Kitchen Recipe Holder / Sign Board

Kitchen recipe holder / sign.

We do a lot of cooking, and sometimes we jot down little scraps of recipe's and try to follow them in our kitchen. Most of the time these notes / recipe's get covered in sauce or get wet and we end up having to re-write them again. I opted to write them and put them on the fridge with magnets, but then I had to keep going back to the fridge to refer to some info on the recipe. That, and the fact we ran out of fridge magnet space (all hail our magnet collection from around the world!).

So I wanted to make something rustic with that 'unfinished' look which could hold up these recipes as well as double up as a whiteboard / sign if need be.

Note:
1. Be safe, don't hurt yourself etc, practice safety during the build.
2. Your significant other, GF, Mom etc will be your major obstacle (mainly because you're about to mount something in the kitchen) and also cause you're bound to leave a mess. Please don't tell them I gave you the idea for this :)

Materials

I have *just* the right spot in my kitchen, an area above the wash sinks and just next to the kitchen. This area has the most mount of free counter space and is where I usually do the prep work. The aluminum I had also nicely fit the wall area I wanted to mount it on.

I wanted to make use of stuff I had around the house and just keep the purchases to a minimum. I had some wood but I had to buy one more strip because of my scrap aluminum size.

Wood - 4cm x 215cm (or anything you have lying around)
Last scrap of aluminum that I had - 90cm x 150cm
Assorted screws, nails and picture frame holders
Hand saw
Sandpaper
Carpenter's glue

Important note:
This will make a great sign / whiteboard (aluminum though) for marker pens and also a place to stick your notes and recipes. Aluminum is NOT however magnetic, so take heed. In v2 of this 'ible I might look around for some metal so I can use magnets on this

Measure, cut and glue

So what I wanted was to create a frame around the aluminum. I opted for a 'sandwich' styled frame, and since I did not want to cut my sheet I just measured the wood frame to go around (but on top of) the sheet. For this I needed:

4 pcs of 4cm x 150cm (wood)
4 pcs of 4cm x 82cm (wood)

Once I had the wood cut, I layered on some carpenter glue and glued the first piece on to the aluminum sheet. Note that I am gluing on to the sheet, and not around the sheet (then I'll end up with a frame and the aluminum sheet will fall out!).

At first (in my head at least) I thought the glue would work really well and hold firm. After 10 minutes of holding / pressing down, the glue was not drying fast enough. I did not have any clamps with me, and it was getting late, so I switched half way to using nails (see the next step)

Framing

So now I started gluing, weighting down for a while, then following up with small nails (just enough to get through to the second piece of wood). The glue helped hold things down a little while I hammered in the nails. Take note, if you're hammering away to ensure that the pieces align well. I started with the side pieces first, and then the top / up & down pieces.

If your aluminum is a thinner sheet, also make sure that you make it flat and taught as possible so the frame does not flex too much.

Note:
Hammering away with wood + aluminum = racket!

Mount the frame

Now that the frame was done (glue drying be dammed! - cause of the nails), I measured out a uniform distance for the frame hooks at the back of the frame. I used small screws (with flat heads) so I could take them off and re-position them next time if need be (horizontally or vertically, its really up to you!).

Make sure your hooks (or any mounting device) are load capable (my frame + aluminum is super light, so these normal picture frame hooks work well). If the hooks have a front or back, make sure you put them in facing the right way (since you will be working on the reverse side of the frame).

For my wall, I used a drill and some wall screws that came with their own plugs. You have to measure these accurately. Else, it would be better for you to level and drill the wall holes first, and THEN measure again the picture frame hooks for the frame. You don't want that many holes on your wall.

Stand back and enjoy (and use!)

Now that its mounted, I just cleaned the aluminum sheet up a little with a wet cloth and some dishwasher liquid. Wipe it dry and its ready to go. I'm using some tape to stick on my notes / recipes and stuff.

You can also use a normal whiteboard marker to write directly on it, and you can just wipe it off with a kitchen rag (or a bit of liquid detergent if it gets too smudged).

Never miss a note / recipe or message again in the kitchen!

Lessons learned

1. I am a poor hand at sawing wood - I think the size / grade of the saw should match the type / width of wood you are sawing. Maybe if I had some electrical hand saws or a circular saw the cuts would be great.
2. Sanding - at some areas I could have spent more time sanding, but all in all I spent about 2 hours or less on the whole thing, so its not too bad.
3. Magnets! So like I said, aluminum is not magnetic, then again I already had the scrap aluminum lying around. If you have something that works, then go with it and you'll be able to use magnets to hold down your notes and recipes.

Enjoy!