1970s Small Pantry Makeover

Is a small pantry makeover in your future? This DIY pantry makeover includes new paint, pantry wallpaper, wall decor, and new pantry organizers. The ho-hum little space now has a punch of sophisticated personality when a user opens the pantry door.

If you want an in-depth look at how pantry organizers improved using deep pantry shelves, visit “Winning Small Pantry Organizers.”

Plans for a small pantry closet makeover

In my Iowa farmhouse, my 1970s outdated kitchen pantry was in great need of an update. The tiny walk-in pantry saw signs of age: battered plywood shelving, old contact paper, and bright 70s green linoleum. The small space lived a previous life as a clothes closet, hence the deep shelves.

Replacing the shelving would have been a good choice, but I took a different path.  I wanted to see if I could transform the old plywood shelves in the pantry on a budget.

I focused on surface improvements, like paint and wallpaper. Before and after pictures are posted below. Honestly, it was a lot of work. If I had to do it over, I would have ripped out the shelves and bought a pantry shelving system.

There are some neat little details that would have been lost if I chose to rip the shelves out. Since I wasn’t sure about the future plans of the house as a whole, this was the safest route to go. I really learned a lot from the project, so all of you get to benefit from that!

One word about pantries from the 70s. Back then, there were no wire shelving pantry systems. There was also not many shopping options in the way of home improvement stores.  Wood was still the material of choice, and often contact paper was the most available interior design go-to tool (you’ll see that is exactly what was used on these shelves).  

I will also add that the time period had no Pinterest for inspiration or other online platforms for pantry design ideas.  Don’t be too hard on past generation design choices, they were working with what they had.

Space but no pantry space

The picture above shows the before image of the pantry. The shelf “holes” were quite cavernous, it was difficult to retrieve items from the back, especially on the lower section, and it just wasn’t inspiring to be in.  When in a hurry (when am I not?) big items were set on the floor to be dealt with later. For a step-in pantry, the floor needs to be clear at all times.  That was one of the problems that bothered me the most.

Pantry decor needs improvement

Any pantry and kitchen space periodically needs to be updated. This pantry was beat up from years of use, was dark from lack of good lighting, and lacked color and personality. The pantry floor was 1970s tough, but… a bright lime green! So much to do, where to start?

My small pantry makeover begins…

Matching a painted pantry with green floral botanical wallpaper

I looked around for some design inspiration and ways to style a pantry. A picture of a herbal wallcovering caught my eye. It was paired with classic built-in cabinets painted sage green. Overstock.com had a close pattern called “Nami Olive Floral Wallpaper” (this pattern was readily available on multiple websites).

From the Overstock.com product page: “Beautiful olive flowers blossom in this textured design creating a timeless and delicate look.” Yes, that was what I was going for!

I was looking for a more sophisticated country look in my pantry.

Repairing pantry walls and shelves

These are the steps I had to take prior to painting my pantry shelves. I wished I could have jumped right to painting, but there was repair work on walls and shelves, besides priming everything. If I was going to put the effort in to painting my pantry, I wanted to lay a good foundation first.

Removing contact paper from old wood shelves

The part I thought would be the most challenging was no problem: removing the decades-old contact paper from plywood. To remove old contact paper from wood selves, use a hair dryer on high heat and direct at the contact paper and carefully pull to remove. Within minutes I had peeled off the retro contact paper by aiming the blow dryer at a peeled up area with one hand, while pulling up with my other hand.

Clean plywood before painting pantry shelves

I cleaned and prepped the plywood shelves and surfaces using Krud Kleaner.  It’s important to clean plywood and other surfaces prior to painting to remove any grease or debris. Everything must be squeaky clean for new paint to stick well!  

Make plywood pantry shelf and edges look nice

The secret to redoing pantry shelves is making the edges look nice, new, and finished – not beaten and chewed up.

Applying an edge band to plywood pantry shelves or covering the edges with contact paper conceals the rough edges, helping them to look smoother and more attractive.  I didn’t want to do either.  I chose to fill in the exposed edges with spackle (drywall compound), smoothing it out, filling in the open pores and grains. This “cheat” technique gave a more solid wood feel. 

It’s important to repeat the spackling step as necessary, what you see is what you get for the finished product (be sure to sand between applications). Once you prime over the dried spackle, touch-ups really aren’t possible.  

