If you're planning out a renovation or remodel, the first place to look for advice and inspiration isn't a home services website or professional's portfolio—it's TikTok. Creator Marco Zamora (aka @want.zamora) is renovating his rental kitchen and showing the entire process to his 540,000-plus followers, offering some ingenious home organization hacks along the way.
“If you’re new here, I’m Marco, and I’m making over my dream kitchen using affordable and renter-friendly techniques,” he says at the beginning of each of his many DIY videos. So far, he's added a beautiful stained-glass doorway to his kitchen, a ceiling medallion and new light, a plant window, and more. One of his more recent DIYs—a hidden spice rack—has really taken off.
It all started because his microwave seemed to sit awkwardly in the middle of a wall, explaining in a video that his followers had “a lot to say about my microwave.” Recessed into the wall at 6 feet high, Zamora calls it an "eyesore."
“Since I was little, I’ve always been obsessed with secret doors and hidden compartments,” he said in a video. “So I figured, why not make my dreams come true while also hiding this microwave.”
Since most of us use our microwaves fairly often, he knew he’d have to create something very functional. The end result: hiding the microwave with a piece of artwork put on hinges, giving it the ability to open like a door.
“I got a large piece of wood that would stick out past the face of the microwave, and then screwed it to the wall, and then added hinges to connect the art to the piece of wood,” he said.
After posting the video, TikTok viewers encouraged Zamora to add a spice rack. So, he did just that—and luckily documented his process. To recreate the look, invest in new spice jars (making sure to wash them thoroughly) and funnel in each of your spices. This gives your rack a more cohesive look. Zamora went with a chrome extendable spice rack, which he says is “perfect because it’s super low profile so [that] you can mount it to a wall [or] the back of a cabinet, and you can adjust the length depending on how many spices you have.”
After drilling in the spice racks underneath the microwave, he still had a bit of space left over, so he added a few colorful oven mitts. It all comes together for a fun, playful look that can be easily covered up by closing the hinged art. And the best part: It's low effort and low cost.