Repurposing Ideas for Magazine Racks in the Kitchen

Spice Rack or Lid Rack

• Use a refinishing oil on a vintage, wooden magazine rack and turn it into an attractive spice rack. Hardware stores carry refinishing oils in many shades, such as cherry, dark oak, golden oak and maple. Magazine racks generally come with hardware or holes for hanging them on the wall, making them useful for saving counter space. Mounting one or two magazine racks near the stove gives you easy access to spices and the slats in the racks keep the spices from falling. A metal magazine rack, such as the wire kind that displays magazines in a horizontal row, works well as a pot lid rack.

Oils and Seasonings Rack

• Painting an old magazine to give it a new look to match your kitchen and create a kitchen essentials rack. Mounting a painted magazine rack in reach of the stove for items you use during cooking and salad making, such as olive oil, sesame oil, flavored vinegars and a pepper mill saves counter space. Transferring your oils and seasonings into matching bottles adds to the decorative effect. Cobalt blue bottles, green bottles and other dark glasses help to protect oils from light.

Herbs and Peppers Rack

• A magazine rack works well for displaying bunches of dried herbs and peppers. This creates a natural decorative effect. Peppers come in several colors, so you may choose red, green, orange, yellow or even dark purple peppers to coordinate with your kitchen colors. Tying the herb bunches with raffia, a natural, straw-colored fiber, or ribbon suits a Tuscan, country or eclectic kitchen decor. Small S-hooks offer a convenient way to hang herbs from the magazine rack slats. Arranging them in rows on the rack creates a pleasing display.

Cookbook Holder

• Standing a magazine rack on a counter, or mounting it near a kitchen table creates a convenient holder for your favorite cookbooks. The covers show through the rack's slats, displaying the book covers as part of your kitchen decor. Keeping the cookbooks you use most often close at hand makes it convenient to refer to recipes while cooking. Coordinate with your kitchen decor and paint the rack to match the curtains, counter tops or walls. Metallic paints, such as copper, sliver, bronze or brass help you coordinate the rack with the dominant metal in your kitchen.