Finally, a Solution to My Messy Spice Cabinet!

What started out as a plan to get my spices in order steamrolled into an entire day of kitchen organization.

You see, my husband and I have our own spice cabinets. Sound crazy? Well, yes it is.  When we combined households we just kept them separate for some unknown reason. Something needed to seriously change!

I couldn’t take digging through these cabinets any longer:

Hers:

 His:

Trying to find what I needed between these two messy cupboards was so frustrating.  The closest I came to fixing this mess was adding the lazy susans.  My husband’s cabinet is the one above the stove. He can easily reach anything he needs. Me? Not so much.

Then the other morning, it hit me:  Why don’t I build a cabinet to hang on the end of my kitchen cabinet to hold my spices?

So I did!

 I made it narrow enough to fit neatly on the side of the cabinet.

 My original plan was to distress it but I am having a hard time doing that lately.  It looks so shiny and new, I don’t want to mess with it.

 I love how it turned out. I wish I could say that I built it with leftover wood scraps I just happened to have in the garage but the truth is, I had to buy all the wood for this project.

I also had to purchase hinges, a magnetic closure, L braces for the door frame, and hangers for the back.  But the final cost was still less than $20!  I already had the metal grate for the door insert, the pretty glass knob, and the paint .

I made this cabinet 10″ wide by 30″ tall as to fit the side of my cabinet which is probably pretty standard.

Here’s how I did it:

I cut my pine (3/4′ X 6 X 2) into two 30 ” pieces and seven 8 1/2″ pieces.

Using a bit of wood glue and finishing nails, I constructed my shelves. I made them to accomodate both small and taller spice jars.

Confession:

I originally cut my shelves 10″ in length but I didn’t realize that building it with the shelves placed in between the sides would add 1 1/2 ” to the width. It wasn’t until I was measuring to see how wide to cut the grate that I noticed.  It would have hung off the side of my kitchen cabinet! So…I had to take it apart and cut each shelf UGH!

Live and learn!

After I fixed my faux-pas, I built the frame, mitering the edges.  I used “L” braces (is that what they’re called??) to secure the frame together.

Then my sweet hubby cut the grate for me.

You could use beadboard, fabric, there are so many options when it comes to the door panel. I chose this because we actually did have this leftover from another project.

 I attached it with a staple gun.

And there she is…

 Just add a coat of paint, hinges, hanging hardware, one really cool magnetic closure, plus one fancy shmancy knob and you’ve got yourself  one smokin hot spice cabinet!

This was just what we needed!  Plus it was way overdue. I found spices that had expired in 2008!! I’m pretty sure we’ve been using them, oh well…

Not all of my spices fit in this nifty little cabinet, however.  If you want to see where the rest of them went plus all the awesome organization that spiraled from this one little cabinet, click here!

UPDATE: My kitchen got a whole new look:

 And because I added a shelf above the window:

My perfect solution spice cabinet no longer fits. 🙁

But my spices found a new home in my rolling kitchen cart:

And this little cabinet got a makeover:

I love it even more now in the cottage white, but it’s off to my booth where it will eventually serve someone else very well. 🙂

XO,

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