Adding some spice to the kitchen

Spices add flavor and complexity to a dish, they stand out and give the dish an identity. When adding spice to this kitchen, I wanted it to blend in with what was already there, but still add that complexity to make it stand out. I was tasked with hiding a spice rack in a kitchen that left no space to waste. Looking around the kitchen I could see a few options for placing a concealed spice rack. Standard locations like in a drawer, slide outs in the cabinets or just hanging on the cabinet doors. However, this was not what the client was looking for, she wasn't willing to sacrifice the already used space. She wanted more, she wanted something outside the box, this is my kind of client. On the side of the stacked double oven was a blank cabinet wall, 4.5" offset from the wall behind it. We decided this was the place we would use. It was a 4.5" x 27" x 65" blank space I would build her spice rack into.

The Design

Now that I had a location, it was time to design a cabinet for holding some spice. Initially the client wanted two doors that would open out from the largest side. Two large 13" x 65"doors with a lot of shelving behind them. I designed a basic box with shelves and the double doors on the large face that opened out. I wasn't too confident in this design however and expressed concern over the tall thin doors warping over time. The client agreed and expressed her own reservations with the design. For her, it just didn't fit in with the rest of the kitchen like she thought it might when we were planning. We went back over the idea of adding slide out spice racks under the cabinets when the client asked a very important question: "Do the slide out racks have to go in the cabinets?" I took a moment and a few measurements a quick brainstorm later and we had our final design; drawers not doors was the answer.

The Installation

The supply list was short for this build; 2-2"x4"x8' wall studs, 1-4'x8'x3/4" MDF, 1-1"x6"x8' poplar board, 2-Rev-a-Shelf pocket spice rack organizers a tube of caulking, some molding and a few miscellaneous bits of hardware. I started by cutting the 2x4's down to length. One 62.75" section to go vertically along the back side of the build, two 24.25" sections to horizontally across the face at the mid and lower points. Last, one 25.75" section of 2x4 to go along the top, over the long vertical support. this whole structure formed a backwards "E" where the slide out racks would fit within the top and bottom of this "E". The vertical section was cut 2.25" short so I could cap it with the top horizontal board and a MDF cap to match the face. The horizontal sections were cut short to account for the vertical 2x4 (1.5") the drawer faces (3/4") and the MDF cap(3/4"); 25.25+1.5+0.75+0.75=27.25. I secured these sections to each other and the wall with screws. Next I added the spice racks to the top and bottom sections, screwing them to the wall and the 2x4 support structure.

The Home Stretch

With the main structure complete, I moved on to the shell that would cover everything. Starting with the small caps along the face, a few 3.5"X1.5"blocks to trim the front, with the top block being 3/4" taller than the other two. Then the top of the unit, a 4"X25.5" cap that sat on top of the 2X4 structure. It's most likely that no one will ever look up there, but it's the little touches that make a big difference. Finally facing the whole unit by cutting out a large 3/4" MDF panel that would tie it into the adjacent wall, a 26.25"x65" section. All the MDF was just brad nailed to the support structure. The nails were set just below the surface to help hide them. I went over all these tiny holes with a touch of wood glue and some sanding to fill and blend these holes. All the visible seams and fastener holes will disappear with caulk and paint.

The Final Touch

Door faces, trim and a little caulking are the only things left. For the door faces, I used poplar. A single 8'-1"x6" board of poplar was used to create both door faces. Since a 6" board is actually only ~5.5", I ripped this down on both sides. The first side just to ensure a straight reference side. Then the other side to get down to the final 4" width. I cut a clean end off, then cut out a 31.5" length for the bottom door and a 32.5" length for the top door. Why not an even split? The vertical stack of material thickness is as follows: 1.5" for the 2X4 on the floor, 30" for the Rev-a-Shelf unit 1, 1.5" for the middle 2X4, 30" for the second Rev-a-Shelf unit, 1.5" for the top 2x4 and a final 0.75" for the MDF cap. A 31.5" length for the bottom door and a 32.5" for the top, leaves a 1/4" gap to the floor, a 1/4" gap between the top and bottom doors and a 1/2" reveal along the top; allowing the split to fall near the middle of the two units. Easing over the edges with a slight chamfer, then sanding them down to 120 grit softens up the edges and gets these doors smooth and ready for paint.

Last I added trim to match the existing trim in the house. This was an easy match since the client had her floors done recently and still had the spare trim from that job. I cut one length to go along the bottom of the unit and tie into the wall on the same plane. There was about an 1/8" difference between the existing wall and the one I just built out. I shimmed in behind the trim piece with some scrap to even it out and tie it all together. The final step was to simply caulk along all the seams and fill in the cracks and gaps along the unit so it was ready for paint. The client was having her kitchen painted at this time, so the unit was going to be painted to match the rest of the kitchen at a later point.

This simple addition did so much for the kitchen. By taking advantage of this small recess of space and adding function to an otherwise overlooked area, I was able to make a major impact on the function and use of this kitchen. This unit presented a design challenge in finding space in an otherwise fully utilized kitchen. I look at every nook and cranny of my own kitchen now with a whole new perspective. My blind corner cabinet makes me think "There has to be a better use of this space, but what?". That's another challenge for another day.