I’m sure this is highly uninteresting to most people, but this is one of the things that’s been keeping me busy lately. We built a new spice rack! I am almost embarrassingly excited about it.
For years, my spice collection has been growing as such things will: slowly and imperceptibly. You buy a little of this and a little of that for various recipes, until one day you realize that half your spices are being stored in the cabinet above the oven, dying inglorious deaths in the heat therein. I had long known that the tiny, two-tier lazy Susan that had laughably served as the primary storage location was no match for my collection; but it was only after a tally that I realized exactly what I was up against. Yes, for my fifty-seven (!) spices, I needed something serious.
I’d seen wall-mounted spice racks, which I liked the look of, and it seemed like that solution would easily accommodate the largest number of containers with a minimum amount of real estate taken up, a real concern in our 500 square feet. It had to hang on one particular wall, right behind the back door, across from the stove. Complicating things, the breaker box is on that wall, so we couldn’t install anything permanent or that couldn’t be easily removed.
We built a simple frame from poplar boards and dowels, stained dark, and designed it specifically to accommodate a tin that I found for reasonably cheap online. The tins are big enough to hold a ridiculous amount of any given spice, somewhere around 1 cup or so.
The tins are fairly air-tight, but more importantly, keep light away from the fragile spices. A printed label unifies the look, and prevents any mix-ups, as can happen when your unlabeled bag of aniseed looks dangerously similar to the unlabeled bag of celery seed. (Turns out those two are not interchangeable in the slightest, and your coleslaw will be ruined. Do not think you are impervious to such mistakes, either; it is hubris, and you will be punished for it.)
As an added bonus, I now have plenty of breathing room in the cabinet for my oils, vinegars, and other liquid seasonings. Who knew I had tarragon vinegar?
With all my spices carefully labeled and organized (alphabetically, of course), and knowing exactly what I have on hand, I feel absolutely inspired to get back in the kitchen and (ahem) spice things up. It’s hard to believe that I went for so long with such a crucial part of my culinary arsenal in such disarray. You may notice there’s a few empty spots towards the bottom of the rack; obviously, I had to leave room for the collection to grow. At least now, I won’t feel bad about bringing home a new spicy friend, since I won’t have to store him over the stove anymore.
Here are some unglamorous before and after shots:
before
after
before, no hope of shoving anything else in
after, plenty of room!
above the stove before, spices in unlabeled bags shoved into tins
before, all the bags of spices from above the stove; those tins are crammed full
above the stove after, the tins are empty!
after, all my pretty spices in their new home
41 Comments
April 12, 2010 at 4:07 AM
Wow Beth, that is wonderful, good-looking and practical! Would you mind if I asked you what its dimensions are?
April 13, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Dear Elisabeth: the overall dimensions are 31.25″[79.4cm]H x 24.75″[62.9cm]W, assuming .75″[1.9cm] board thickness and .25″[0.64cm] dia. dowels. Each opening is 2.25″[5.7cm]H x 3.25″[8.3cm]W.
Thanks for the kind words!
April 13, 2010 at 7:32 PM
Yes, what he said!
April 21, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Nice job. This reminds me that I was planning to post about my new super-sexy spice rack but haven’t yet. (Mine is store-bought, though, so it’s not as cool as yours).
December 25, 2011 at 11:10 PM
I need to do this too! My cabinet matches your befores, which explains why I found 3 cans of ground cinnamon, but no oregano the other night.
January 1, 2012 at 8:24 PM
Erin: I know your pain. I highly recommend a big, luxurious spice rack; it’ll change your life in the best possible way.
January 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM
This is beautiful! Can you tell me where you found the tins?
January 4, 2012 at 4:41 PM
Kellie: Thank you! The tins came from PaperMart.com, item #6519331P (8 oz square steel tin can).
March 8, 2012 at 5:53 PM
Love your rack. We are renovating out kitchen and I love the fact that you have room for so many spices. I’ve had mine in three wall racks-all different and don’t want to go back onto the wall, but somehting like you have resting on the counter would be wonderful! Imagine my disappointment to find out that it’s a one of a kind! Good job!
March 11, 2012 at 9:20 AM
I admit it. I’m shamelessly copying your spice rack. I’ve been looking for a solution that holds more then 24 or 36 spices for so long, and nothing out there is as beautiful as this. To make my copy complete, would you share what font you used for the labels? Thank you
March 12, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Andrea: Copy away! I know, there’s nothing attractive out there for holding large numbers of spices. Now you know why I built my own. The font is P22 Gauguin Regular, which you can find on MyFonts.com.
April 12, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Beth, did you build this from scratch or did you find a blueprint somewhere?
Also what was the final cost after everything was purchased?
April 12, 2012 at 1:13 PM
Kyle: Built totally from scratch from our own design. See the comment above from Nathan (my partner in crime) for some dimensions. As for cost, I’ve completely forgotten the numbers. But I seem to remember that it came in under $100, including the tins. Hope that helps!
April 13, 2012 at 11:13 AM
Ok thank you. I’m going to try and make this lol.
April 13, 2012 at 6:44 PM
Wonderful job. I am going to copy it immediately! I got some 60-70 different spices and every time I need to find one I get crazy and loose a lot of time…The hard part is to convince my wife to lend a piece of wall to hang it! But beautiful! You have to sell it to some company you can make some money. Compliment there’s nothing as beautiful and practical at the same time on the market.
April 25, 2012 at 7:13 PM
I love your idea and am going to have my husband build me one. What kind of wood did you use. My spices take up so much room in my pantry, this is just awesome. Did you print out the labels on avery labels? Thank you for your spice rack. Saved my life. I am totally getting into organizing everything.
