Spice Up Your Life!

Or your spice rack.

Here’s a quick and easy DIY project that can add a little pizazz to any old spice rack. I acquired this particular spice rack from a relative. Excuse my crummy picture from my old flip phone, it was a while ago that I got these.

Just beautiful, aren’t they? Little glass jars with ugly gold labels and gross gold screw on tops to match.  The rack they came with is nice, double tiered, circular lazy susan style. Doesn’t take up too much counter space and is aesthetically pleasing (after I painted over that stupid gold).

The labels came off fairly easy with a scraper. I had some acrylic white paint and painted over the gold lids, and using a toothpick as a brush I wrote the names of each spice on the clean glass. Next thing you know, I had these sexy little spice containers…

I hate to toot my own horn but deeeaaammmn, I love these containers. The bold colors of the spices really stand out in the glass, I think the big old labels blocked out the beauty of that. (Extra Bonus points to those who can identify all of the contents- as if the beginning of the words showing wasn’t a dead give-away!).

A few great things about storing spices this way:

1. You don’t have to search though a cupboard reading the label of every spice to find the one you’re looking for- especially if it’s something like paprika or garlic salt- easy to spot with the eye. That’s one of those little things that makes cooking more enjoyable for me.
2. You can easily swap out spices. If you’re finding you’re using a little more of one spice than the other lately, it’s easy to scrape off the name of one and paint on another, something that might not be as easy with a label. Make sure it’s acrylic paint, others may not scrape off as easily.
3. Containers like this aren’t hard to find. If you can’t find an old set at a local thrift store then why not throw your own together? Head out to a container store and stock up on small items!

Actually, I might do that as well. As awesome as it was to get this spice rack for free, it only has twelve spots. Sure that’s fine and dandy for an average cook, but an experienced chef like myself (pfft, yeah right) has more than twelve spices. I’ve got at least ten more, different herbs and spices that are just sitting in their little plastic baggies in the pantry. Not as pretty of a sight, is it? Actually again- baby food jars would be awesome for spices and herbs, any moms out there want to hook me up?

Spice up your life! Girl Power, yeah!