They look sweet in the glass canisters and serve a purpose too.

4. Bamboo Boxes and Foldable Shelves

These were a great addition and I’m going to buy more. The bamboo boxes in the bottom corner of the image are perfect for potatoes and onions and can be stacked. I bought two to see if they would do the job but will go back for more now as they would look great and be good for other dried or storage-type goods. The little foldable shelf above is the right size for jars of jam, chutney, and honey storage. We are down to our last jars now and I intend to make a lot more this year.

Reusing Some Storage Items

As I said earlier in this post, I wanted to get rid of most of the items that did not match. But what did I keep?

• I reused the old baskets I’ve had for years. They are great at hiding pantry items you don’t want to see. I may end up labelling these too so I know what is inside
• I bought some canisters with cork lids a year or so back. These are a nice shape and size, so I’ve kept them and put them to the side of the shelves
• I’ve decanted our olive oil and vinegar into Ikea water bottles I’ve had for a long time and rarely use.
• My large vintage canisters on the bottom shelf have stayed. Gavin bought these for my last birthday. While they are way too large to story flour and sugar (we would NEVER use that much) they are great for dry dog food, powdered lamb milk and washing powder! I love how someone a long time ago wrote the letters S.R. over one flour canister to show which was Self Raising!

Labels For the Storage

The last thing I did was to make labels for each of the jars. I’ve never been much of a labeler either but I thought new canisters deserved a little extra, so I designed a set of labels on Canva. Mostly because the ones I found on Etsy were either way too expensive or ugly. (Sorry if you are a label maker on Etsy). Then I ordered sticker paper and printed the labels. You can find out more about how I made these labels HERE. It’s a very easy process.