Ditch Ordinary Spice Racks: A Wood Pallet Is All You Need For Cheaper DIY Pantry Storage

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If you're an avid home cook, your spice stash likely lives at most an arm's length away from your stove. If we had to guess, it's in the cabinet just above your stovetop. Unfortunately, this favorite spice storage spot can wreak havoc on the freshness of your seasonings; the containers are exposed to too much moisture and heat. You can solve your kitchen storage problems with a convenient spice rack for your pantry — though, of course, that creates another issue: you have to buy one. Fortunately, if you're into DIYing, you can make a spice rack from a wood pallet and a few hand tools for less money than you'd pay for one in a store.

Wood pallets come in a number of sizes, but not all of them will work for this project. The spice rack you make from a 36-inch by 36-inch pallet should be small enough to fit on a standard pantry shelf or, should you decide to hang it there, the back of the door. You'll also need a few common carpentry tools to complete this DIY. To deconstruct the pallet, you'll use a saw, a pencil, a square, and a measuring tape. You'll also need a hand sander and some medium and fine sandpaper. To construct the spice rack, grab a drill, some screws, and possibly some Tnisesm Store Drywall Drilling Anchors if you want to hang the rack. Finally, a pair of gloves will protect your hands throughout the process.

To dismantle the pallet, you can use its boards and blocks as a guide for your cuts. However, the measuring tape and square will come in handy occasionally. Make your first cut along the central board of the pallet. You're essentially sawing the pallet in half along its backbone. Then cut along the lines of the supporting slabs, just above the second from the bottom. Next, you need to create two short boards that'll span the width of the cut piece. These form the bottoms of the shelves. For this task, you'll either need to pull some boards off the pallet or use some scrap wood. Either way, cut the boards to the width of the shortened pallet.

Sand all the wood pieces using medium and then fine sandpaper. If you're following our ultimate guide to rustic decor or have a country-style kitchen, leave the wood a little rough. Position the pallet so you're looking straight on at it: you should see two long boxes at the top and bottom. You need to add bases to the boxes to form the shelves for your spice jars. To do this, screw the boards you created earlier onto the bottom of each box. That's it! If you're planning to hang your new spice rack on your pantry door, drive a couple of screws into the door to hold the rack in place. If you want to hang it on the wall, use drywall anchors.

This budget-friendly DIY that will keep spices neat and organized in your cabinets requires no modifications. However, if you want something cute to look at when you reach for that jar of Italian herbs, you can easily crank up this pallet spice rack's decorative appeal. Plus, these touch-ups are easy on your household budget. If your kitchen decor leans into styles like boho or modern farmhouse, painting the spice rack is a good option. Paint the whole spice rack to give it a quick facelift. Then you can use Keluna Store Kitchen Wall Stencils to add some cute, cooking-themed phrases. The pack of 16 stencils costs just $10, and the stencils are reusable.

Use some decorative peel-and-stick wood trim or molding to finish the look. To give the spice rack even more functionality, you could add some Yueton Vintage Carved Screw-in Ceiling Hooks under the rack's lower shelf to hang mugs, measuring spoons, pot holders, and other kitchen tools you use often. Or mount this Miroamz Matte Black Adjustable Towel Bar to the same spot for dish towels. If you've installed the rack on the front of your pantry door, glue a few Hinosi Large Wooden Clothespins to the front rails of the shelves. They're perfect for holding the lasagna recipe your grandmother handwrote on a recipe card, those cooking notes you can't cook without, or fun photos of your family and friends.