LEGO Brick Spice Rack

Ahoy-hoy Instructabrarians!  

Three questions: Do you like cooking?  Do you also love LEGO? Now ask yourself, if both of these questions apply, haven't you ever wanted to cook LEGO?  

Of course not!

LEGO is plastic and as the food loving nation that we have learned from years of experience mankind simply can not eat plastic and survive.  However, while this project won't teach you how to cook LEGO it will show you how to build the next best thing- how to cook with LEGO . In this project, I will show you how you can build a relatively simple, inexpensive and totally fun LEGO SPICE RACK, for all your nostalgic culinary fantasies.  


*Editor's Note: SHIFT! does not take any liability for those who attempt to eat plastic.

OK, so let's get serious.  This is a project that I've been wanting to build for a really long time now and had originally wanted to post it for their Fix & Improve It contest back in September.  However, time constraints and school unfortunately caught up to me and I was unable to start it at this time.  But like most great ideas, this stayed in the back of my mind and I kept finding myself thinking back to it.  So, when we had the Cardboard and Duct Tape contest, and I decided to put off graduating for a few months, I immediately started on this project again.

Conceived by Dave Delisle of DavesGeekyIdeas.com the LEGO Spice Rack, I think, is one of the coolest re-imaginings of the classic building brick. Appearance wise, it looks like exactly giant version of a 2 X 4 LEGO block but conceals a combination of eight slide out cubby-holds for spice containers.  I immediately fell in love with the design and have been wanting to build it for a while.  

So in this build you'll need:

Materials:

• Chipboard, at least 28 cm by 46 cm
• Paperboard (at least 25 cm by 28 cm)
• Masking Tape
• 8 Similarly sized spice containers (for measuring)
• Red Spray Paint

And you'll be using these Tools:

• Kitchen scissors
• Arleene's Tacky Glue (Quick Dry recommended)
• Elmer's Wood Glue
• Computer printer

This template of a LEGO Brick is what I based my proportional dimensions on for my LEGO Spice Rack.  The "studs" of the LEGO brick should be the roughly the same size as the lids of the spice containers.  For me, for the diameter of a 4 centimeter lid, it yielded me the dimensions of 27.5 cm X 14 cm X 8.5 cm.  

If you have a windows computer, you can crop the first two dimensions of the brick and rescale them using MS Paint.

With the dimensions of the LSR printed and cut out, trace onto the chipboard cardboard. Align the top LEGO diagram with the side LEGO Diagram, long wise side to side, so that when cut out they can form a 4 walled box.  Do not cut out the pieces as four individual recctangles- it will be much harder to reinforce together and glue.  

Next, take the four dimensions piece from step 3 and fold it into a box.  For help, try using an Xacto Knife to help make the creases easier when folding.

Note: For the remainder of this build up until step 9, I will refer to this as the "Four Walled Box".  The end pieces should not be glued on yet.

So now that we have the dimensions of the two sides and the front and top of the LEGO Brick cut out, in one continuous piece, and folded, it's time to begin working on the cubby holds.

The way this build is designed is using a layer of chipboard for the main frame of the cubby holds themselves, along with a top most paperboard for the decorative holes.  

On the top dimension of your box (ie the widest dimension and the one you want the studs to come from), cut out 8 square holes.  These holes should be larger than the spice container's lid (mine was 4.5 cm) and evenly spaced according to the LEGO brick diagram.  Cut out using an Xacto knife.

In this next step we will be building the cutting out the more decorative cubby hold layer.  This is what will appear as the top of your LEGO Spice Rack Block and is what's going to allow the spice containers to slide in and out of the box.

These are evenly spaced and should be form fitted according to your spice container's diameter.  Once you are all finished, glue the four wall box together, using masking tape and wood glue. 

In this next step, you will be making the individual cylindrical pockets, that will serve as your "drawers' for the spice rack.  

Cut out a piece of paperboard that is the same exact height as your LEGO Spice Rack and the length is the circumference of your spice  container.  Eventually, you will get 8 similarly sized open cylinders.  Then, when that is finished, glue the cylinders into the box itself.

Finally, when that is finished, glue the top layer of the box (the paperboard with holes) on top of the first layer (the paperboard with square holes, now housing the cylinders).

Now that we have the two longer sides and the top and bottom completed, let's finish this box by making the remaining end sides!  This part is relatively simple- just take your four walled box and trace the bottom and the top ends onto the chipboard. Attach these onto the ends using masking tape and elmer's glue.  

Finally, when all's put together, use masking tap to reinforce the edges of the box and for decorative appeal.

Now that the main box is finished, it's time to begin painting!  I used red spray paint for my brick- classic LEGO coloring- but since this is a well recognized toy any color will do.  

Make sure you get an even coat on either edge.  Start with a light coating and then after it dries (takes around 5 minutes) coat it again.

And last but not least, what self promoting LEGO Spice Rack would be complete without the traditional LEGO building studs?  None, that's who.

These are extremely simple to make, which is good considering you'll need eight of them.  They should roughly be the same height of your spice containers, when they are sticking out from the top of the box.  Use the spice container's lid as a reference.

When that is finished, begin spray painting again.

FUN BONUS: Even though I didn't have time to do this on my build, for extra creativity try making embossed lettering using the LEGO logo font for the spice labels.  I've included the LEGO logo font in my build for those interested.

Spray, dry and repeat until finished.

Congratulations, you now have one of the most adorably, awesome spice racks on the internet.

But wait!  Despite it's name, this build is not limited specifically for being a spice rack.  It has it's own dreams and aspirations, ones that it can not be pigeon holed into a singular category.  In addition to being a fun cooking shelf, it can also be used to organize all sorts of things, including office supplies, candies, crafting materials, etc.  

Anyway, I love this build- it was extremely fun to make and it was a fun nostalgic set piece.

-SHIFT!