DIY Fail Turned WIN!
You know, this dresser and I have been through a lot together. I still remember picking it out as a kid. I was so excited by it. I loved the color, the floral pastel pattern drawn on it, the vintage-looking knobs. And even when I brought it home last year and decided to paint it and had one of the biggest and most frustrating DIY fails of my life, I still loved it.
For a season it sat proudly in our living room and housed table linens and piles of mail and dog leashes and all kinds of other random treasures. And once the piano entered our life, we booted the dresser and moved it behind the couch, using it as a sofa table.
But recently we got the furniture-moving itch and decided to rearrange our living room (post coming soon!). The new set up left nowhere for the dresser to go, but I had a plan in mind all along.
Into the pantry it went!
We had this random blank wall that happened to be just 5” wider than the dresser. So last weekend while Scott was with real estate clients I managed to tip the dresser up enough to put a blanket under each leg (so it wouldn’t scratch our floors!) and push it across the house to the pantry. That dresser is HEAVY. But I did it. I was so proud. When I texted a picture to Scott he asked how I moved it and I said I had looped the dogs leashes around it and held bacon in front of them. He didn’t believe me but it was a fun story. 😉
Once the dresser was in place, it was time to take my own advice and declutter and clean it out. I am almost embarrassed to show you guys all the junk that was in there. You know how some people have a junk drawer? Well we had six of them. YIKES.
So once everything was out I started throwing away everything I could and putting the rest in a pile to donate. Soon enough I was able to create six super organized, logical and clean drawers.
I placed my essential oils in the top left drawer since we use them daily. In the other top drawer went a box for receipts, a first aid kit, a few essential tools and a tape measurer. In the other drawers the table linens, candlesticks and mail that needs to be sorted are all housed.
I feel so organized. And now the fun part comes…I get to decorate the wall and the top of the dresser. After all, this dresser and I have been together almost 20 years now…hopefully we’ll be together at least another 20 more! 🙂
The wall was super blank and begging for some fun (and practical!) décor, so I utilized this frame I’ve had for awhile. I mentioned this little chicken wire frame I picked up when I was in Canton a few months ago. When I got it I loved the original frame, but thought it could use a pop of fun color and instantly envisioned a sunny mustard yellow. I picked up a sample size of Glidden’s Sunflower paint from Home Depot and gave the frame a few touches of sunny yellow paint.
To stay true to the rustic appearance of the piece, I applied paint in random areas—mostly crevices and corners—let it dry for about five minutes then rubbed off some with a towel. There really wasn’t a pattern or a plan—it was one of those fun afternoons where I let my paintbrush just do what it wanted. 😛
Knowing I wanted to hang and display random mementos on it helped me quickly decide that clothespins were the way to go. I couldn’t just pick up any old clothespins though…they needed to be cute! 🙂 A quick fix with some washi tape took care of that…what can’t washi tape fix? I am truly obsessed.
It is the perfect piece to fill the space above the dresser and is totally functional for all the fun coupons and ideas I want to keep tacked up as well as some sweet notes from Scott and some vintage Valentine’s Day cards I got from that same Canton trip.
See those handwritten recipes? Those are from Scott’s grandmother. We truly treasure them and are proud to display them—excited to make them soon too!
I also found this accordion clothes hanger and decided it was the perfect piece for hanging aprons and dishtowels. 
We also decided it made way more sense to move the cookbooks from our lovely library wall in the studio into the pantry where we could reference them a lot easier—and clear up several shelves for MORE BOOKS (I have a reading problem! :-P). 
I’ll leave you with this last little gem…a little before photo. Can you spot the before spot of our pantry? 😀 Good luck…I can hardly recognize it myself!!!!
I love this wall. I love this pantry. I love not having junk drawers. 😉 What do you guys think? Is this pantry crazy or what!?!
Tania Griffis is an accomplished writer, blogger, and interior designer with a Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She started her popular blog, Run to Radiance, in 2011, demonstrating her design expertise through the personal remodeling of six houses to millions of readers across the globe.
Tania also owns The Creative Wheelhouse, a respected ghostwriting agency for bloggers, further showcasing her talent for creating engaging and informative content.
Definitly a win, love what you’ve done with the pantry 🙂
Thank you, always nice to see a fail turn out better! 🙂
Love your frame and the clips – way too cute! I still need to find a place to store my E.O’s!!!
Thanks Caroline! I have had them in several different places but the pantry has made the most sense by far for us! Luckily they are pretty small and bottles don’t break easily…cause I drop them a lot! :O
What a sweet spot! I just love that frame you made and those clothes pins looks so chic with the patterns on them. Awesome project!
Thanks so much! It’s fun to have a new way to display things for sure.
This is fabulous! I am envious of how much space you have.
Thanks Samantha! We gave up a formal living room for this but I still think it’s worth it. I’d rather have one huge pantry then two tiny living rooms! 🙂
Isn’t it fun to see how things transform into new and better things to put somewhere else in the house? I have to remind myself to keep some of my “fails” because I may want them for something else later on!
It is fun Meg! I thought that dresser was going to be the death of me but turns out it was just what I needed. Hmm…is there a life metaphor somewhere here? 🙂
Such a fun space! I love it. And I’m obsessed with wash tape too…I really like your floral one! Where did you find it?
Right here! https://www.etsy.com/listing/165476029/antique-floral-pink-washi-tape
Glad everything worked out! It looks like something one would find at anthropologie 🙂
Oh Char that was the nicest thing ever said. <3
This looks so great! I love how it turned out! 🙂
Thanks Rach! 🙂 I am so happy!
This came out fabulous! I love the rustic look of the pin board 🙂