What a week in LA! But also, what a few weeks leading up to LA... It's been so busy in Nashville that it was hard to step away for a few days. The projects however, more than made it worthwhile. We wanted to share more pics and details, so without further adieu:
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE'S PANTRY
Christina and her family recently remodeled their kitchen, so we really wanted to provide a final result that matched the modern style. To achieve the same sleek lines and crisp finishes, we primarily went with clear acrylic InterDesign products. They work great for containing boxed items, fruit pouches, and kids snacks. We also used the extra large steps for cans since they were the perfect width. Another fun touch was the Large Balcolore Tub in White for the bottom shelf. They are lightweight and unbreakable, so they make a great container for kids items, such as lunch boxes.
MARLA SOKOLOFF'S PANTRY
Marla's pantry was a different challenge for us because it was a different configuration than most. It has pullout shelves and drawers, so we had to first map out what was going to go where - and what product would make the most sense. For the drawers, we wanted to make sure items were properly divided and contained. Marla requested an area for her homemade granola, so we wanted to segregate those ingredients from the kids snacks.
One of the things that made this project so fun was that Elliotte was in the kitchen helping us! She got so into the "reveal" aspect and policed the door so that her mother wouldn't peek.
BARRETT PRENDERGAST'S KIDS ROOM
Barrett is the owner (and chief gifter / caterer) of Valleybrink Road. We are obsessed with VBR and basically want to be Barrett. But if we CAN'T be Barrett, we can at least help her organize her house. Working in Costa's room was such a treat because he is THE (no pun intended) cutest child ever and he smiled and holds your hand when you're done. So even though we were just there to organize his closet, we ended up doing his bookcase too. Because honestly, HOW could you not.
SELMA BLAIR'S PANTRY
Selma is so fun.. and it was such a treat transforming her pantry. She had tons of snacks, so it was a great opportunity to use these narrow mesh bins from Design Ideas (available at The Organizing Store). We also used the larger size at the base of the pantry for paper goods and supplies.
One of the things that saved us in this pantry were the Madesmart 10 inch turntable. Selma had a LOT of oils, sauces, and spices - so without these turntables, we never would have fit everything on the shelf!
CATHERINE MCCORD'S PANTRY
If you are following the Weelicious empire, you know Catherine is all about form and function. Healthy meals with vibrant colors, and kids lunches that are as pretty to look at as they are delicious to eat. So naturally this was a dream project for us. But it was a LOTTTTTT OF WORK. For starters, Catherine is a chef and uses approximately 1 million ingredients. But there was also a huge amount of pressure to make it look AMAZING so it would live up to her standards. Good thing we love a challenge.. Because even though it took us longer than usual, we were obsessed with the result.
We tried to maximize both the length, width, and heigh of each shelf by using items like an expandable shelf, a double decker turntable, and Linus stacking open-mouth bins for snacks. This allowed us (with a lot of trial / error / and tweaking) to fit all of the items, but still maintain the space to see everything.
As we mentioned before, kids lunches are a huge piece of the Weelicious brand, so we needed to make kids snacks easy to access and items easy to find. We kept sweet on one side, and salty on the other side, and provided different sections for opened items, and backstock for closed items. The stacking bins were the perfect place for individually packaged snacks like dried fruit snacks. We also separated out the bars with nuts from the bars without nuts since Catherine's kids go to a nut-free school.
One last piece of function we wanted to add was a labeled shelf for appliances so that everything had a home. If you create a designated space, it prevents items from being shoved in at random. And for a high-traffic and high-volume space like a pantry, creating a home for everything is key.
But before the result pics, we wanted to show you what the kitchen counter looked like after we unloaded the entire pantry.. Just so you didn't think we were being dramatic about the amount of stuff we were working with!
We can't wait to plan our next trip back to LA! Preferably during the winter..... I hear it gets cold in Nashville and we are California girls!
Thoughts welcome!