Spicing Things Up

A couple years ago, I was in a neighbor's kitchen when her spice rack caught my eye.  It was a magnetic board hung on the wall, with little containers holding spices stuck on the board.  It was the first magnetic spice board I had seen, and I just feel in love.  Not only did it just look plain fabulous, it had obvious functional appeal as well.  Instead of sorting through tons of spice bottles inside a cramped cabinet, each spice was readily accessible and identifiable through pretty little labels.  But as much as I loved it, I though my dream spice solution would have to wait until I had my big girl house once I found out how much they were being sold for.

Then a couple months ago I stumbled upon directions for making my own magnetic spice board for next to nothing.  I was so excited, my new spice rack immediately jumped to the top of my to-do project list.  We started this particular project back at the old apartment, but didn't quit get it all finished until this week.  We ran into some snags, which I'll go more into later in this post.

First we went to the closest Home Depot and bought a big magnetic piece of metal.  We basically got some magnets from another aisle and held them up to the board in the store to make sure it was magnetic.  Then we went to Michael's and bought some small round magnets and plastic containers.  We ended up switching containers after our first attempt at the old apartment, which I'll again explain later.

First we hung up the magnetic sheet of metal on the wall.  We decided to hang it on the wall between our washer/dryer and our kitchen island.  It was the only space big enough, and it was easily accessible since there was nothing in front of it blocking our reach.

We had to decide exactly where we wanted it hung.  Originally I had thought I would like it centered between the edges of the washer and the island.  I had Melissa hold the board up on the wall so I could step back and see what I thought.  Once I saw it on the wall, I decided I liked it overlapping the edge of the island a little.

Originally I had been picturing the board smaller, but we figured we can always cut it down later if we wanted to.  We just aren't sure what exactly we want to do with it in the long run yet, so we're leaving it as is.

Once we decided on the placement, we had to make sure there were no studs where we planned to hang the board.  After playing around with the stud finder (Dakota is in fact a stud if anyone was wondering), we found where the studs in the wall were.  Luckily they were not in the way of where we were going to screw in the nails.

After passing the stud test, it was my job to stand and hold up the board while Melissa measured where to drill the holes in the wall.  We already had holes drilled in the corners of the metal from starting the project at the old apartment.  So while I was supporting the board where we wanted it, Melissa was using a pencil to draw where to put the screws.  And let me tell you, this board was not light.  I ended up using my whole body weight to hold the metal in place.  My arms were sore after this part!

Once Melissa marked where the holes were going to go, and I finished up my pity party, Melissa drilled the holes where they needed to be.

Next we hammered anchors into the drilled holes to hold the screws in place.

Finally we held the board up to the wall and screwed it into place.

Getting to see the board hung on the wall was the best reward.  Its always gratifying when a project starts looking finished.

After screwing all four corners into the wall, we officially had a magnetic board on our wall.

With part one complete, it was time to move onto adding the spice containers.  This was the part of the project that we actually had the most trouble with.  We started out using small plastic containers, with snap on lids.  We didn't love their look, but they were the only things we could find remotely close to what we needed.

However, we could not for the life of us get the magnets to stick to the lids.  We tried hot glue, crazy glue and even rubber cement (more fun to play with than actually useful as an adhesive).  No matter what we tried, these containers kept either falling off the board, or breaking off from the magnet.  We think the containers were just too heavy.  

All this failure turned out to be a blessing in disguise in the end.  While we were trying to find the perfect heavy duty glue to use, we stumbled upon the perfect containers.  They were being sold as party favor containers, but they looked exactly like what the store bought magnetic spice containers looked like.  Not only were they beautiful, these new containers were significantly lighter.  We didn't take any chances this time, and had my dad epoxy a magnet onto the back of each container.  I love how they turned out.

They have been hung up on the board for about a week now, and not a single one has fallen off.  So I think we can chalk this one up as a win.  And to top it off they look just fabulous.

I'm so pleased with how my dream spice board turned out.  All that's left now is to add labels to the containers and put the spices in them.  We also have tentative plans for the future to maybe paint the bottom half of the board with either chalk board or white board paint.  But that is a project for another day.

Here's another look at the before and after of my magnetic spice board project.

before

after

So what do you think?  Are you as in love with my new magnetic spice board as I am?  Have you made your own magnetic spice board or have plans to?  Or maybe you have another awesome spice storage solution to share?

Stayed tuned to see the pretty labels I'm going to make for the spice containers.