I only put in the effort on the parts that could be seen, I was going for the full “cheat” :).  Staying within budget meant not wasting materials. Don’t forget, I also thought it was important to conserve my energy to put up the pantry wallpaper and paint. There was no way I was going to chance getting burnt out on this project right in the beginning.

There was a setup in the project (who doesn’t experience that? After removing the contact paper from the plywood, I discovered old, spilled refinishing stain, which kept bubbling up under the primer. I give more details on this struggle in the article, “Battling Brown Spots Coming Through Paint.” It was stubborn, but I eventually conquered it.

Leaving no brush marks starts with proper prep work before painting pantry shelves

After the prepping came the sanding.  I joke in my “Lessons I Learned From Painting a Pantry Closet” that that the default answer to everything is PRIME, SAND, and USE A ROLLER! Oh, and dust between each step with a tack cloth for the smoothest finish.  

Proper prep work is essential to leave no brush marks when painting shelves. Priming paint can leave dried brushmarks that won’t come out later. Sanding helps remove impurities from the surface, but it can’t remove everything. Dusting removes the finer particles that can “pimple” the surface when painted.

Thank goodness I wasn’t painting pantry or kitchen cabinets where “no brush marks” is a big deal.  Really, this whole thing was a practice run in case some day I thought it would be a good idea to paint kitchen cabinets. The painting part took surprisingly long.

It’s not the same as painting a single wall, everything is multiplied with the extra surfaces of top and bottom shelves and left and right sides of the shelving.  Also, there was only one shelf I could remove, so I had to paint everything in place.

Painting and wallpapering pantry

Once primed and dried, I started in with the selected sage-colored paint.  I matched up my Sherwin-Williams color swatch book, “Clary Sage” SW 6178, 213-C3 to a semi-gloss Rustoleum Studio Color paint. My original plan was to go with a latex satin, but at the last minute, my pantry paint plans changed.  The semi-gloss is fine, but next time I think I will do the satin.

What parts to paint in pantry

As with all of my projects, new ideas come to me while I’m working. I could tell it was going to take a ridiculous amount of time to paint if I kept the wall one color and the shelf uprights and shelving another color. I opted for the shortcut and painted the wall and plywood all the same color, and I’m glad I did.

By doing so, I created a faux built-in cabinet look.  Paint really can do miracles!  The pretty sage green paint pulled all the little mis-matched scraps of plywood of different thicknesses together, fooling the eye. Instant charm at a fraction of the cost.

Wallpapering pantry

I’ve had some experience wallpapering. I only planned to do one wall just for a design effect. I won’t cover here the finer details of how to wallpaper a pantry. I think pantries are fabulous places to practice applying wallpaper. Some people find it intimidating, but I guess I never have. 

The worst part of wallpapering is that there is always leftover paper. This was a luxury buying the wallpaper, I really didn’t need, nor could I justify it – I just wanted it. It was worth it. Every time I walk into my pantry, I smile now at the charming interior.

Decorating the pantry

Every pantry needs a little “surprise” decor touch, and mine was a small art print I picked up at the local thrift store.  Details matter and the folkart print of a hen by Diane Ulmer Pedersen compliments the “Nami Olive Floral Wallpaper” perfectly.

Another design choice was to add opaque shelf liners to the shelves.  This was an additional cost, but I thought it would add another shade of color and texture by putting it over the sage green shelf. I like it, but it probably was not a make-or-break choice.  

Escaping a 1970s decor style

I looked into a lot of different options to update my 70s green linoleum floor.  Honestly, the floor was in mint condition.  I’ve painted floors before and was never happy with the outcome and how easily the paint scratched, even though I covered it with a polyurethane. I see a lot of people online paint the linoleum a solid color, or top it off with stencil paint.

Those ideas didn’t appeal to me either (a floor needs some type of texture to hide the dirt).  In the end, I bought a cute little black and cream woven checkered pantry rug. The homespun feel felt it belonged with the rustic art print and wallpaper theme.  I have to catch a break somewhere, right?

All vintage pantries have their unique charm, nooks, and crannies.  Nothing is standardized, but that’s what makes them unique and curious.  I spent a lot of time exploring what storage could make my deep shelves easier to work with.  I splurged and bought a few different pantry container solutions to try out, and was surprised at the outcome.  

Learn how the “layering” strategy helped me find the best container solution for my deep pantry shelves.  

I love my 1970s pantry makeover!  One day I will get a new pantry, but until then, it’s fun to enjoy an update in at least one part of my farmhouse!