Living in a Small Space: Pot Rack Edition

This is the first of what I hope will be many posts about how to fit two people's lives who are used to living in a low rent, large space market in Ottawa into 45 sq metres (500 sqft) in Toronto.

Problem: 

A common one - too many pots and pans and no where to store them.  I googled around for some DIY ideas and liked this article by Apartment Therapy. I love the idea of using a old wooden ladder suspended from the ceiling, but I couldn't find one in a pinch, so here we go...

What I Used: 

Home Builder Triple Grip Anchor

• Two 80cm (31.5") Grundtal rails from Ikea in Toronto. $8.99 each.
• Three 5pk Grundtal S-Hooks from Ikea. $3.99 each.
• Six dry wall anchors (I used Home Builder Triple Grip from Home Hardware)
• Six screws 
• Power drill and bits 
• Tape measurer 
• Level
• Pencil
• Hammer
• Step ladder



Butterfly Style Hollow-Wall Anchor/Screw

• Tall person

It's very important to properly support your new pot rack. Get Triple Grip or a butterfly style dry wall anchor. It's more work up front, what with the measuring and pre-drilling, but trust me, you'll thank yourself later when your pots and pan don't come crashing down on your fresh baked casserole.

Each Grundtal rail come with three screws. Two which look like normal screws (threads on one side, flat on the other) to attach the rail to its brackets on each side, and a third which has threads on both sides to connect rails together. I used this third one to connect two rails together. This wasn't the best idea for a pot rack, as you'll see later.

I measured out where my drywall anchors would go using a level, a tape measure, and a pencil. Then I pre-drilled holes just slightly smaller than my anchors (some anchors will come with the perfect sized drill bit) for a snug fit. I hammered in the anchors and fasten on the Grundtal brackets.  Here's where I needed a hand.  I couldn't hold up the rail and fasten it to the brackets alone!  There are nine foot ceiling in my place. I'm 5'2" and my foot stool in 1'8".  The math doesn't add up here, so I needed some help from my upstairs neighbour (Thanks Monika)! If you're in the same boat, call a tall friend to help. Next, I got out a pot and an S-hook and tested it out.  I found that it wasn't holding up as well as I would like at the mid point.  So I took another one of the Grundtal brackets and installed it horizontally in the middle of the rail for extra support and ...

The Result:

The rail is level, the ceiling is not. 

In hindsight, I should have just mounted the two rails, with brackets on both sides, side-by-side.  Pots and pans are heavy and the Grundtal connecting screw does not provide enough support for rails of 80cm each.

Happy small space living!