I want a huge-ass, nice-looking spice rack.

The thread title pretty much says it all; almost all of the ones on the market seem to hold 20 – 30 jars, max. I need more than that, and bigger jars. I am not a handy person in the woodworking department, and the Internet isn’t helping me much – not even etsy.com. I’d rather not spend $200-plus for one, but it looks like I may end up going that route unless you kind folks a) know a good place to buy a spice rack that will hold at least 40 – 50 largish jars; or b) know, or know of, someone who will do custom woodworking to create such a thing. Ideally it would be made of wood, look like something nicer than a bunch of random scrap and dowels glued together, and hang on a wall.

Ideas, anyone?

The latter should be easy to accomplish. Just check with a local custom cabinet maker, have some design ideas, and you should be able to get it done.

nr706's advice is good for the second request. For the first, maybe eat lots of doughnuts?

Short of custom building one, I'd suggest asking the fine folks at GNR The Spice House if they have any recommendations. If anyone would have a source, they would.

cilantro wrote:nr706's advice is good for the second request. For the first, maybe eat lots of doughnuts?

I just snorted with laughter. Thanks, Cilantro.

I've found some great solutions at The Container Store. Might be a tad "ready-made" for what you have in mind but it also might solve your problem for less cashola.

Sounds cool, no matter how you solve it...

I wish I had room for a big ass spice rack...

HI,

You might get a kick out of this How many spices do you have in your "rack?".

I have one small rack in left of my cooktop with frequently used-spices. I keep three tiers with at least nine rotating lazy-Susans, six are double-deckers, with spices and herbs. Plus I have maybe a dozen industry size containers from Costco in another cabinet.

The least ideally stored is the group out of the open. Since it is most-used, they are rotated frequently. The several tiers of spices, some are more potent than others, is to the right and above my stove. They probably get too much heat exposure. The best kept are those industry sized containers, because they are in the dark and not near any heat source.

If I didn't already have all those jars, I might do what Ronnie Suburban has done with most of his from Spice House in their plastic bags kept in a drawer.

Regards,

Yeah, my current storage solution is not exactly ideal; I repurposed an old cassette tape rack, which has large plastic bottles of various sizes of the things we use most frequently (maybe 20 - 30 things). Those are on the counter next to the sink. Everything else, as well as overflow for things like the rest of the bag of whole peppercorns that aren't in the pepper grinder, is either in Ziploc baggies in a cabinet drawer/basket thing next to the fridge, or in the pantry (which is itself a repurposed coat closet that happens to be in the kitchen, next to our front door). I am finding it a real pain to dig through a tub of Ziploc baggies to find, say, half a dozen different things that I might need for an Indian recipe. And I'm the one who generally remembers where the various items live; my poor husband is always frantically digging through the bins for the baggie of cumin seeds before the oil overheats.

Ideally the pantry and the wire bin in the cabinet would be reserved for overflow, or for things like bags of whole chilies that don't lend themselves to being stored in spice jars. My in-laws have a huge wooden shelf on the wall, as do my brother-in-law and his wife, but they made them all by themselves, something I just don't have the time, inclination, tools, or skills to do.

Maybe I'll just splurge and get the hudband of the lady who made my fabulous weddinbg dress to make one, but I think he mostly does furniture and architectural woodwork...plus I am guessing he's pretty expensive. I might just do it anyway, though - I really want something that will look nice on the kitchen wall, not prefab plastic or wire racks. But if anyone knows someone, preferably local, who does that sort of thing, I'm all ears.

Unfortunately, $200 does not go far when you are talking about quality custom woodworking. Even an hour or two of design time at a modest rate will eat a significant chunk.

But, if you want to go that route I highly recomment http://prairie-woodworking.com/. He is based in Minneapolis but is in Chicago frequently and does a lot of work here.

Disclosure: This was my company and is now owned by my brother-in-law. But he is very good, reasonable priced and seemingly loved by everyone who meets him.

I don't know if this helps you, but my solution was to buy a bunch of 4 oz metal tins (that wasn't the company I bought them from, I can't remember where it was exactly, but they're under a buck a tin), make some labels, and store them in a cabinet. I have heard of people buying old printers drawers on eBay and, in combination with the tins I linked to above, using them for storage. In fact, here's one such example. You have to get a bit lucky to find a printer's drawer/tray that works that perfectly, though.

