Pantry Cabinet for our Loreto Bay home
Pantry Cabinet for our Loreto Bay home. There are 5 full extension drawers for storing canned goods and everything else under the Baja sun as well as a couple of shelves for taller, larger items. Incredible amount of storage.
Pantry Cabinet for our Loreto Bay home
Pantry Cabinet for our Loreto Bay home. There are 5 full extension drawers for storing canned goods and everything else under the Baja sun as well as a couple of shelves for taller, larger items. Incredible amount of storage. The finishing touch still needed on these are the little stained wooden dots that Geoff came by to place over the screw heads. A later photo shows the final results of this. Much more finished look!

One of the unique qualities of our Loreto Bay Nueva Chica model is the kitchen island, an invaluable component of our great room. It allows me to work and still remain social with folks hanging out in the dining or living room area. The other particular quality is a sizable pantry area for storing canned goods, Cliff bars and whatever else may strike my fancy. Up until yesterday, this pantry area was nothing more than a mini room.

Pantry area of a Nueva Chica model.
Pantry area of a Nueva Chica model.

Inspired by what Tracy P. had done to her Nueva Chica home (Yes, one of the fun things to do in Loreto Bay is to check out other homes of the same model to get design ideas.), I decided to call in Geoff W. of USG Contruction who did her shelves to take a look at my sad pantry area.

Pantry area in our Casa del Lagarto Azul
Pantry area in our Casa del Lagarto Azul. Not very exciting is it? I did get an extra outlet put in here several years back when selecting options for our home thinking I may need to power a wine cooler in here or something. Since then, this has become less of a priority. Maybe I'll get one installed if we ever get the landscaping outside our home figured out.

Geoff, with sun baked skin and a mane of curly pepper-colored hair, does not look like someone you brainstorm pantry design ideas with. Yet, in front of my blank canvas of a pantry, he started to spout out fabulous ideas of what I could do with the area. I finally fell in love with the idea of having a set of full extension drawers and shelves for storing larger items. Once we agreed on the design, Geoff made a simple sketch and the deal was sealed.

Having heard his ideas about the pantry, I started to take him around the rest of the home and point to various area such as the laundry area, armoire, and tower to get other ideas he may have on storage. The brainstorming, I am sure, will lead to many future endeavors.

Yesterday was the exciting day when our pantry unit was delivered. After a bit of a challenge getting the enormous cabinet unit navigated into our pantry and settled, the unit looks like it has always been there.

I was extremely pleased with results. This morning, when I entered the great room, I made a b-line for the pantry, swung the door open, and admired my storage unit.

Base of cabinet.
Base of cabinet.
Cabinet goes it without the drawers.
Cabinet goes it without the drawers. With the effort to get this unit into place, this cabinet is never coming out of the pantry! Not that I ever would want it to. Now that I have the extra storage, not sure how I survived without it :-).
Final result of the pantry shelf installation by Geoff.

 

Drawers
These drawers are the perfect height for fitting cans and jars. Also keeps more of the dust off of items I place in them.

 

Full extension drawers.
Full extension drawers. I can stand outside of the pantry and pull one of these drawers out to have easy access to anything I want.
Loni Stark
Loni Stark is an artist at Atelier Stark, self-professed foodie, and adventure travel seeker who has a lifelong passion for technology’s impact on business and creativity. She collaborates with Clinton Stark on video projects for Atelier Stark Films. It’s been said her laugh can be heard from San Jose all the way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. She makes no claims to super powers, although sushi is definitely her Kryptonite.