Ever since we started the process of building our house, I knew I wanted wallpaper in the pantries.  Is it extra, yes!  But Deb and I are both a little extra, only in different ways.  I wanted to share a little backstory of my own pantries throughout the years.

I bought my first house when I was 20.  And, I remember having very little cabinet space so we created small corner shelves on the basement stairway landing.  It didn’t hold much. But I was happy with it. There was a coat closet right outside of that basement door that we eventually turned into a “real” pantry.  Something so simple as adding shelves to an existing closet made me so happy.  I remember quickly putting all of my food immediately after the drywall was hung just to get everything organized.  Well, after a bit of time, opening that pantry door without the drywall being painted drove me nuts.

With very little money, I spent the next couple of days fixing up that pantry to look pretty.  I removed all of the food, caulked all around the wood shelves, and painted everything using a cream colored paint that I had from another project.  I was thrilled that I had a beautiful pantry that looked pretty to me when I opened the door.

After that house was sold….

We wound up several different places throughout the years where I made makeshift pantries from pieces of furniture…. which, of course, works perfectly.  Deb and I wound up in a large house with a huge closet for a pantry.  And I quickly remembered the feeling of having a pantry that I loved to look at when I opened the doors.  I hung textured wallpaper in that pantry.  Deb added a pretty hanging light and I even added a little antique dresser below the shelves for convenience.  I loved that pantry.

And then we wounded up at the house on Winchester, which is where this website began.  I have shared several of posts about that pantry.  Did you know that pantry almost didn’t happen?  Behind the back wall of that pantry was the coat closet in the entryway.  I woke up one the morning during the remodeling of that house and had an idea.  Let’s close up the guest coat closet in the entryway and open it up on the other side to make our pantry in the kitchen.

That pantry was the most fun.  We added a pretty door, nice heavy duty wooden shelves, which I panted white, and brick WALLPAPER.  I LOVED it!  Every time I opened up that door, I noticed how pretty it looked.  So, of course, I knew that I had to have wallpaper in the two pantries that we have in this house, too.

Wallpaper in the Pantries

The Wallpaper I Chose for Our Pantries

Have you searched for wallpaper recently?  Oh my gosh.  There are so many great prints. I was looking for something that looked classic and vintage, but a little fancy.  Of course, I wanted it to be neutral, but I also wanted a small amount of color.  And, I wanted a larger design since the pantries are 6 1/2′ wide x 9′ tall.   So I chose this Cream & Pale Gold Damask style and think it looks really good with our pantry doors.

The color online is a little skewed.  It doesn’t look green and bright gold.  The bottom picture above is without a filter.  But, it still isn’t 100% accurate.  It’s hard to catch accurate colors through photos. The background is more of a warm linen color.  And the gold is very subtle.  

This wallpaper that I chose for our pantries was peel and stick, which is all the rage.  I didn’t know that it was peel and stick until it came in.  And, I almost sent it back but I hear people talk highly of it. I wanted to share a few thoughts on it.

My thoughts on peel and stick wallpaper….

Peel and stick is very simple to cut with a blade because it’s a thin vinyl, almost like shelf paper.  It is easily removeable if you get it in the wrong place with little to no damage to the walls.  There is a lot of applying and removing until it’s into place. You definitely need to start by rolling the backing off at the top about 24″.  Once that is attached to the wall, it’s easy to unroll the rest about 24″ at a time and work your way down.  Overall, once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty simple.  However, I didn’t have a window to paper around.  Mine were straight cuts with straight pieces.  The corners get a little tricky, but by the fourth one, I had it down pat. Peel and stick is STICKY.  So if you get the two sticky sides together, it takes a bit to get them apart.

I love the pre-pasted wallpaper because it isn’t like that.  You can fold it accordion style while you hang it.  It also slides into place very easily.  And when you wallpaper around a window or door, it doesn’t stick to everything.  

There are pros and cons to both.  I think it all boils down to what you are used to.  I would definitely try peel and stick again.  It really wasn’t difficult. 

Round up of VintageWallpaper

I told you that there are so many great wallpaper styles.  While I was on my search, I rounded up a bunch of styles of vintage wallpaper to share with you all.  My wheels are turning with where I can hang more…. Maybe our coat closet that I don’t think I have shown you yet.  Anyway, you can click on any of the pictures below for the direct link.

Have you gotten into wallpaper trend yet?  It is truly all the rage.  I don’t want to go hog wild in this house because I get too tired of things easily.  But, I know I can handle it in closets, etc.  Stay tuned to where it may end up next.