August's Project: Bread Pantry

If your kitchen anything like mine, stuff ends up getting stashed on top of the fridge - cookies, bread and other assorted baked goods. I never really had a good place to put this stuff until NOW! I found this adorable little cabinet at Spice! The only thing it was missing was glass in the doors, which I added. Also, I didn't want people to see into the cabinet, so my mom helped me to sew the gathered curtains and install them behind the glass. (Sorry I don't have any before pictures of the shelf!) If you're interested in doing a similar project, my how-to's are below. Also, the three little jars on top of the shelf were allso purchased at Spice for $1 each! Close-ups of the jars are below. I hope to be able to put some dried lavender in them for decoration as soon as I manage to procure some :).




Sage Tarragon Coriander

PURCHASING AND INSTALLING THE GLASS:

This process ended up being much simpler than I would have imagined. My dad and I took one of the doors into Lowe's of Bowie. We measured the thickness of the space where the glass would go and accordingly selected a 1/4" thick piece of glass which an employee then cut to fit the door. He taped it into the door to hold it in (we had removed the wood shims that held the glass in place and brought only one in to make sure the glass was the correct thickness). He cut two pieces of glass, since their are two doors, and then we went up front and paid. It was fairly inexpensive as well; I could be wrong, but I believe the glass and labor was less than $20, and possibly less than $10 (but don't quote me on that, I don't remember). I just remember being surprised at how inexpensive it was, and how easy!

MAKING AND HANGING THE CURTAINS:

These were a bit trickier. My dad and I bought two 3 ft. lengths of steel rod (1/4" diameter, I think?) from Lowe's. To hold them, we used some screw-eyes which we tested in the store to ensure that the rod would pass easily through the screw-eye. At home, we cut the rods into four equal lengths (top and bottom for each door) and screwed the screw-eyes into the back of the door. The most difficult part was sewing the curtains. I purchased some off-white cottom from JoAnne Fabrics in Annapolis (2 yds I think?). My mom helped me to measure, cut it to size, and hem it so that there was a place for the rods to pass through on both the top and bottom. It's a bit tricky because if you make it too long, there will not be enough tension to hold the curtain in place, and if you make it too short, then the rods will not fit into their screw eyes. Perhaps the wise way to do it would have been to make the curtains and then install the screw-eyes to fit the length of curtain, but this was not the way we did it. Fortunately for me, my mom is a sewing genius (you rock, mom!) and so everything came out ok. But it was much more labor intensive than I had originally anticipated, and involved a lot more ironing and measuring (grumble) than I would have liked. However, I am very satisfied with the finished product, and the top of my fridge is clutter free! Hooray!