May 3, 2012 at 4:27 PM
Sue: Thank you! The wood is poplar, just some reasonably cheap stuff from Lowe’s. And yes, the labels are just standard Avery address labels. Please let me know how it turns out! This rack is absolutely life-changing.
May 6, 2012 at 4:14 PM
Beth – I love your site, and I love that spice rack! It was only after having built a spice rack (shelves) for my wife’s birthday that I did a web search on the topic and found yours. Our available wall space was only 17 inches wide, so a tall, narrow set of shelves was all that would work.
I really like the size and shape of the tins you chose, and really really like that font you used. Our circular tins are labeled with a label maker….maybe a spring refresher is in order?
We completely understand the predicament of not having spices orderly and readily at hand. Ours were kept in 3 shoe boxes, around 55 tins in all, in our pantry. The spices were supposed to be kept in alphabetical order, but things never stayed that way, so cooking typically entailed taking out all three boxes, taking most of the tins out, and searching to find what the recipe required. It became an impediment to cooking – dreading that search. I’m sure you’ve been in spice heaven since having made that wall beauty.
Your spice shelves are so very very nice!
May 10, 2012 at 5:52 PM
Elia: Thank you so much! So true, having all the spices organized is a huge help when it’s time to cook. Can’t imagine life any other way now. Kudos to you for making your own, and thanks for the sweet comment!
June 30, 2012 at 4:23 PM
Love your spice rack! I’ve been trying to find something uniform yet beatitiful for ages now to no avail until I saw your design. I’ve been entirely inspired. I intend to use tobacco tins though as I’ve more depth available on my wall space and since they have seal in the lid. Just hope my DIY skills don’t end up making it look like Homer Simpson’s sorry attempt!
August 8, 2012 at 3:46 PM
All I can say is: wow! This is one of the most beautiful spice racks I have ever seen. Stumbled upon it trough a google search. I love how you carefully printed a label for each spice, it makes for such a harmonious sight.
If I had the spice (and that many spices) I would love to have something like this someday.
August 8, 2012 at 3:49 PM
Of course, the first spice in the last sentence should be ‘space’. Well, a case of what the heart thinks, the keyboard types I guess ^_-
August 14, 2012 at 9:43 AM
Kim: Thank you! Obviously, the awesome thing about a custom spice rack like this is that you can adapt it to whatever space you’ve got, and however many spices you have (or think you’ll have!). Pick a spot, and customize away!
September 23, 2012 at 9:37 PM
Where can I find those tins your using?
September 24, 2012 at 9:20 AM
John: As mentioned above, the tins came from PaperMart.com, item #6519331P (8 oz square steel tin can).
September 26, 2012 at 9:42 PM
Finally – a spice rack that would work for me!!! Thank you so much. This is wonderful!
October 26, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I have a smaller space to work with but I’m going to try to copy your idea modifying to use in my space. I also prefer smaller tins, so I bought 4oz ones from specialtybottle.com
Thank you so much for the DIY inspiration!
October 30, 2012 at 12:24 PM
Katie: Thanks so much! Always thrilled to inspire some DIY times. Best of luck with construction!
January 15, 2013 at 8:53 AM
What a fantastic do-able solution! I too have spices stored in several shoe boxes, and they idea of endlessly searching has put me off of more than one ambitious recipe. Your design is the only one I’ve seen that has sufficient space plus room to grow. thank you so much for sharing.
January 20, 2013 at 2:07 PM
Love it! This is my next project. Did you cut the dowels to glue within each opening, or drill holes in all the vertical boards to insert one long dowel through?
January 23, 2013 at 2:39 PM
Erin: We drilled holes in all the vertical boards to insert one long dowel through. Waaaaay easier than cutting all them dowels down to size!
February 16, 2013 at 1:22 PM
I am so going to steal this idea and make myself one for my home. Thanks so much for the idea Beth.
February 16, 2013 at 2:59 PM
I love love love this!!!
February 17, 2013 at 12:51 PM
Could you tell me the dimensions of the pieces of the popular wood, like the width of the sides and uprights?
February 19, 2013 at 7:51 AM
Checked out your beautiful and clever spice rack this morning while sipping my coffee and had to post this comment – not only do I love your great use of space and ingeneous design, I chuckled out loud at your delightful writing style! It was a pleasure visiting your site. Keep up the good work.
February 19, 2013 at 3:15 PM
Barbara: The poplar boards have a .75″ thickness. The entire unit is 3.5″ deep. Those boards are pretty standard at your big-box hardware store.
Vicki: Thanks so much!
February 23, 2013 at 3:49 PM
Thanks Beth….What I really need to know is how wide the upright boards are. I realize they are 3/4 inch thick and how long they are, just need how wide? I found them at hardware here where I live, but can pick two different widths….One I’m sure I would have to cut lengthwise though. Thanks, Barb
March 1, 2013 at 3:34 PM
Barbara: The upright boards measure 31.25″ (length) x .75″ (width) x 3.5″ (depth). Does that help?
April 6, 2013 at 6:50 AM
Beth, a fantastic idea and superb execution. It’s really great. My question, however relates to spices. Which 72 spices do you use. Can you please list them or email the list to me. Thanks
Martin
April 29, 2013 at 7:51 PM
I shamelessly used your idea and it looks sooooo lovely in my wee kitchen! A great handy friend built the box and i ordered your tins. Could you just confirm how you hung it on the wall, brackets?
May 1, 2013 at 7:29 PM
Nicky: Glad you like it so much! Ours is mounted in front of the breaker box, which sticks out a bit from the wall. As a spacer, we attached a board (the same width as the spice rack, and hung horizontally) to the wall. The spice rack has two heavy-duty picture hangers on the back, which hang on two nails driven into the board on the wall. Hope that helps!