Magnetic Under Cabinet Spice Rack

Magnetic spice racks are really popular right now. I wanted to make one but I couldn't find instructions with easy to find materials available that were cheap. Most of materials for this project were either readily available at my house or easily found at either walmart or lowes. The only one that I purchased online were the magnets and the only reason is that the price was so much better. This instructable is actually an addition to an existing spice rack. I wanted to add more jars but didn't have the room. I bought different jars in order to be able to "shake" spices out instead of pouring them, and the mixture of regular jars and spice jars is great. The regular jars are much cheaper than the spice jars, and not all spices need to be shaken out of their container. This instructable can be used for either type. I got this idea from this instructable, but since I differed so much on my process and materials, I thought I would make another one. (plus a friend requested I make this instructable)

Supplies Needed:

-Canning jars. I used Ball Dry herb spice jars for this. You can use regular 4oz canning jars as well. These can both be found at walmart for the cheapest I have found anywhere. The spice jars are around $4 for 4 jars and the regular are around $8 for 12 jars.

-E6000 glue. I prefer this glue over super glue because it is a little bit flexible. Found at walmart for a few dollars.

-Neodymium magnets. I used 1/4 x 1/16. I got them from here. I had a different brand before from a craft store and a few of them cracked. Not a single one of these cracked.

-toothpicks

-sheet metal. For this I measured the underside of my cabinets. I went to lowes and found the piece that I liked. I tried to find the thickest and biggest sheet. I would have preferred 20 gauge, but they didn't have it in the size I needed.

- Liquid Nails and caulk gun

-drill

Not shown

-small screws not longer than the width of your shelving

-small drill bit for pilot holes

1. Wash your jars either by hand or through the dishwasher

2. Lay out a surface to work on (mine being a paper towel)

3. Squeeze a TINY amount out of the tube of glue.

4. Kind of scrape the glue off onto the toothpick.

5. "Roll" it onto the lid. (this part is hard to describe, it is easiest to roll it on rather than dab. In the photo you can see I am holding the toothpick parallel to the surface and that is the easiest way to apply the glue.

6. Carefully apply magnets and gently push them down into the glue. A little glue should ooze out from the sides. I tried to make sure that all the magnets were facing the same way. I don't know if it makes a difference or not.

7. Packaging says to wait 24-72 hours for cure time.

Note: I used 4 magnets on the plastic lids and only three on the metal. The reason for this was that the plastic lids have a pattern on them and three magnets wouldn't be spaced equally from each other. Really, only two magnets are needed to keep these jars up but then they don't sit straight. If you are using regular lids, the magnets will pull themselves down into the glue which makes it very easy to apply.

Now onto the metal. This part is fairly straight forward. You can either screw it on, glue it on, or a combo of both. I went with a combo.

1. Drill pilot holes into the corners and along the sides of the sheet metal.

2. Apply Liquid Nails to sheet metal. (Sorry, I don't have a picture of this, my caulk gun wasn't cooperating and cleanup was needed. Just smear it on evenly.)

3. Press Firmly to underside of cabinet and wiggle it to make sure it holds.

4. Drill pilot holes but make sure to not go too deep. A piece of tape around your drill bit helps with this. Just tape up the part of the drill bit closest to the drill.

5. Screw in the nails

6. Wait until Liquid Nails dries.

Add labels to your jars. I chose to label the underside of the jars because that is the part that is most easily seen. There are nicer labels that I use for the lotion and candles that I sell, but I used the ones that came with the jars for this.

Put the jars up. I put the ones that I use most often in the front and the ones that I use rarely in the way back. Some of them are still empty and waiting to be filled.

Sit back and enjoy your awesome spice rack and admire the extra space on your counter top!

This could also be used to make a rack to hold other magnetized things. You could glue magnets to a cutting board (drill some small holes part way down and glue some magnets in those holes that way it would sit flush), some utensils, etc. This webpage shows you how to do the cutting board.