Broom closet to pantry conversion: $100 Room Challenge

Hi guys!  I am so excited to be sharing our broom closet to pantry conversion for this round of the $100 Room Challenge, hosted by Erin of Lemons, Lavender, and Laundry! 

This is the second time I’ve participated in the $100 Room Challenge- if you’re interested, check out the first space I did, our laundry/half bath: 

I’m also a little bit nervous to share these before pictures with you.  Cause they’re bad, y’all.  

This little broom closet is in our mudroom, and the outside of it is deceptively cute:

But the inside is a different story.  Okay, deep breaths. Someone pass a paper bag in case I hyperventilate. 

Yikes.  Proof that if you ever feel bad about yourself after seeing all of those Pinterest-perfect photos, nothing is ever quite what it seems ?

We’ve never used this broom closet effectively.  I added the bar in the front for hanging coats not long after we moved in so we could use it more as a coat closet, but you can probably guess how often the boys actually hung their jackets up in there (they do much better with the hooks in the mudroom).  The broom hanger in the back of the closet was put there by the previous homeowners, but as you can see we never used it either.   

We mostly just toss stuff in there and walk away. 

Then there’s this: 

Neither Michael nor I have any idea what that pipe is for.  There isn’t a water source behind that wall.  We use it to put stuff on now.  And, notice that old phone line?  It’s dead now, but the old homeowners added that hook to raise the line off of the floor.  It is literally a dead-phone-line-raising-hook. 

In other weirdness, for some reason the actual height of this little closet goes up about two extra feet beyond the height of the door.  So…teeny tiny door masking a regular sized closet. 

In short, this is the most dysfunctional broom closet ever.  And all of the weirdness has kept me from really tackling this space until now.   

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know my feverish dream is to somehow dig up enough storage in my kitchen to allow me to remove my upper kitchen cabinets.  I’ve had turning this broom closet into a kitchen pantry on my mind for awhile now.  It’s just right outside of our kitchen, so not a bad location for a pantry, and I think it would be a much better use of the space.  

Broom closet to pantry conversion: the plans

First on the list: a good cleanup.  Then, finishing off the inside space with caulk, trim, and paint.  I’m planning to paint it white and add a super easy, and free, treatment to look like shiplap.  I’ll add some simple wooden shelves, and finally, probably blow the bulk of my $100 budget on storage items like baskets.  

Stuff I won’t be tackling- the pipe and extending the door.  It just isn’t in the timeline, or budget, right now, but I’ll get to it eventually.   For now, I’m not going to let it stand in the way of making that space work for us ?

For once, the end result of a project I’m working on will focus just as much on function than form.  Is that even possible? 

Be sure to follow the rest of the talented bloggers participating in the $100 Room Challenge in the link up, below! And thanks Erin, once again, for hosting this fun challenge!