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DIY Pallet Spice Rack

Today’s contributor is Sara from The Aqua House. All posts written by Sara for Make It and Love It can be found HERE. 

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Hi! Its Sara from The Aqua House and I’m here today with a fun little DIY Pallet Spice Rack. You may have noticed that I’ve done a few pallet projects (here and here).  It seems like my husband is always bringing me home pallets thinking that I’ll be able to do something “crafty” with them, ha!

This time I decided to make a spice rack to clear up some space in my cupboards.  I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for ways to create more space and function in my kitchen. Unfortunately, when we were building our house, I didn’t realize just how small the kitchen would be! Ugh! I seriously have hardly any cabinet space. One way I decided to clear up some space was to make a spice rack that I could hang on the back of my pantry door. I got to use up some more pallet wood (and clear out space in my garage, yay!) and empty out a cupboard that I can now put other things in… win, win!

DIY Pallet Spice Rack....hang it on the wall, inside a cupboard, or on a pantry door! | via makeit-loveit.com
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This little rack is seriously so easy to make and you can customize it to fit your exact needs.  I made my bottom shelf larger to hold my bigger Costco sized spices and the top shelves smaller to fit my spice jars. Really, its all up to you (and your spice containers, ha!) as to how many shelves you want to have and how far apart you want them spaced. In fact, I originally built this spice rack to have only three shelves and then I went back in and added a fourth shelf because my spice jars were smaller than I thought.

DIY Pallet Spice Rack....hang it on the wall, inside a cupboard, or on a pantry door! | via makeit-loveit.com
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The best part is you can hang this anywhere in your kitchen!  My pantry door is actually quite close to my stove so all I have to do is reach behind me when I’m cooking and grab the spices that I need.  This would also look fabulous hanging on a nearby wall!

DIY Pallet Spice Rack....hang it on the wall, inside a cupboard, or on a pantry door! | via makeit-loveit.com
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Spice Rack 4 copy
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Are you ready to make your own DIY Pallet Spice Rack?

For this project you will need:

  • pallet wood (one torn down pallet should be enough)
  • hammer
  • nails and finish nailer
  • stain and rag (or paint and paint brush depending on the finish you want)
  • compound miter saw
  • table saw

Pallets come in all shapes and sizes and the wood I used came from a smaller pallet so it was skinnier.  If your pallet is larger you may need to use a table saw to cut the wood down.

The first step is to pull the pallet apart.  This is definitely the most time consuming part! For this step you will just need a simple hammer to help pull the nails out…and an extra dose of patience…and maybe strength.

DIY Pallet spice rack (2)
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Now you will need to sort through your pieces to find the ones that are in the best shape and have the look you are going for.  I was trying to make mine look like an old farmhouse crate so I tried to choose more weathered-looking pieces. After you find the pieces that you want to use, its time to figure out how many shelves you will need.  The dimensions I will give you are for the rack I made, but (as always) you can customize this to fit your needs.  If you remember, I said that I originally built the spice rack to have three shelves so the following picture only shows enough wood for three shelves. However, the steps I tell you to do are to make a 4 shelf spice rack. Ha! I hope that isn’t confusing! Has anyone else ever built something then added to it? I can’t be the only one, right?

From the pallet wood cut:

  • 4 pieces at 20 inches long by 3 1/2 inches wide (these are the shelf backs)
  • 4 pieces at 19 inches long and 3 1/2 inches wide (these are the shelf bottoms)
  • 4 pieces at 20 inches by 2 inches wide  (shelf fronts)
  • 2 pieces at 26 inches long by 3 1/2 inches wide (spice rack sides)

DIY Pallet spice rack (3)
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We are now going to start building the spice rack and we are going to build it bottom to top.  To start out, take one of the 19 inch by 3 1/2 inch pieces (shelf bottom) and place it between the two 26 inch long by 3 1/2 wide side pieces.  Nail it into place.

DIY Pallet spice rack (4)
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Next you are going to take one of the 20 inch by 3 1/2 inch pieces and nail it on top of the two side pieces and the bottom piece that you attached in the previous step.  This will become the back of the the bottom shelf.

DIY Pallet spice rack (5)
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Now flip the spice rack over and attach the 20 inch by 2 inch (shelf front) piece.  Make sure to take the time to line everything up as much as you can. Pallet wood is imperfect and often times warped.  This may make it slightly difficult to make sure everything is exact, but that’s okay! We are going for a weathered look not a perfected look.

Now you will need to determine how far you want to distance your shelves.  The space between my bottom shelf and the second one is 11 inches to allow for my bigger spice containers.  Nail another 19 inch by 3 1/2 inch (shelf bottom) piece into place wherever you would like to place your second shelf.

DIY Pallet spice rack (7)
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Add the 20 inch by 3 1/2 inch (shelf back) piece and then the 20 inch by 2 inch front piece to complete the second shelf. The next two shelves are spaced the same and are the exact same to build. Now you will measure up 5 1/2 inches and place your next 19 inch by 3 1/2 inch (shelf bottom) piece.

DIY Pallet spice rack (8)
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Continue adding fronts and backs until you have four shelves…or make three shelves and then realize you need four like me, ha!

DIY Pallet spice rack (10)
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That is it for the building part!  Easy, right? Now its time to paint or stain the spice rack however you’d like.  I used left over stain from my DIY Window Flower Boxes (you can visit that post for details) because I’m all about saving money and using what I have.  In fact, I had all the supplies on hand for this project so it was “free” to me! Even if you have to buy a pallet and stain you could still easily make this project for around $10.

DIY Pallet spice rack (11)
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Once the stain is dry, its time to go hang your spice rack.  In order to hang mine on the back of my pantry door, we used four large screws and drilled directly into the door.  If you are hanging the spice rack onto a wall I would suggest using sheet rock mollies to help hold the weight of the rack and make sure that it doesn’t tear out of the wall.

Spice Rack1 copy
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Go clean out your spice cupboard and put them in that new spice rack!  Enjoy the fact that you are creating more space in your kitchen…I know I did!

DIY Pallet Spice Rack....hang it on the wall, inside a cupboard, or on a pantry door! | via makeit-loveit.com
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-Sara

blog contributor Sara
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. . . . .

Dressing up your kitchen to be uniquely ‘you’ is simple with a few DIY projects! Here are a few more tutorials perfect for your kitchen:

How to Build SIMPLE FLOATING SHELVES (…for any room in the house!)

 

 

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Sara

I’m Sara, blogger at The Aqua House. I am momma to four little men and one little lady, married to my best friend, and our passion is DIYing our home. On my blog I share crafts, sewing, recipes, and of course our latest home improvement project! I love making a project for a fraction of the cost of buying new and I love creating beautiful spaces. Visit me on my blog; theaquahouse.com

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Hi, I'm Ashley

Hi, I’m Ashley—the DIY-enthusiast behind this crazy blog!

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