The Spice of Life ~

I recently acquired a new roommate, Megan, who is extremely awesome. She also loves to bake about as much as I do. That is a good things except that we have run out of space for things in our kitchen. Everyone has that cabinet that has little bottles that you knock out when you try to find anything behind them. You never know if you our out of a certain spice or just can't find it! So I started looking online and found these 2 spice racks that I really liked that I thought would not take up much room.

I liked the first one but I wasn't sure how to make all of those compartments. And what is the point of a do-it-yourself project if you can't do-it-yourself? So then I thought the second one looked great and I would just do that. But THEN I found this frame when I was cleaning out my garage.

It was gold and apparently it used to hang in my parents' bathroom.
It is a 12 X 15 frame and I thought it would work perfectly to make my own magnetic spice rack!

I painted it with primer. I think it looked good with just the primer, to be honest. But I already knew in my head what color I was going to paint it and there was no turning back!

This is the kind of primer I used. I know nothing really about primer except that you should use it to help the paint stick to whatever you are painting. However, I do know that you are supposed to get grey primer when you are painting something a bright color because it takes less coats than if you used white primer. I read that this "Gripper" from Glidden is a very good one to try.

So then I painted it this lovely green color called "Sultana" by Martha Stewart. I know it looks yellow in the picture! I just got a new camera and I haven't figured out everything about it yet...

Here is a closer look at the frame. I think it has some pretty nifty detailing around it. After the paint dried I sprayed it with sealer.

I don't have pictures of the next part but it involved sheet metal and metal snippers. I bought a small sheet of metal that was 12 X something inches big and had to cut it down to size. The sheet of metal was $5. One word of wisdom - measure TWICE, cut ONCE. That's right, I had to go right back to Home Depot and buy the remaining sheet of metal. Once I had it snipped to the right size, I just put it in the frame and my spice rack was ready to go!

I love these spice tins and clear spice labels.

I got them at The Container Store. They were $5.99 for 3 of them but I justified the cost. They have lids that turn so that you can sprinkle the spices out. Or there is a bigger hole if you want more to come out. Or you can take the whole lid off if you are using a measuring spoon. Also, there was already a magnet on the back of each tin, saving me the trouble of buying them and gluing them on. And... if I had bought just the regular tins, the shipping would have made them cost just as much. So there. Justified.

See those letter? I got those at Michael's. They are stuck to the wall with two-faced tape. (The tape had an attitude also, it was quite stuck-up!) I spray-painted them red because I have some other things in my kitchen that are red. I'm hoping to change the curtains at some point so they'll fit in better.

I think it looks pretty good and is practical as well as pretty!