I moved recently and suddenly upgraded to a walk-in pantry; something I haven’t had since I was a kid! I’ve been so inspired from pouring my little ingredients into glass containers and thrifted baskets that I couldn’t help but think about the other Human Design Environments in these little food spaces we have in our homes.

To me, having a pantry is a bit of a luxury, so when writing out ideas, I wanted to include simple practical things, while also peppering the luxurious, dreamy, swoon-worthy and dramatic features in too. This article is designed to get you thinking about the spaces around you differently, helping you to see your Environment Variable coming into play everywhere in your life. Calculate your Environment Variable here.

Custom design

You have specific tastes and having the freedom and resources to customize your spaces will always serve you well. Customize the pantry you have based on your set up, whether that means building in nooks and custom cabinetry, or painting existing decor, or adding decorative elements in a rental. Make it YOU. Don’t hesitate to bring in decor items even if it’s “just a pantry” — it’s fun!

Open shelving

It’s always great to have easy access to your items ensuring the space is very practical and user-friendly. But it’s also important to be able to know what you have and don’t have, and experimenting with visually pleasing (to you) open shelving so your food also becomes part of your art can be very expansive to explore.

Pull-out pantries

A secret cupboard!? Markets Environments are always full of little baskets, bags, boxes or containers to store things in. These people can develop little collections of things like this. Having a pantry with secret built-in cupboards creates an air full of little secret spaces — very hermitty — and places to tuck your treasures in. But, they also tuck away in a sleek way so the whole world won’t see what you have in there.

Decorative backsplashes or tiling

A great way to bring in your style and personality is through decorative elements that don’t change so much of the structure and orientation of a space. These minor upgrades are a great and affordable way to bring in more of what you like — without having to do a major purchase like rearranging the pantry island to have a sink in it. Swapping out the wall colour, or changing up the storage baskets are great ways to personalize on a budget.

Labeling system

Calling all organization-nerds in the Marketplace! Don’t underestimate the satisfaction you’ll get from labelling all the cute jars and bins you’ve collected for your pantry. This is also a great way to know what’s inside some of the opaque storage containers you have where you can’t see what’s inside. But you can also get creative and organize things based on name or colour and don’t necessarily need to “traditionally label” things.

Butlers pantry

A traditional butler’s pantry is a separate space for additional storage and prep — which ideal for hosts and hostesses of the entertaining world. Having this separate space creates a special little nook where you get to tuck some of your favourite, best, or most used items. Spaces like this tend to become little hubs of energy for Markets People and you may find you’re drawn to be in them a lot!

Organized storage containers

Go wiiiiiiiild on the bins and boxes and overall organization system in your pantry. Colour coordinate your storage containers, or hunt down the perfect sized mason jars to store your pasta in. This is the area to put a lot of your energy as it’s how you will present and organize your ingredients. Whether you thrift a cool basket collection or order Marie Kondo’s entire pantry collection, this is the perfect area to have fun with.