See How I Created the Sleek Spice Rack of My Dreams for $50 (It Looks Built-in!)

My rowhouse kitchen has its strengths, but square footage is not one of them. I have to use every inch of vertical space available, which means leveraging every possible kitchen storage hack, from a magnetic knife block to cutting boards hung on the wall to having a step stool accessible for hard-to-reach upper cabinets. 

So when it came to finding a solution to store spices, I looked vertically once again. There’s no obvious drawer to hide spices, nor extra pantry space where I could tuck them away. I don’t have a convenient little shelf above the oven (a thought for next time!) or abundant counter space where I can place a tabletop spice rack. The only answer was to look to the wall and hang them.

I had visions of a warm wood spice rack with a medium-tone finish and room for all the obscure bottles I pick up when traveling (does anyone else get tempted by every gourmet grocery store?). But as I scrolled through the options on Etsy, which I figured would be the obvious place to source a wooden spice rack, I kept coming up short.

Some spice racks were too small, only providing enough space for 20 or fewer spice bottles. Others were too rustic — perfect for a cabin, but not quite for my style. And then there were those that looked perfect, but the price tags — well into the hundreds of dollars — were not aligning with what I had in mind.

Out of desperation, I looked into the DIY route and, in the process, stumbled across a set of four bookshelves on Amazon that looked like they might fit the bill. The measurements appeared right — 4 inches deep, just under 4 inches high, and 16 inches across. My math told me I could fit roughly eight bottles across, meaning I could go up to 32 different spices. Feeling cautiously optimistic, I ordered the shelves, hoping that my $25 bet on four shelves might work out.

Sure enough, they were a perfect fit. They’re designed to be children’s bookshelves — the kind you see in nurseries with books displayed facing outward. They arrive in unfinished pine wood, which I could have left as-is for a warm, rustic look. I decided to paint them with leftover cabinet paint, an easy project, since the unfinished wood didn’t require any sanding or prep. 

I hung the four shelves with a few inches between each, stacked neatly in a row to give the look of a spice rack. Seeing them on the wall made me realize that the negative space created by having four separate shelves is visually preferable to one cohesive rack. It gives it a more light and airy look.

And, because a fancy (and inexpensive!) new spice rack needs equally pretty spice jars, I found a set of spice jars to decant all my spices. The final result is sleek and organized, and looks nicer than anything I came across online. It looks like a built-in element of the kitchen, and, including the spice jars, it cost a grand total of $50.

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: See How I Created the Sleek Spice Rack of My Dreams for $50 (It Looks Built-in!)