River House Diary

The window treatments for the kitchen and pantry are woven wood shades by Horizons Window Fashions. The pattern and color are Veranda Light Walnut . Five were installed -- four in the kitchen and one in the pantry. The color is a perfect compliment to the furniture in the eat-in area of the kitchen. Kitchen shades; personal collection This is the single window that overlooks the screen porch. Identical shades are on the three windows that overlook the river to the left of this photo. The pantry window overlooks the road at the front of the house. Zuniga Interiors specified off-white or ivory linen drapes for the eat-in area along with woven wood shades. We chose to wait on those for now. I've been back and forth about drapes vs. no drapes but am still undecided. If you recall, the sink in the pantry, where I wash dishes, is exposed. So we also had a "sink skirt" made for it. It is made from Master Fabric's Stuti collection -- Imperatrice 022 . Sink skir...

I have been getting a lot of requests for photos of the rooms in our house. This probably isn't the room anyone wants to see, but the pantry is the closest to being finished. So that's what you will see! The pantry is accessible from the kitchen via a swing door. I chose to have glass installed in the top panel of the door to let more light into the kitchen as the pantry window is south facing. Pantry door from kitchen; personal collection I enlarged the pantry by two feet so it is 6 feet 10 inches deep. There is a U-shaped counter that is standard depth under the window but only 12 inches deep along the side walls. An Elkay stainless steel sink is under the window and this is where I hand wash my pots, pans and wine glasses. I am waiting on a woven Roman shade for the window and a fabric "skirt" under the sink to hide the plumbing and whatever cleaning supplies end up down there. The rug is a flatweave outdoor rug that matches the rug we have under our kitc...

Friday the pantry countertop was installed and Monday the backsplash tile was laid. This is going to be a great room to handwash dishes. Pantry countertop and backsplash tile; personal collection

The trim carpenters finished the pantry shelves last week so the countertops could be measured and templates made. I bumped the pantry wall out two feet and it created an incredibly generous space for storage. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. One of three walls of shelves in the pantry; personal collection This is the short wall as the air conditioning cold air return was located on the right side of the photo. The shelves on the left will have a sink under the window. And I am standing in front of another wall of shelves. The countertop material will be the same as the kitchen -- Cambria Fairbourne .

I believe I’ve found the fabric for our Pantry sink skirt. P. Kaufman Buffalo Check fabric in Seabreeze ; courtesy of Online Fabric Store The pantry will have open shelves because we didn’t want to pay for cabinets in this room. But it also has an under-mount sink where I will hand wash things that can’t go in the dishwasher. This means the the front of the sink and the associated plumbing would be visible when you enter the pantry. A sink skirt will cover up all that not pretty stuff. Pantry sink skirt fabric sample and backsplash tile; personal collection I got the idea from the For the Love of a House blog post about her kitchen  (last photo).

Our Kitchen was the first room Zuniga Interiors designed for us and I am still swooning over the backsplash tile. Maiolica 3" x 12" ceramic tile in Aqua Crackled; courtesy Roca Tile USA The original design called for a second tile above the cooktop as a decorative element using a cement encaustic tile. Pacific Classic Collection Mahlia II; courtesy of Cement Tile Shop I've never been wild about different tile designs over the range. So we planned to use the cement tile as the backsplash in the pantry. Then we read about how high maintenance encaustic cement tile is and changed our minds about using it. We're repeating the Maiolica tile in the Pantry since it will be visible from the kitchen.

We have a large pantry adjoining the kitchen. I added a sink so that we could store dirty dishes there until I hand wash them after coffee the next morning. We didn't give our builder much direction beyond  that. So they priced cabinets for the sink wall. Original cabinet design for the pantry; courtesy of JAK Moulding & Supply Instead, we will have all open shelves on three walls with a U-shaped counter for the sink. My very bad rendering of how we want the pantry. Alternative for pantry storage; personal collection Twelve-inch deep shelves on the walls perpendicular to the window wall. Twelve-inch deep upper shelves on window wall Twenty-four-inch deep lower shelves (only on window wall) Sink faucet Countertop