A Pantry Restoration

Over the last few months, I've been posting about the amazing restoration of Historic Stedham House by Dustin, owner of Van de Fleet Designs and Restorations.  

Dustin knows all about historic homes, having restored several over the years, including this beauty he purchased during his college days. 

Dustin currently lives in this gorgeous historic 1912 home (below) and he has worked hard returning it to its original state, as well. 

Dustin restored the entire kitchen and the "canning" room.  I'll be sharing more pictures of those areas later on.   Today we're taking a peek inside the pantry.  

Dustin is going to take us through the restoration of this pantry...enjoy!  
Dustin said, "This space was modified in 1952 along with the entire kitchen and canning room. Much of the original shelving units were destroyed for more "modern" units of the time. When I designed this space I first and foremost wanted something historically functional, meaning I wanted to stay true to the period of the home, yet make it a functional space in 2011. 

"Step one was the total demolition of the space, all original doors, hinges. door trim, window trim and base board moldings were taken out, scraped, stripped, primed and painted out side of the space. "

"We then moved on to the massive plaster repairs that had to be made. The room had a lot of cracked plaster which is an easy fix with sheet rock compound a trowel and a lot of sanding to make the walls smooth as silk."

"At that point we installed the bead board ceiling, cornice and crown molding to the space."

"The base storage unit was left intact and was original."

 "So we just had to recreate the U shaped shelving that wrapped around each side of the room."  (This is a collage below, showing the right and left sides of the pantry.)  


"When we added these shelves we tripled the amount of available storage space in the room. As we all know storage space in a historic home is few and far between, and well worth its weight in gold. After we recreated the original shelving system, we added crown molding at the top of the unit, stripped the original shelves and primed them for final painting. 

Pic below depicts the center section.  
Dustin said, "It was only at this point in the project that we were ready for primer and paint throughout the space. The paint is a Behr Paint called, Herb Green.  I decided to envelope the entire space with this rich historically correct color, Painting only the swinging door, window and door trim in Behr Ultra Pure White. Selecting a green tone for the room gave the room a historically correct vibe, yet it's very serene and peaceful too."

Here's how the pantry door looked prior to restoration...

And afterwards...beautiful!

Dustin said, "Finally, I selected a special order flooring product from Home Depot called Allure to use for the flooring in this space, the kitchen and the canning room for unity and design continuity. The Allure product is water resistant and perfect for a space that could easily see spills or accidents of any kind."

This is another collage showing the left and right sides of the room after the installation and painting of the shelving.

I love how great the pantry goods looks against the Herb Green color.  Even the name of the paint is befitting a pantry. :)

Dustin, thanks so much for sharing this delightful pantry.  It feels wonderfully nostalgic and makes me long for simpler days.