{diy: spice rack}

Let me say this now: this project was a much bigger pain in the ass than it needed to be. The idea was a very simple one: hang a shelving unit to act as a spice rack. The execution, apparently, needed three different types of hardware, two abnormally large holes in the wall, and a lot of cursing.

But first, let's look at the lovely final result:

I bought the shelves at Target about a week ago (the other is in the guest room... more on that later) and set about hanging it with the provided plastic wall anchors. I set the shelf where I wanted it, leveled it and marked the holes on the wall. Since I don't own a drill, I "predrilled" holes by hammering a nail in the mark. Then I attempted to screw in the anchor, which, clearly, did not want to be screwed in. It twisted uselessly until I hammered a bigger hole and managed to screw it in deep enough. Just when I thought myself pretty clever, I gave it a good twist to get it level, and the end of the anchor snapped off in the drywall. Awesome.

I pulled the anchor back out and tried a new tactic: hammering. Apparently I was supposed to do this all along, but obviously I know very little about drywall anchors. I pounded both anchors flush (I'm sure my neighbors were wondering what the hell was going on in here) and twisted the screws into them. Or, at least, that was the idea. Except the anchors didn't want to catch, and so the whole thing kept spinning and the screw was not biting into the wall. I tried giving it a little force, which succeeded in pushing the anchor too far back and I lost it inside the wall.
Now I had a huge hole and no anchor.

Several days later.
I found some time to go by the hardware store and picked up some 5/16 toggle bolts, which claimed they needed a whopping 1/2" pre-drilled hole to be effective, which was perfect, because that's exactly what I had gaping in my kitchen wall.
Toggles in: success. Screws in the toggles: success. Shelf on the screws: fail.
The screws were too big to slide onto the shelf rack. The only way I could make it fit was to put the screw through the shelf, and then put in into the toggle. This was fine, except that the shelf rack was so close to the screw that it was impossible to use a screwdriver, so I had to hand tighten it, millimeter by millimeter, until it was close enough to the wall that it would hold. Painstakingly tedious.

But finally I had a hanging spice rack! I added my spice jars to the shelf and even included a mason jar with a "bouquet" of utensils in lieu of flowers. To the bottom I added my fork hooks with my awesome measuring cups that I was lusting over from Anthropologie. All it needs is a hook with an apron and I think I've got a pretty snazzy looking kitchen!

Speaking of Anthropologie... here's my other fun little kitchen gadget I picked up with my gift card: a spoon dish for my stove. I also swapped out my white mugs for blue ones to give the kitchen a little more color. Sweet!