Our DIY projects for the kitchen | #LRCrafts - DIY Passion: if you can think it, you can make it
My husband is a talented cook, staying true to his Italian origins with a love for traditional flavors and fresh ingredients. I love how he’s able to invent delicious dishes using the ingredients he finds on hand. His creativity shines in the kitchen, just as it does in all his DIY projects.
Yet his ingenuity doesn’t stop at recipes. Guided by our family motto “If you think it, you can make it”, he’s combined his skills as an electronic engineer with our shared passion for DIY to create tools that make his cooking easier and more enjoyable.
While I’m not the most enthusiastic cook, I do enjoy spending time as a family in the kitchen, especially now that our daughter has started joining in. Cooking together has become an extension of our DIY lifestyle, blending invention, practicality, and precious family moments. Over the years, my husband has created several tools to aid him in his culinary adventures.
Here are a few of our favorites.
Restored wine barrel grill stand
This project began with an old wine barrel we inherited from my uncle. Rather than leave it as a decorative piece, my husband transformed it into a functional grill stand for our terrace.
The restoration took us three full weekends and kept us happily busy during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
The finished piece includes a storage compartment for tools, a door that doubles as a foldable tray for dishes, and wheels for easy mobility. It’s perfect for outdoor barbecues and adds rustic charm to our terrace as a lovely decorative feature.
How we made our grill stand Woodworking
Meat dehydrator and smoker
This ambitious project showcases my husband’s engineering expertise.
Shaped like a miniature wooden house, the smoker and dehydrator is equipped with wooden rods for hanging meat, a chimney on top, and custom electronics that regulate airflow and temperature using PC fans.
An external fireplace connects via tubes, allowing us to create perfectly smoked delicacies. This one-of-a-kind tool elevates our outdoor cooking adventures and has become a true showstopper, with results that are absolutely delicious!
Woodworking
Adjustable wooden pasta drying rack
In Italy, pasta-making is practically an art form, and my husband embraced it wholeheartedly.
To dry fresh homemade pasta, he built a wooden pasta rack with a central pillar and removable rods set at 45-degree angles. The rods can be adjusted to accommodate different types of pasta, whether tagliatelle or fettuccine, and the whole rack disassembles for easy storage.
A friend of ours who’s serious about pasta-making was so impressed by the tool that my husband made one for him, too!
Woodworking
Wooden mold for "Salame di Cioccolato"
This small but ingenious tool has a special place in our kitchen. My husband’s “Salame di cioccolato” (Chocolate salami) is one of his famous masterpieces. This Italian dessert, made with cocoa, broken biscuits, butter, and alcohol (we always choose Italian Alchermes), is often requested by friends and coworkers.
Made from an old wine bottle box cut into two parts, this project functions as a mold to shape the Italian dessert into a long rectangular cuboid. The simple design makes the process quick and mess-free, ensuring perfect presentation every time.
These projects are just a glimpse of how our passion for DIY and my husband’s love for cooking intersect. Each tool serves a practical purpose, but also reflects our creativity, our love for Italian cuisine, and our dedication to doing things our own way.
What about you? Do you have any favorite DIY kitchen tools? Let me know in the comments: I’d love to hear your ideas and experiences!
by Rici86.
