Door Mounted Spice Rack

Building a spice rack had taunted me from my to do list for many years but not anymore.  We cook most of the food we eat and have accumulated many spices over the years.  It always takes more time than it should to find the ones you want.  Let’s eliminate some frustration from our lives!

I had thought about a double decker lazy suzan but it seemed even better to mount the spices to the back of the pantry door.  This would free up shelf space and make the spices very easy to see.

First I laid out all the spices in the kitchen, drew up a quick CAD plan to accommodate the smallest, largest, and total number of containers.  I checked to make sure it would fit in the cavity between the door and the pantry shelves, etc.

We use spices quite often so I knew the surfaces that the spices slid against needed to be as heavy duty as I cared to make them.  The front stops are 1/4″ aluminum rod (won’t rust) that I purchased from Stott Bolt.  The dual rods contain both large and small spices while still allowing the labels to be visible.  The back is leftover laminated plywood from the closet expansion project so it has a tough counter-top-like surface.  The rest of the rack is made of painted poplar.  Luckily, I had some extra solid poplar boards that I had planed down for drawers when I redid the kitchen (see here – please forgive the look.  It is the first website I ever designed.  I actually “coded” it.).  They had only warped a little over the years and were a much more pleasant thickness than standard 1″ lumber.

Because the rack and its contents are so lightweight and I wanted a quick and easy project, I just cut all the parts to size and stapled them together.  My only concern is that things might loosen up a little over time with the door opening and closing and bottles shifting around.  I had initially planned to glue everything as well but there were so many tight fitting parts that had to go together at one time that, even with Melanie’s help, I knew it would be a problem.  It has six pocket screws holding it to the door and several coats of paint too.  We’ll see what happens as time goes by.

Poplar sides and bottom. Aluminum rod front. Laminated Plywood back.

Stapled together. Holes patched.

Design mistake. Forgot to allow for the radius on the front where the shelf meets so instead of being flush with bottom, shelf is shifted up. Can also see slight warp in wood.

Painted and installed on pantry door.

Yuk! Old overflowing lazy susan.

Yum! It all fits.

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