Wallpapering the Pantry

I have been planning on wallpapering the back wall of our pantry since last fall but just finally got around to it last week. We had chosen this wallpaper earlier this year for our linen closet makeover but I chickened out because there was a tricky little access panel and decided just to stencil that closet. I figured the wallpaper would look pretty down here in the kitchen though. It has a similar coloring to the wall color and it blends nicely. Seeing how I am the only one that ever closes the pantry doors that mean 99% of the day they are left open so I like it looking tidy and visually appealing.

We got most of the baskets and quite a few of the jars from HomeGoods. Each basket has a different type of food so it stays organized with very little effort. For instance, all of our breads, buns, tortillas, etc are in the wooden crate, things like peanut butter and other spreads are in the basket below it, breakfast bars and granola bars are all in the white tin below that, extra plastic bags and things are all in the closed basket on the floor. We have a foot of space on each side that you don't see which is nice because we store things like Elsa lunch boxes and napkins, trash bags and all that stuff over where they are out of sight but still nice and easy to grab.

Along with wallpapering the back I also decided to paint the shelves which makes the pantry feel a lot brighter.

Here on the left is what the pantry looked like last fall after I had emptied it out and was midway through priming the doors and priming and painting the back wall.

The wallpapering was actually quite easy. A little time consuming but not too crazy. I decided to try this rolling wallpaper paste seeing how it was such a small space. The first one I tried was the Zinsser SureGrip. That was actually a total disaster. It was basically like dish soap and just poured out of the bottle and the paper once it dried just fell off the wall. I actually think it's likely that I had a bad bottle of it and that it probably isn't normally like that because the bottle said it was going to come out pink but it didn't come out pink at all - it was more of a grayish color. I decided to try a different brand to see if it worked better and it was a million times better. I got the one on the left at Lowe's and it was really easy and worked great. It came out more like glue. It is not by any means a perfect wallpapering job at all, but I am glad I did it and it's a fun touch to the kitchen.