DIY Spice Rack

I’ve never owned a spice rack. I’ve never liked the look of the counter top spice racks and how they took up precious space. My spices have always been stored in my pantry…in a disorganized mess. I never knew what I already had on hand and now I have multiple packages of the same spices. I’d go grocery shopping and forget what I already had at home and end up realizing when I got home that I wasted my money.

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We are in the process of renovating our kitchen. It’s still a work-in-progress and I’ll be grateful the day it’s finally done. I knew I wanted a spice rack and got the idea of how to make one after looking at StickerYou online and seeing their cute spice rack labels! I remembered John had an old shelf that his kids scribbled marker all over and he was using it to store his Star Wars action figures. (He’s a collector).

I already had black paint and primer from a few years ago when we painted an old dresser. I thought the shelf would be the perfect spice rack for my new kitchen. I think it turned out fabulous! My kitchen doesn’t have the drywall up yet so it’s hanging in my back office for now until it’s ready (don’t mind the ugly wood paneling!).

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This is the finished look…

Here’s what it looked like before….It’s nice wood, but it was ruined with the marker.

My spices were a disaster. I had so many spices and to try and find them when I was making a recipe was a real pain! I’d pull one out of the cupboard and they would all fall out. It just wasn’t working anymore.

My mom picked me up some cute jars at Walmart when she came down to visit last month. They were $1 each at Walmart.

I created these spice jar labels at StickerYou. You can customize them and choose your design, colours, font and what each will say. I spent a couple hours on their site making them. I knew what spices I had already in my cupboard, but needed to fill up the stickers with other spices I may potentially buy someday. I googled and found a bunch of lists and picked the ones I was most likely to use. Then I left some blank ones so I could write on them if I needed to. There is 63 labels in total here.

The spice labels cost $8.99 and shipping was $3.99. They actually didn’t take that long to arrive. I was expecting them to take longer than they did. I think they came in about a week.

I spent three days getting the shelf ready. First I primed with Latex Acrylic tinted primer.

The second day I put on my first coat of Acrylic Latex Enamel black paint in Semi-Gloss.

And finally on the third day, the final coat of paint goes on. Now to wait till it dries!

I put the labels on the lids because the jars are rounded and it’s hard to make them go on straight. I like the look of them on the lids better anyway.

It will be nicer when my kitchen is done, but at least now my spices are organized! I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.