I keep spices in a kitchen cabinet at eye level and slightly higher directly to the right of my stove and above my counter. I've put in Rubbermaid Lazy Susans and put all the frequently used spices there. They are all in the typical spice glass or plastic bottles mostly. Most are McCormick, or Spice Islands and the like but lately I've been buying from Penzey's. There are 3 shelves and a lazy susan on each which spin around. I probably have every spice you can imagine and a lot of Indian spices too. Since the cabinet is a little bigger, on the right side of it I store extracts in a low plastic rectangular container, and on the other shelves I store vinegar and soy sauce, Olive oil, cooking spray, and the like. If I have bigger bags of spices I store them in larger jars in other cupboards or the freezer. I do not care for spice racks that are out or spices on the counter or that are visible because I don't like a cluttery kitchen. When I am cooking I can grab my spice jars and put on the counter and use and them put them away after everything is done. Oddly, or maybe not so oddly my mother and my grandmother also stored spices in cabinets in the same manner. I think my mom has the turntables but my grandmother never did. In those days spices came in small tins.

Hmmmm, 57th Street Bookcases built us a lovely, simple, solid wood CD rack. If they just scaled down basically the same thing, it would be a lovely, simple, solid wood spice rack. Maybe I will go chat with them this weekend...

We doubled a couple of steel racks we got from Ikea (like the top half of this set-up: http://www.ikeahackers.net/2009/09/spic ... racks.html), and I'd recommend just going there and rooting around a while... you might find that something that was never intended to be for spices fits the bill perfectly.

Good luck!

I could imagine using copper pipe, t's, and elbows to build something that would look pretty nice.

This is not for spices, but it's an alternate use of copper pipe:
http://img2.timeinc.net//toh/i/a/tools/ ... pes-00.jpg

-jbn

Just happened across this site. Don't know that it's for everyone, but may appeal to some and there appears to be a wide range of choices.

stevez wrote:Short of custom building one, I'd suggest asking the fine folks at GNR The Spice House if they have any recommendations. If anyone would have a source, they would.

I was at the Spice House in Evanston yesterday and they sell wooden spice racks. I wouldn't say these are large, but their supplier may sell larger ones.

Darren72 wrote:

stevez wrote:Short of custom building one, I'd suggest asking the fine folks at GNR The Spice House if they have any recommendations. If anyone would have a source, they would.

I was at the Spice House in Evanston yesterday and they sell wooden spice racks. I wouldn't say these are large, but their supplier may sell larger ones.

Thanks - we ended up ordering one to be made by 57th Street Bookcases. They did a really nice job on our CD rack, plus the thing will be a close match for the kitchen cabinets. Expensive, but hey, a) support your local businesses, and b) solid cherry with hand-rubbed oil finish! It should hold 50-some jars when done.

HI,

I hope you will provide pictures when done.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

I hope you will provide pictures when done.

Regards,

Agreed; I'd love to see how their effort turns out. Might have to do the same thing myself.

Well, it should be done in 2 - 3 weeks or so - if you're interested, give me a poke, because I am notoriously bad about uploading photos. They will do any size, wood, etc. you want.

P.S. It was a bit of a splurge, but I figured what the hell, most of our furniture was either hand-me-downs or Craigslist, so we can splurge a bit now and again. It's like we're grownups or something now!

Cathy2 wrote:I hope you will provide pictures when done.

Am I the only one who sees a thread title that - with just one little word removed - reads "I want a huge-ass, nice-looking rack." and thinks about something entirely different? Either way: pictures, yes please!

Kennyz wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:I hope you will provide pictures when done.

Am I the only one who sees a thread title that - with just one little word removed - reads "I want a huge-ass, nice-looking rack." and thinks about something entirely different? Either way: pictures, yes please!

Now that would be an entirely different message board.

Maybe these guys will branch out a bit: http://www.bigassfans.com/

Just as another option... on my eventual to do list is a magnetized spice rack for the kitchen, DIY style. Since you're building it yourself, you can essentially make it a "wall of spice" so to speak with as many spices as you'd like.

Here's some instructions that I've found that may help get your started:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... May20.html

Actual spice storage could go in watchmaker cases, as described in article above. Product is below:

http://grizzly.com/products/H7554

If you're storing larger quantities of spice, you may need to find larger cases to use... but you'll want to use the spice faster as well.. I believe spices go bad faster with direct exposure to sunlight.