I got a spinning spice rack when I first got married, but those spices are all used up or terribly old, and since I am growing many kitchen herbs myself, I wanted to use my mason jars to hold spices. BUT they didn’t spin and look all pretty in my kitchen! That’s where Sidney came in – he figured out how to take a simple tabletop Lazy Susan and turn it into a gorgeous homemade spinning spice rack. Right in the middle of Lowe’s where I was brainstorming this month’s challenge.
Sidney measured the holes so that they would fit the jars through the holes, but not the neck part where the rings screw onto the top. Your jars might differ from the ones we used, but we used a 2 3/4″ hole saw drill bit for our holes. Using a 1/2 wood, we used a nice plywood with smooth finish on one side to be easy to paint with no roughness to the texture.
The two sides with four holes are 6″ wide, and the two sides with three holes each are 5 3/8″. The round board to fit on top (and hide the inside of the jars) is a 10 1/2″ circle to match the Lazy Susan. The boards are 20″ tall, which allows for great spacing between the jars so you can stagger them and fit the most jars into the space.
Sand the rough edges on the outside of the board in preparation for painting.
TRICK! Stagger the holes so the mason jars have alternating positions, and you can fit more jars into the space!
The photos above show how the wooden spice rack fits into the lazy Susan spinning tabletop piece. Notice how two boards are wider and the other two fit inside to form a nice square. The entire square fits into the lazy Susan. Here, we are testing the fit with the jars before painting and tacking it together with glue and finishing nails.
I knew I needed to paint this, of course. So first we used a nice coat of Kilz – in a spray can FTW! Super easy base coat on the front and back and edges. Then it needed some color right?
I painted this in a lovely green, one of the beautiful exclusive Lowe’s Color Studio Summer colors. It’s Valspar’s Redstone Blue Spruce, part of the Sweet Scoop Collection. I love it. It’s just a little dreamier than the evergreen of the late nineties.
Finally, the boards were tacked with a finishing nail gun that would shoot the nails in place after being glued. Sidney screwed the wooden form in place from the underside of the tabletop Lazy Susan (after drilling a pilot hole to prevent shattering the plastic).
This spice rack holds half-pint mason jars which I’ve painted with Valspar chalkboard paint. See how I spiffied up these mason jar spice and seasoning holders in this tutorial. I don’t have to buy a replacement rack that has spices I don’t need, or buy spice jars that don’t fit in my rack. I can grow or bulk purchase my herbs, like the ones Mountain Rose Herbs sells, and put them in my jars as needed.
This is finally the spice rack that I need — large enough jars to hold my homegrown herbs, easy to change in and out when I use something up and need to replace it, and it’s pretty. It’s the best of all possible worlds. Do you buy herbs in bulk?
This post is part of my monthly Lowe’s challenges, as I’m part of the Lowe’s Creative Ideas team. I was provided gift cards for materials which I used to purchase lumber, paint, and jars (Lowe’s has canning supplies!) but the ideas and photography are all original. With Sidneys help of course. 🙂
For more great DIY Home and Garden ideas check out Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine and blogs, as well their Pinterest and Facebook accounts!
Wendy says
Oh I love this. I’ve been trying to think if a solution for all my herbs too &!this is great! Yay!
Candace says
Awesome idea! We live growing herbs…this is a perfect way to store dried ones!
Dawn Sandomeno says
What a fantastic idea. The tutorial is really easy to follow, thanks!
Deborah Anderson says
Angela,
That is wonderful. You are soooooo creative. You and Sydney. I’m starting to think I need to spend less time on the computer and go make fun and creative stuff like this… of course, returning to your site to see the wonderful ideas you come up with and share with us.
-Deborah
Mary Green says
Angela, that is awesome, you could sell those if you wanted to. I wish I had just a bit of yours and Sidney’s creativity, you two are so smart.
I love that you are using glass to hold your spices instead of icky plastic, I hope more people catch on to that idea. So worth it.
AngEngland says
Oh yes! Eliminating one more source of plastic was a definite consideration for me.
Heather says
LOVE it!!
Leah R Wedlock says
Great idea
Dria says
This came out beautiful! I wish I had counter-space for this I’d love to make one!
AngEngland says
Ours lives above the fridge. 🙂