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Isn’t this the cutest idea for summer entertaining?!

Last week, Terry emailed the below picture to me and Amy. Within minutes, we both responded with, “We can SO make these!” Pulling out my newest Ballard Designs catalog, I opened it up and took a closer look. Their new Southern Living Collection is awesome (disclosure: I am a Ballard nerd and save their catalogs for years), and at $15 for a set of 6, these SL beverage tags are a pretty reasonable buy if you’re in a hurry, or if you’re a not-so-crafty person:

: source

But Ballard people, please don’t hate me for making these on my own without buying yours. Check my order history and realize that I am really a very devoted customer!! I just couldn’t buy them when I knew that I had every last thing I needed to make a set of these labels in about 15 minutes, and for about $2. A girl’s got to economize where she can, so that she can save for that Henriette chandelier!!

I started with a package of pine wood that I had bought earlier for my we can/can’t play sign (read about that here) and hadn’t used. It was $2, but I’m sure if I went to the hardware store I could have bought ten times as much thin pine for the same price.

I used my miter saw to first rip the pine in half lengthwise, and then to cut it into strips. The tags should be about 1.5″ x 4″, but obviously you can vary that according to your preference (or the size of your wood). I first tried to angle the top two corners, as you can see in the picture below, but it was faster and easier just to cut rectangles. Next time my tags will be a uniform size since I won’t have to cut off my wonky corners and start again!

As an aside, I think that paint stirrers or wooden rulers/yardsticks would be the perfect size to cut up and use for this project, although you might have to paint them first (but wouldn’t that be fun to do them in different colors?).

OK, back to the project: I sanded the rough edges lightly and drilled a hole at one end with a 7/34″ bit. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut black vinyl letters (I used the font “Noteworthy”), but if you don’t have a Cameo, just use a Sharpie and your nicest handwriting .

By the way, how do you like the new script fabric I put on my kitchen chairs? It was time to update them a bit and I just put this on a few days ago. Got to get the kitchen jazzed up for the BH&G photoshoot in a few weeks!

Because I ended up with eight wooden tags, I made a set of 6 for myself, and another two of the “Under 21″ and “Over 21″ labels to give as a hostess gift. We make a lot of mojitos (my husband has the BEST recipe that I’ll have to share with you all soon), so that was a must-make label. It might be fun to spray paint some tags with chalkboard paint; that way you could use them on pitchers, teapots, baskets, etc.

Finally, I finished off the tags with some jute twine I had in my laundry closet. Then I celebrated by making a pitcher of mojitos. After all, I HAD to put something in the pitcher before I took the picture, right?!

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***The BIG, BIG news first, because I can’t stand not to tell you right away–my kitchen redo is going to be featured in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine! Their Real-Life Kitchens & Baths magazine comes out seasonally, and one of their editors contacted me about including my kitchen in an upcoming issue! After I got up off the floor, I agreed immediately because, let’s face it, this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day. I will, of course, be the example of the “shoestring” budget renovation, but as more of us have small budgets than large ones, that’s just fine with me. We should be doing the photoshoot next month, and of course I’ll keep you updated every step of the way!***

While it’s going to be impossible to top that, I’m so happy to tell y’all that I’ve checked off another BIG item on my 2012 to-do list for the house–the pantry. It has been an eyesore since we moved in last June, and when I redid the kitchen (those posts are here and here) I was so DONE with that room that I skipped the pantry. It’s a great size, though, and I knew it had so much potential.

I made a few quick and easy changes to our cabinet-sized pantry in our North Carolina house, and loved how that turned out. Regardless of the space you have available for your pantry, it’s easy to make the best of what you have. In our NC house, that meant chalkboard contact paper, polka dot ribbon, and lots of mason jars (easy! cheap!) to jazz things up a bit.

Our Nashville house has a big, corner pantry (because that was at the top of my wish list!), but sported white wire shelving (which I hate, hate, hate!!). Here is the embarrassing “before” picture:

Pretty scary, huh? I hated how my cans always fell over sideways, plus my shelves were just a little too short to hold my small appliances (bread machine, blender, etc) on any shelves but the top one. My kids like to make smoothies, and they couldn’t get the blender down easily on their own. Small things, but they annoyed me.

My husband was out of town Palm Sunday weekend, and so late Friday night I decided to just go for it. I took everything out of the pantry and ripped out the white wire shelves, taking a picture of the empty shelves first so I could sell them on Craigslist. They’re already gone; I sold the whole lot for $30 and considered it good riddance!

My recommendation if you’re doing a pantry renovation is that you use a bunch of cardboard boxes or plastic storage bins and put your pantry items in there in an orderly way. Even if it takes only a few days, you’ll still want to be able to find your cereal, peanut butter, and other essentials without searching through everything. It also keeps you sane, as you don’t have to cover every single kitchen counter with pantry stuff! I stacked my boxes in the dining room, which is used more as my workshop than as a dining room these days.

