Spices spin or slide into handy reach - kitchen spice racks

Sunset, April, 1988

Spices spin or slide into handy reach

Movable spice racks make practical additions to tight-space kitchens. Here, we show one that spins and another that slides. Both house and display large collections of spice cans, jars, and bottles.

The spinning rack fills a cupboard next to a cooktop. Designed by interior designer Patricia Whitt of Napa, California, it rotates, putting spices and a range of other cooking items within easy reach.

For easiest installation and removal, the rack sits in a plywood box sizes to slip inside the cupboard. Mounted at top and bottom, lazy Susan bases with ball bearings secure the rack inside the box. Whitt designed the semicircular shelves to clear the shell by 1/4 inch on all sides.

The sliding rack below glides to and fro in front of shelves that run the width of a shallow pantry. Architect Lawrence Steiner of Portola Valley, California, suspended the mobile storage unit from the ceiling, using sliding door track and nylon rollers. The cook can center the unit, or slide it aside to reach the shelves behind.

Against a 1/4-inch plywood back, but unit's frame and shelves are pine 1-by-4s. The shelves were screwed in place through the sides of the frame; strips of 1/4-inch clear acrylic screwed to the front edges keep cans and bottles from falling out.

Photo: Five-level half-column rotates within a plywood box; whole unit slides into an empty cupboard. To keep items in place, inch-wide strips of 1/8-inch-thick wood trim the 1/2-inch plywood shelves and form a lip

Photo: Bookcase-type shelf, 3 feet across and 4 tall, weighs 40 pounds loaded but slides back and forth easily