Weddingbee Blog

When I first became a bee, I told you guys that I was planning on creating favors by putting locally farmed honey into test tubes and corking them. I also told you that I had a project in mind for the test tubes that would be leftover after I finished the favors. Well, here it is! I decided to use the extra test tubes and corks to create a stylish and convenient place to store all of my spices. It’s a really simple project.

The supplies

To begin, you will need the following supplies:

• 1 metal strip that can be mounted to the wall (mine was $.69 at IKEA)
• 2 packages of sticky-backed magnetic strips (Michaels)
• About 20 test tubes (eBay)
• About 20 corks (WidgetCo)
• Various kitchen spices and herbs
• 1 funnel

I started by taking all of the spices and herbs off of the shelf and throwing away ones that were gross or old. This is what my spice rack looked like before. Icky. The fact that some of the spices didn’t fit into the box was driving me crazy! Not to mention all the mismatched containers! (Yep, I’m a habitual over-organizer.)

I started by creating a funnel out of a piece of paper and some tape. A real funnel would have been a lot easier to use, but I went with what I had. Then I started pouring spices from their jars into the test tubes and plugging them with the corks.

Be sure to clean your funnel out after every spice (or make a new one if you’re using paper) so that one spice doesn’t get contaminated with another. You can also do similar spices back to back, such as cinnamon and cinnamon sugar, or garlic and garlic salt.

It’s also important that you either label the spices after you add them to the test tubes or write down which spices you put in the test tubes in order. It would really suck to finish this project and then realize you had no idea what was in each tube! I decided to go with a reference list instead of labels in order to keep the test tubes looking clean and neat.

The next step is to cut your magnetic strips and stick them to the backs of the test tubes. I made sure to cut the strips pretty long to ensure that they would be strong enough to hold the tubes up. I ended up cutting them to about the length of the metal piece.

Once you have all of your spices in their test tubes and the magnets attached, the final step is to mount the metal piece on the wall. I simply used screws and a power drill. Pretty easy! Then you can arrange your spices any way you like–just remember to somehow note what each one is!

The finished product

I was able to mount my new spice rack right over the sink. Because of this little project, I was able to put all of the spice jars away into a cabinet for refills later. We got rid of the metal rack in our kitchen and opened up a ton of space!

This is a project that I’ve been wanting to try forever, and I’m so glad I finally found the time.

How are you using leftover supplies from your wedding?