The next step was to patch the holes in the drywall–there were so many holes that I really despaired at this point, but spackle can work miracles. I then gave the pantry a coat of paint that matches the kitchen (Benjamin Moore’s Alexandria Beige), as it was still the contractor color that it was painted originally. That gave me a clean slate to work with!

After measuring several times, I headed to Home Depot. I wanted to use solid shelving, and I wanted it to be white, but I didn’t care too much about whether I used melamine or wood. Once I looked at my options and realized that with wood I would have to prime, sand, paint, sand, and paint again, I decided that melamine would be just fine, thanks! I had the nice guys at Home Depot cut my melamine so that I could build five shelves high, and I bought 1″x 2″ x 8′ primed pine fingerjoint board to use to build the supports under the shelves. I also bought five brackets so that the “floating” shelf would have a support in the corner–pantry items can be heavy!

As I tried out the shelves, I ran into my first problem–while I had measured several times, the front of my shelves needed to be wider than the back of my shelves. Why? Because my pantry isn’t square (!) to the tune of 3/4″. That’s WAY off! I will admit to thinking a few bad words as I loaded all ten pieces of melamine back in the car, and the kids and I headed back to Home Depot after church to have the pieces re-cut. The guys only said, “Measure twice, cut once,” about a thousand times, and how silly of me to expect that a room would be square!

Look how far off the edge is from the front of the shelf to the back–crazy!

It took me about three days to build all five levels of shelves, but only because it was a busy week, with a couple of functions for hubby’s work in the evenings, plus kid activities and homeschooling during the day. It was so exciting as I made progress, though!

I won’t lie–getting the shelves level at the corners where the two pieces met up was a bit tricky. A laser level would probably have made my life easier, but I made it work with just a regular level. I used a combination of 2″ and 2-1/2″ #10 screws to secure the supports to the walls, and where I couldn’t screw directly into the studs, I used Pop-Toggles as my drywall anchors because the nice hardware guy said they’re his favorite and they hold up to 60 lbs.

I spaced the shelves 15″ apart, which is a little taller than the norm, but I wanted everything to fit and there’s always so much wasted space in the top of closets and pantries.

When I had all the shelves built, I realized that I needed to come up with something to hide the fact that the pantry wasn’t square and the shelves were all wonky. After using my brad nailer to secure the shelves to the supports for all eternity, I cut screen trim with my miter saw and used Liquid Nails to glue it to the ends and fronts of the shelves. Take a look at the before and after–the finishing details really make a big difference!

Before:

And after:

I also dabbed a little white paint on the screw heads in the supports and the brackets to camouflage them, although I will admit that I didn’t paint over the primed wood of the supports. They really didn’t need it.

When all the shelves were in place and level, it was time for the fun–moving back in! One idea that I love for a corner pantry, and have had pinned for a long time, is Decor Chick’s corner carousels {read her great redo HERE}. What a great way to utilize the space in the back corner that’s usually wasted! While her father made her beautiful wooden lazy susans, I went to the store and bought five 18″ turntables (using my 20% off coupons, of course!). My shelves are 16″ deep, so that diameter worked perfectly. Here we are with the turntables in place:

Now I’m just going to show you a ton of “after” pictures without much text. I know the pantry looks styled and it won’t stay this neat forever, but the solid shelves and the turntables created SO much additional space for me that I really do have room to leave the serving pieces and cookbooks in here for the long haul. I love it!

The stoneware crock on the floor was my grandmother’s and it holds my onions and potatoes. An old freezer basket holds my cracker boxes and large chip bags. And the blender’s low enough for the kids to reach now!

The chip rack was an Ebay purchase; I have two of them in different sizes.

The Jessie Steele apron was a birthday gift from my friend, Andrea. I love the colors!

I also got the idea of hanging a wreath in the pantry from Decor Chick. Why not decorate this often-used room? I also added a plain black “B” from Hobby Lobby on the other wall.

About a week after I finished the rest of the redo, the chandelier I had ordered arrived. Our friends were visiting from Virginia Beach, so I pulled the box out one morning and put them to work–Robyn put the crystals on with me, and Steve hung it (that was a nice break!). I chose the same little white chandy that’s in my laundry room, as they’re just a few steps from each other and I thought it would provide continuity. It’s impossible to get a decent shot without it being on, but here it is:

Why not hang a chandelier in a pantry? I left the white wire shelves on the inside of the door, although I am debating whether to build a wooden spice rack to take its place on the door, or to replace the door itself with either a screen door or a frosted glass paneled door. Does anyone have an opinion?

I can’t tell you how good this redo made me feel, and even though the shelves were a huge pain because the room wasn’t square, it was still well worth it. With the chandelier, lazy susans, and the shelving materials, I spent about $260. I consider it money well spent, because now I like opening the pantry door!

Here’s one more “before:”