Hickory Spice Rack Ideas?

[Michael Drew]

A friend has asked me to build him a spice rack. He wants it made out of hickory to match his kitchen cabinets. I'm just not seeing anything that's quite what I need and am looking for some ideas.

It needs to mount on the wall. I have an area 36" wide and open from floor to ceiling to use. I figured I'd build it around 32" wide X 32". He wants to see his jars, so no raised panel doors. He also wants it to fit his large jugs and small bottles.

I have this picture in my head that this rack will be a combination of a couple open shelves for the large jugs and a section with doors that halve small shelves that swing out to reveal more small shelves. I'm just not sure how I want to build this thing and was surfing the Internet trying to find pictures of something similar, but haven't had much luck.

If anyone's built a spice rack of this size, please share your thoughts.

[Bill McDermott]

Michael, One thought to share.... I never built it, but noodled about it a fews years ago. I decided that 90 degree shelves would require some sort of keeper rail, or a good sized lip on the shelves. I thought that would waste space and be awkward. Then my handplane till sparked an idea. You might consider shelves and backs that cradle the spice jars by leaning some-teen degrees back. You can put one row right on top of the other and not require clearance to lift up and out. Unfortunately, regardless of how many rows, I suspect your friends will always find that you made it too small by one jar. :) Bill

[Dave MacArthur]

I've built a 34" wide spice rack, but more importantly I cook with a ton of spices everyday... Here's what I'd want as a cook:
1. all shelves open so you can grab grab grab the spices you want, no doors to open or close.
2. Most shelves, the upper ones, should be sized to fit the now "standard" spice jar size you find from McCormick. The bottles should sit on a slight angled bottom and tilt back against the back wall, and there should be a slat that goes across the bottoms to keep them anchored in. The slat should be only 1" high or so to allow READING of all of the label! (the metal racks in first pic below from IKEA area actually very nice, just need to be wider!)
3. The width should be made in integers of McCormick spice bottles. Having a half bottle slop is annoying. They sell the bottles empty (or use some up) and you can buy labels for EVERYTHING to stick on them, and most cooks who use spices a lot will buy in cheaper bulk from specialty stores then transfer into the more useful flip-top glass jars... also much more presentable.
4. The bottom shelves should be sized for larger bottles and cans of stuff like you buy garlic salt, lemon pepper, paprika, chili power in. Make it tall enough to hold them. Flat bottom.
5. Maybe a top shelf that will hold those small tin cans or 1.5" high plastic cylinders from McCormick and Spice Islands etc., usually sideways (so shelf is wide), and it needs a much shorter retaining fence to allow reading labels and because there is no vertical tipping moment. Flat bottom.
6. Make it big enough!! That is with enough space to REALLY HOLD ALL SPICES. Man it's annoying to have a nice spice rack and STILL have to go to two other cabinets to find all the other ones that don't fit!

I use 50% of these spices every week and 90% every month, trust me--if your rack doesn't fit them all, every time a cook uses the rack what goes through their mind is, "GAHH! This dang rack is just too small...", not "My how nice this quartersawn oak is!".

Ok, that's my take on it, but I did make green thai curry from scratch for dinner tonight and used 15 spices or so and some fresh stuff from the garden, I may want more than normal. But your parameters are wide enough that I think you CAN make a good one, good luck!

Uhmm... and obviously I'm gonna want a copy of whatever plan you come up with! DOH! ;)

[Van Huskey]

This thought is not well incubated but the first thing I thought of is a curved design. Visual interest because it is in the open, wide in the center for "jugs" narrowing on the outside for the small jars. His kitchen design might clash with the curves though.

[Michael Drew]

Thanks for the input.

Curved eh??? Pretty tough to do with hickory....I need to ponder that one.

My girlfriend (five years now, so a different descriptor may be I order) went to a Cordon Blue school in England a few years ago. She has numerous drawers filled with spices along with a cabinet. I have no place to hang a spice rack, or I’d be making two of these. One for my buddy, the other for her. So I can empathize with what you are saying Dave.

I had planned to angle the shelves, but I want to incorporate some dovetails into this piece, and I am not nearly skilled enough to cut angled dovetails. I think I’ve given up on the whole door concept. I’m now sketching out an open wall mount cabinet that’s six inches wide at the bottom for the jugs and it progressively gets narrower towards the top. Trying to find the right combination of shelf widths and how to ‘step’ it down to the narrower shelves and still be attractive is a bit difficult. I’ve cut out two different templates so far and neither looked right.

The other thing is weight. I had planned to use ¾”, but man that sucker will be heavy. So now I’m thinking ½”.

