DIY, My Home

Pantry Makeover with Cutting Edge Stencils

Today I’m excited to share with you our most recent project – our pantry makeover! Nic and I had been wanting to give our pantry a custom makeover for months, and it feels so good to have it completed!

Thank you to Cutting Edge Stencils for providing the stenciling supplies for this pantry makeover!

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When we moved into our new house and started adding our personal touch (like the kitchen makeover!) Nic mentioned how he wanted to re-do our pantry. It had some builder grade wire shelves, and didn’t have enough room for our family of 6. We couldn’t even fit a large family sized box of cereal on the shelves!

Pantry Makeover with Cutting Edge Stencils

After doing some research on Pinterest we decided that adding custom wood shelves would be the best solution to make the best use of the space. That way we could place the shelves exactly where we needed them!

Nic suggested adding wallpaper behind the shelves and I loved the idea – but I didn’t want to be stuck with the same wallpaper for years, because it would be a pain to remove after the shelves were put in!

So I decided that stenciling the wall would be a great solution! It would give the same look as wallpaper, but still give me the option to change it down the road.

I took at look at Cutting Edge Stencils and picked out a stencil that would give the look of wallpaper. I’ve worked with their stencils before in one of my laundry rooms, and loved them! The stencil pattern I chose for the pantry makeover is called Magnolia & Berries – it’s so beautiful! It is large scale and the pattern is made to connect on each side to give a seamless look, which is exactly what I wanted!

Materials Needed:

Magnolia & Berries Wall Stencil
Stenciling Kit
Painter’s Tape
Paint (2 colors – 1 for the wall, 1 for the stenciled pattern)
Patching tool (if you have holes to fill)
Miter Saw
Nail Gun
Measuring Tape
Scissors
Polyacrilic Sealer
Paintbrush
Artist’s Paintbrush

How To Stencil A Wall

First I started by painting the walls of the pantry (after emptying the pantry, removing the shelves, and patching the holes by using this patching tool!). I used the color Grey Mist by Behr for the walls (I had it leftover from my daughters’ shared room makeover!) and it is a beautiful calming grey. I painted the ceiling and baseboards as well to give it a consistent look.

Next I grabbed some leftover white paint to use with the stencil, I started by placing the Magnolia & Berries Cutting Edge Stencil on different areas of the back wall to see how many rows would fit on the wall so I could determine the placement for the rows.

I decided to start on the right side of the wall and taped it up on the wall using painter’s tape and clipped on my stencil level. The stenciling kit I used came with a stencil level which is SO helpful for keeping the pattern level and even. It clips right onto the top of the stencil and is so convenient. I highly recommend this stencil kit because it contains everything you need, and the stencil level is definitely worth it!

Painting The Pattern

Next I grabbed 2 paper plates for the paint. I poured a little white paint onto the first paper plate and dipped my small foam paint roller. Then I rolled the paint roller onto the second paper plate to remove any excess paint.

The key to avoiding paint getting underneath the stencil is by using the paint sparingly, and not overloading the roller. Another tip is to use light pressure while rolling the paint to avoid bleeding. You can go over the area 2 or 3 times to make sure you get full coverage.

After I rolled the whole stencil I peeled off the stencil to reveal the design. This is the most exciting part, as you get to see how your pattern is turning out!

After the first stenciled area was dry I placed the stencil below the first section by lining up the top of the stencil over the bottom section of the painted pattern. As you make your way around the wall you will keep lining up the stencil over the previously painted section edges to make sure it is lined up correctly. This is what will give your wall a seamless look – to look like wallpaper!

RELATED: HOW TO GET THE LOOK OF TILE WITH A STENCIL

How To Stencil In Corners

When I got to the tricky corners, near the baseboards and top of the ceiling I bent the stencil as much as possible to get it as close to the edge as I could. Then I used my stenciling brush to dab the paint on lightly using very little paint to avoid bleeding!

There were still parts on the bottom near the baseboards and in the corners that I couldn’t get the stencil to bend into. For those spots I hand-painted the pattern to fill in those areas, while looking at the stencil pattern as a guide.

You can also cut the stencil when you get to those last edges, to make it fit into small areas like corners. If you do decide to cut the stencil for those areas, make sure you have stenciled all of the rows and don’t need the full stencil for anything else.

I had a few areas where the paint had bled a little under the stencil, and for those areas I touched them up with a small artist’s paintbrush. The background paint color (the color I used was Grey Mist) will be what you use to touch up those areas and make them blend into the background.

If you have areas of the stenciled pattern that didn’t get full coverage, you can also use an artist’s brush to fill in those areas with the stenciled paint color.

Adding Custom Pantry Shelves

After all of the stenciling was finished, it was time to build the shelves! Nic measured each of the walls to figure out how much wood we needed, and we determined the spacing we wanted between the shelves. We decided how deep we wanted the shelves, and how many supports were needed to help the shelves be secure.

First Nic measured and cut 1×2 boards for the supports. After nailing those into the studs in the wall with a nail gun and using a level to keep them straight, he moved onto the shelves. For the sides of the pantry he used 1×3’s and 1×4’s (the depth of the sides were not even!) and 1×10’s for the back shelves.

He cut those to size using a miter saw and nailed them into the supports through the top of the shelf down into the support boards. After nailing in all the shelves we sanded them down to make them smooth to the touch. Then I added 2 coats of polyacrylic to protect the wood shelves for future use and possible spills.

I decided to paint the supports in the same background color (Grey Mist) as the walls, so they would blend into the walls. This made the wood shelves pop against the background. I love how the wood shelves look against the painted pattern!

By adding these custom shelves we were able to make use of every inch of space available in the pantry! The shallow shelves on the sides are perfect for canned goods and jars, and we made the shelves tall enough to store larger appliances beneath them.