spice door wrap-up

Step 3 of the spice rack extravaganza involved just 1 short hour of work. I pre-drilled small holes for 3/8" flathead screws (size #6 or #8 -- I forget). Moxie Dad recommended drilling at least 1" from the edge to avoid splits, so I measured carefully twice and put holes in each corner and in the middle of each side for a total of 8 per panel. Moxiecat Roz supervised closely. The Boy Scout held the panels in place while I screwed them onto the door.

A quick alphabetizing of all the spices, and we started sticking tins to the door. As you'll see in the final shot, we arranged them in an open diamond pattern. This is not an accident or merely decorative (though it does pack a visual punch that Brits have employed for years in their black and white marble-floored foyers). Nope, we actually remembered to leave enough space for our fingers so we could pull the tins off the door without needing to move a whole row first.

We were a little worried that the weight of the panels plus the spices would be too much for the door, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, we have 4 hinges and have seen no sagging. The added heft also turned out to be a bonus; everyone who used that pantry before the spice rack tended to accidentally fling the door open and slam it shut, including the Boy Scout and me.

The Conclusion: project details and the "done" photo