how we use our butler’s pantry + laundry space

A sweet reader, Casey, wrote in and said this, “I really love your butler’s pantry and laundry room combo. It was a smart way to update your house and add on since you were so limited with codes and what they would let you do. I guess I was curious about how you use it these days?…”

That’s a great question, Casey, because once upon a time this side of our house didn’t exist. So, I thought we’d pop in and chat about it for a minute.

It’s the hardest space to photograph but easily one of the hardest working in our house, too. If you’re not familiar with the history of our little house, here’s a brief {and big} kind of tour you can check in on. It’s definitely been an adventure with an entire overhaul and then some. {In case you’re wondering, we still have some plans up our sleeves for something else, but for now, we’re just enjoying feeling settled and resting in this next phase.}

Last October, we shared the final finished space and the last missing piece to our addition. It was finito a while before that, but it took us a bit to finish it off with all the details… from tile to shelving, wallpaper and more.

This space is a walk-through from what was once the left side of the kitchen into our primary suite.

Here’s a quick shot of the before…

And what is here now.

Opening this space up made such a huge difference!

I wish I had some kind of magical formula to share, where I’m super organized and blah blah blah… but the truth is, it’s kind of just kitchen overflow right now, and probably always will be. I have the grandest of intentions to purge our entire home once we get our oldest moved into college this week. The donation piles are slowly growing and I’m all about simplifying. But in the meantime, this is still a great space that serves us well.

On the left sits an old china cabinet I’ve had for years, which holds all my dishes’ overflow. I have a lot already in the kitchen {see below} and other places around the house, but this is a great place for the dishes we actually use more frequently.

Nothing fancy to see here, just random stacks for the most part. I’m constantly rearranging these to suit our needs. And below is the kitchen space that holds even more, for reference. It’s like an open-air china cabinet.

This piece is invaluable as well, and I love the way it ended up for us. The open shelves were necessary to keep such a narrow space open, as is that pretty herringbone wall. But the piece itself holds the things all kitchens need, but usually get in the way.

See: Tupperware + gigantic mixer that we all love. Yes, look upon my shame with full eyes. We have a convoluted collection of orange-stained ridiculousness. I opened the drawer and shot it as is so you can see what we’re working with here. Good times. Keeping it real.

The bottom holds things like the Star Wars waffle maker and egg poacher. To the left in the cabinet, we have our crockpot and larger pots that won’t fit, and to the right, our Pyrex. I decided not to bore you with the mundane, but we’re grateful for the space and all that it offers in terms of valuable real estate and flexibility.

Beyond that is our laundry room. I’m still thrilled we chose that frosted glass. It’s come in handy for sliding shut when it hiding baskets of laundry, and kids even use it as a changing space in the summer since it’s so close to the pool.

What I adore the most, though, aside from having an actual room for laundry, is the fridge right off the kitchen. And the fact that laundry right off our bedroom is so nice and easy to maintain now. We’ve never had that before. We were trudging down the stairs for both, into our basement forever, so this has been a nice change.

Everything you see has a hard-working function in this space.

I loved selecting this vintage art and using it to cover the electrical box. Odd placement, in case you were wondering, to make way for the light switch – placed there due to the pocket door to our bedroom on the other side… and the electrical box on the right. But they still work in a fun way.

I just love this happy view into our great room!

Anddd… we have another cabinet of shame. But at least that backsplash is oh-so pretty. There’s just nothing glamorous about it… cleaning supplies, dryer sheets, an iron and more.

The floor in front of the fridge opens up to access our crawlspace. This is where we store all our Christmas things. And dead bodies, of course. JK I could barely handle a skunk.

My very favorite element in this laundry space, is the drying rack. It’s really been the most useful thing, we use it almost daily. You can check it out here!

Again, be sure to check out the entire tour here + our primary suite here! I like to refer to this little hardworking space as organized chaos. We only hope to refine our processes, but it is a great space for us!