Skirting the China Hutch

We have a good many cookbooks. And since we sometimes buy organic food in bulk to save money, I have to find places to keep this stuff. I need solutions, people!!

Speaking of which, I’ve got this book, y’all, that goes to great lengths to talk about the many ways you can store bulk food ALL throughout your house! The diagrams in it are so funny. I will have to show that to ya one day! But back to this…

We have a pantry that currently needs more shelves installed (hysterically coughing so hubby looks my way!) – and we also have a metal baker’s rack in here that I never intended to keep more than a few months after we moved in (that was going on 3 years ago). I don’t have anything against baker’s racks…but this one is just not my style and I’m not excited about having it out where everyone can see it, but I need the storage. Originally, our pantry was supposed to have nice built-in shelving and even an outlet for plugging in those small electric appliances. My intention was to have them perfectly usable AND perfectly out of the way at all times. My, my! Isn’t that a fabulous idea?

Too bad that the shelving didn’t happen the way I had envisioned it, and the electrical outlet was never installed (we had many probs with the electrical work in this house after we built it! That was not our doing, people! Just sayin’!). We STILL don’t have working overhead lights in the playroom!

Alas.

I digress.

Since we have ugly cardboard boxes and plastic buckets to store all that food in, I decided to forgo an idea of using beautiful baskets on this bottom shelf. I like the idea of using a skirt here instead because I can introduce pattern and color. Recently, I made a quick trip to the sewing salvage store and bought a couple of yards of this fabric for CHEAP! I almost went with a black and white damask, but couldn’t say no to this one (I might go back one day and still get the damask). The colors are right up my alley as I was hoping to use a rusty red and mossy green with our golds and creams in the kitchen.

Yep, it went up just like that. I am sometimes impatient with stuff, and didn’t want to drag out this lil’ project. I put it up with my hot glue gun and velcro. Easy, right? Those are two of the best inventions ever made! First, both strips of velcro were hot glued up way up underneath where you can’t see it. Second, the fabric was glued to the top strip of velcro and I was done!

My future plan is to make more skirts that can easily be changed out with the seasons – or celebrations – or my mood, etc.

And because we are a silly, playful kinda family – then I thought these funky animals in various scenes would really work for us right now. There are animals and children – all either playing, eating and dancing. Sometimes Gianna like to sit here in front of the skirt and just gaze at all of the happnen’ scenes.

Please excuse the top half of the hutch because it’s not quite finished. I’ve been playing around with scrapbook paper to line the back wall. I first saw the Nester do this with her furniture and love the idea of it. Here I am just trying out a couple of different papers. I like the rusty red paper that looks like crackled paint. I can change that out inexpensively and easily, too. Love love!! <3

Do you purchase bulk foods? If you don’t have a fancy walk-in pantry, how do you store it all?