[Greg Portland]

A friend has asked me to build him a spice rack.You need to determine how many jars of spices he has. For example, my Mom has maybe 9-10 small jars of the basics. I have everything from small jars to gallon tubs of spices and it takes up a lot of room. Once you get an idea of the scope of the project we can provide better ideas.

One thing that really helped me was to write the spice name on the lid of each jar. This allows me to put them in drawers (in alphabetical order) and not spend forever rummaging around. I also keep spice mixtures separate from pure spices.

[Jon Endres]

Spice storage is a pain in the butt if you have a good collection of spices that you use frequently. I have all mine in a bottom drawer of a cabinet near my stove, and it's 30" wide by 24" long by 8" deep and FULL. I use a lot of different spices when cooking and my storage system is terrible. I have several sizes of containers too, so it would have to be a system that accommodates a bunch of different sizes. Everything from large restaurant-size containers to small round plastic containers, a bunch of Tupperware containers that I hate but my wife won't let me get rid of, and even a few small mason jars and plastic bags. The places I buy most often from are World Merchants and Penzey's, and they sell in plastic bags unless you want to buy the jars every time.

So if someone comes up with a good design for a lot of spices, post it here.

[Michael Drew]

He has a LOT, and they're all over the place. Size range from the big Costco jugs to the little short ones. This is an old request, about two years now. I've procrastinated this project as long as I can. What a pain to figure this out and it's so seemingly simple.

I'm making this with two shelves that are 4" deep on the bottom. Then a shelf that's 2 3/4" deep, then two that are 2 1/4" deep. Total cabinet height will be about 37". I'm sticking to 32" wide to give 2" of wall on both sides.

I had some 3/4" hickory flooring left over, so I just machined the groves out of that to get me 1/2" for the shelves. The sides, top and bottom will be 3/4".

Now to practice dovetails on the Incra again. I always manage to screw them up.

[Chris Padilla]

Personally, I think one should buy a bunch of containers all the same size...then it is much easier to design a rack to hold everything neatly and cleanly. Search online...there are a bazillion choices...consider the lid style you may like, too (large/small sifter, pourer, etc.)

I'm working on getting my wife "out there" to find such containers so I can build her a smaller one that will go above the stove. Unlike some of you, I don't think we pound through the spices that much so we probably only need room for 8-12 jars.

[Jon Endres]

That's an OK thought for someone who only uses a little bit of spices, but there are others, myself included, who go through huge amounts of some and only a little tiny bit of others. One size of container just isn't reasonable.

I was googling this because I need to replace my horrible drawer-based system, and the best thing I could find was a clamshell-type cabinet that had closed doors. I don't like an open rack unless you're running a commercial kitchen, spices should not be exposed to sunlight or heat. Anyway, the doors could have shallow adjustable shelves, say 1-1/2" to 2" deep, that could handle the small spice jars and the tiny 1-ounce plastic shaker jars, and the rest of the cabinet could also have adjustable shelves and be deep enough to take the largest jar you'd want to put in there. For me, it would be one of the large plastic 1-lb shaker jars from Sam's Club (Tone's, McCormick, etc.) or a 1-quart mason jar. I have a garden full of parsley and rosemary that I need to harvest and dry, and all that parsley isn't going to fit in a small shaker jar. Yes, you can store bigger jars in a separate pantry - which may not be a bad idea, but then you need to have room for both large and small containers in your kitchen.

I also make a lot of my own spice rubs and mixes, especially BBQ rubs, so that takes a fair variety and quantity of spices. Be nice to store them all together.

[fRED mCnEILL]

When I built our island I had a space about 8 inches wide left over so I built a vertical drawer. We then went to Lee Valley and bought a whole slew of stainless steel spice containers. They are round and have a clear plastic insert in the lid. I made a number of shelves that are angled and the containers fit into drilled holes in the shelves. The drawer is about 28 inches high and 24 inches deep. The containers are about the same diameter of a 10 oz soda can and about 3/4 the heighth. They are big enough to hold a fair amonut of spices and my wife, who uses a lot of spices, like the setup.

[Chip Lindley]

It needs to mount on the wall. I have an area 36" wide and open from floor to ceiling to use. I figured I'd build it around 32" wide X 32". He wants to see his jars, so no raised panel doors. He also wants it to fit his large jugs and small bottles.


With the floor to ceiling space available, why not make a "spice cupboard" for your Chef friend. Make it rather like a mini-china hutch, with small shelves up top for the spice bottles, and cabinet doors below for storage of large-size containers. A drawer above the cabinet doors would contain measuring cups, and other implements. Something like this but on a much smaller scale. Only 2 bottom doors instead of three. Perhaps no upper doors; just spice racks.

167845

Just an off-hand thought....