$6 IKEA Storage Hack for Cookbooks (See Photos)

I read digital books almost exclusively, but when it comes to cookbooks, I’m analog for life. I love seeing them on my shelf, I love encountering the little notes I’ve written in the margins, and I love having a connection to the cookbook authors because their words and their meals are in my kitchen on a regular basis. The only thing I don’t love is how much space cookbooks take up, but I’ve found an affordable workaround for that. 

I eyeballed the hook placement, but it would have been smarter to make a pencil mark. You can remove the hooks with no damage to the wall (if you’re careful), but you can’t re-stick them if you choose the wrong spot, and you’ll just have to toss the used hooks and start fresh. 

I made a few other mistakes along the way. I initially wanted to hang the cookbooks on a brick wall in my kitchen, but the hooks couldn’t adhere to the uneven surface. It also took me a few tries to find the right cookbooks for the rack. At first I thought my cookbooks were too heavy and large, because they sat on the rack at a downward angle, but when I tried lightweight cookbooks they were tilted, too. Then, I realized that if the thickness of my cookbooks is the same as the distance between the dowel “shelves,” they stick straight out from the wall, no matter if they’re heavy or lightweight. Luckily I had plenty of cookbooks that were about an inch thick. 

Once I figured out how to make the plate-rack-turned-little-library work in my kitchen, I was delighted with the result. It filled a space that was screaming for some art, solved my cookbook storage problem, and I didn’t even need to use a drill! (Ahem, renters.) I opted to pay extra for the convenience of ordering on Amazon; the plate rack cost $11.98, and I paid $11.39 for a pack of heavy duty hooks. If you live near an IKEA, you can buy the OSTBIT plate holder in store for only $5.99, an even better deal.

I even played around with some other kitchen items to see if this could work for storing things other than cookbooks, and found that if they’re around the same thickness, this is a great vertical storage solution for all kinds of items — cutting boards, cheese boards, you name it. 

I’m already shopping for more of these little bamboo beauties for my kids’ rooms and their books, because now that my children have seen the floating cookbooks, they’re as obsessed as I am.