How I Converted My Kitchen Cabinet Into Trendy Shelving

This particular cabinet, was basically our pantry right next to the fridge. Eventually, when I do gut this whole kitchen and reno, I would like to make this a full length pantry. But for now I wanted to try open shelving. It also gave me a reason to reorganize my pantry and chuck all the expired cans of food!

The first thing I did was take everything out including the shelves, and painted it off white. I used Sherwin Williams extreme bonding primer and then their Marshmallow Interior Paint in a semi gloss finish. It was just slightly off white but I liked the contrast with the dark frame rather then going with a stark white. The wood was relatively bare and I most likely would have been fine not used a primer first but I wanted to make sure it could withstand some wear. I actually already had the primer and the paint from other projects and didn't spend any additional money on this project!

I painted the shelves separately with the same primer and color and then put them back in the cabinet once it was all dry. I used one coat of primer and two of the paint allowing a few hours to dry in between each coat. I then removed the doors. I always go with semi gloss for a cabinet or furniture and eggshell for wall paint.

After removing the doors, there were holes left behind by the screws. I didn't find them very obvious to begin with but used a touch up filler stick to fill the holes. Now I don't see them at all! I got this touch up kit from Amazon a while back and it came with six touch up markers and 6 crayons in various wood colors. They have come in handy so many times over the years when I dinged up furniture during moves or clumsiness.

I used the top two shelves for storage and the bottom shelf for decor but I tried to go with dishes that were "pretty" and stuck to a white color palette. I also lined the bottom of each shelf with Grip-N-Stick white cabinet liner by Con-Tact. This made me feel more comfortable that the paint wont scratch on the dishes. I cant wait to decor this space seasonally!