One of the additions we added was an entire back hall that houses many of the daily required family functions including our laundry room, kitchen office, pantry, lockers and a powder bathroom.
I’ll start with the lockers, which as a mother of 4 small kids is one of my favorite things in the house because it hides mess and anytime you can hide mess with kids, that’s a big deal! My main criteria for the lockers were that we needed one for each child and they had to have doors! When I was giving our architect my criteria he looked up and told me- ‘Melanie, everyone knows you have kids.’ My response to him was- ‘but they don’t have to see proof with every inch of the house!’. So, we went with doors.
Here they are finished-
The screen/mesh material for the cabinet doors was one of my best “finds”. It is difficult to find cabinet mesh other than chicken wire and it can get very pricey quickly. I was lucky enough when using Houzz to come upon a photo that sourced the wire inserts on a picture I liked. They came from http://www.brass-grilles-shop.co.uk/- Brass Grilles UK Online Shop. They are completely online- you place your order with the correct measurements and they ship it to you. Shipping was very reasonable and their product selection is so dynamic, I love these guys. I never spoke with anyone over there, I did everything via email and submission on their website. I highly recommend them. They sent the individual sheets directly to me and I handed them over to my cabinet maker. The most unbelievable thing is they came FedEX Overnight! I didn’t know they were delivered and I wasn’t looking for them because I figured it would take a few weeks to receive them and one day I checked my order status online and it said it had been delivered weeks ago! I panicked and raced to the house to find them tucked away in the garage!
The metal inserts do a great job of hiding the “stuff” and the wire bins I found at the Container Store recently to keep the upper nooks organized. We have way too many shoes.
Here is a closer up view of the metal inserts-
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Here is a look at the bins-
Our family rules, courtesy of http://www.wisteria.com-
You enter the back hall from the kitchen. This is the view from the kitchen and on the other side of the wall behind the lockers to the right of the clock pictured here is our pantry.
Pantry-
We did not have the space for a large walk-in pantry. This layout actually works quite well because I have a lot of shelving, some pullout shelves and plenty of room to garb it up with snacks and dry goods. I use the upper cabinets for storing things we do not use that often. Opposite of the pantry is a little beverage station(I can’t stand the term “wet bar”) that houses wine, a beverage refrigerator and an ice maker. It’s right by our backdoor which I love because we can run in to grab a drink or ice. The walls are covered in shiplap. That’s what we call it because I have seen several names for the wood boards people use on their walls. Ours is spruce and painted the same color as our trim. It creates a farmhouse type of look and we used it in most of our back hall. It is great for hiding handprints!
We added pocket doors between both the lockers and the pantry area to the rest of the back hall to be able to hide our laundry and kitchen office if and when we have guests over. All of our doors on the main floor are painted dark. It totally makes the look of the house and I love it! Great for hiding hand prints too!
Here is the “beverage station” area opposite the pantry-
The lantern is from Shades of Light. I ordered a few lights from there and they all worked and are in the house but the only thing that was disappointing with them is when you place your order, they do not tell you if your item is in stock. The first thing I ordered it turned out was on backorder for weeks. It was very upsetting to find out after your order that you can’t get what you wanted! I called and they gave me a discount off the purchase so that made me feel better and I just waited for the item to arrive.
Closer up view-
The countertop is walnut and the sink is a hammered nickel. The whole thing does what we need it to and works well for both wine and juice boxes! What more can you ask for?
Want to see more of our main floor? Check out this latest post full of pictures! https://riverviewredo.com/main-floor-tour
Riverview Redo 