It happened slowly, then all at once. When we first revealed the pantry, we barely lived in the house, and I had no idea how much I’d cook or entertain here. Turns out it’s a lot (which is wonderful), and therefore the needs of “the hardest working room” expanded quickly (and messily). It is not only a dumping ground for school stuff (piles of notebooks) or hiding quick mess during parties, but Brian and I have become quite the collectors of counter appliances that we actually use. And while putting them on the stairs down to the basement seemed like a fine idea at first (“we barely use this!” we said), not when you actually use it 1-2 times a week. So slowly, I’ve removed the pretty things to make room for what we need – food, my ever-growing supplement library, and appliances.

Styled – 2023

When I saw this shot recently as the opener to a blog post about staying organized, even I was like, “Whoa, this is not a real person’s pantry”. But at the time (3 years ago), we didn’t have the inventory we have now. First, the tall oils needed a home, then the bags of vitamins, then the larger platters and bowls we pull out for most parties. Every few months, I would reorganize (always so messy) and take pretty but rarely used stuff out to the prop garage, making room for actual life.

Real Life – 2026

TOP SHELF: Let me walk you through the changes. Top left is random stuff (including some Brez, which I order online – a 2.5 mg THC drink that is a great weekend wine replacement and super light), then all my protein, creatine, and Gruns vitamins (spoiler, some kids love these, mine do not, but I like them). My slow cooker (love), and platters we pull for parties.
LOWER SHELF: Peanut butters/honey/syrup, dog treats, panini press (kids love these sandwiches), basket for some treats out of reach of kids. Then the air fryer (weeknight chicken strips), which we can plug in below and not even move it down, and the Instant Pot (weekly hard-boiled eggs).
COUNTER: We try to keep this as clear as possible. It has our house alarm keypad, a couple of cutting boards, our bread box (which indeed has our bagels and bread in it), and our $18 toaster that could probably use an upgrade, but we’ll use it til it breaks.

What We Didn’t Change: Three Years Ago

This wall has remained very similar to how we styled it originally, mostly because it’s a sightline that you see from entering the house and while in the kitchen, so it has to look really pretty, or it would bum me out on a daily basis. I love our decanted jars (and for the most part keep up with them). Naturally, the pretty apron and broom were crowded out by the one billion coats that you need in Oregon. Here’s what it looks like now:

I obviously needed a place for that incredible vintage still life painting of pears and figs (on that red and white tablecloth? SHUT UP). That pitcher full of pretty wood spoons is for my own visual pleasure, which I’m comfortable with admitting in public 🙂 I added more jars of decanted beans and lentils (hot tip: keep the bag folded up inside of it so you know what it is and how to make it), and then there are more bowls and cookbooks as I add to my collection.

This is the exact sight line from the kitchen door where almost everyone enters through our house, so while the walls on the left and right can be totally disgusting, the back wall has to remain clean and pretty (Or I need to put a door on this room, which is not on my five-year plan).

What About The Drawers??

These drawers look far more real than they did. I originally designed them to have that gap so that we could put potatoes and onions in them, or just have them easy to access. But it’s just bags of popcorn and chips. The gap doesn’t bother me, but would I do it again? Dunno. This is the first time I’ve thought about it 🙂

Coffee Bar Side – Styled 3 Years Ago

Now good news is that while I haven’t used one scoop of that fancy ass tea I bought to style out this shoot, this side is pretty much the same. Sure, we have more to-go coffees and the plant is now dead (RIP), but it’s almost exactly the same (sorry, we didn’t re-shoot it).

A quick shout-out to the hidden cheap microwave – if you are designing a kitchen soon, I highly suggest this instead of something more built-in. I’ve heard too many stories about the microwave breaking, and then what? This allows us to have a mediocre microwave that works just fine (mostly to reheat coffee and make popcorn).

While there are some rooms I do like to keep looking pretty, this one just stopped making sense, and once I started the transformation, I let her rip. It’s wildly more functional (especially using the appliances actually in the pantry and not even needing to bring them out). I suppose a door on this pantry would make a massive difference, but I know what would happen – I would use it even more as a dumping ground when people come over, a “don’t even look in here” room of shame. 🙂

*Photos by Kaitlin Green