a better spice rack?  

Nice idea. The key is that...
Nice idea. The key is that the top closure should be air-tight. The longer dried spices are exposed to air, the more quickly they lose their aroma/flavor. I love the idea of getting rid of all those jars....I have a drawer plus filled with them. We use teak salt cellars in our house and there is something very pleasing and tactile about taking a pinch of the desired amount....much more pleasant than shaking a jar.

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Agree about the air tight, and 'roach proof too...I went into the shopping centre thing and the largest spice/herb I could find by volume for sale was sweet paprika, which is nothing like cayenne pepper yet looks identical...now thats a problem 🙂 Very nearly bought a set of Global knives when I was there, that or Wusthof, any opinions?
I was offered a job this week as a community police officer/assistant sort of thing, hahahahahaha, I'd rather lose a finger, when I was a kid we hung around giggling smoking pot, these kids take speed and stick broken bottles in people, shopping malls, jesus.

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make a single rubber gasket cut to seal each compartment and there are a variety of closures that could be utilized. the suitcase type, a screw type, or just like an old "self-sealing" mason jar {compression type?}......i like the idea a lot....i feel like the mason jar type would work well, be aesthetically please and simple....you could have the "wire" run the width[from end to end],through a channel, and have only one simple little lever front-and-center......and you should be able to use a thin enough wire to make it easily hand-malleable...what a fun project....wish i had the tooling id do one myself...aaahhh a mill, lathe and hand tools-would be a dream....

Salt may be okay stored this way
but as you've suggested, spices are prone to infestation. I discovered this a year or so ago-- I'd been storing spices in those small 1970's cork-topped glass cylinders, and to my horror I discovered that one of my jars was ALIVE with thousands of tiny crawling creatures, just as I was about to use it. A red spice, as I recall... paprika maybe... the little creatures were the same color red, probably from ingesting it for months-- BLECCCH, still sends shivers down my spine to think about. I promptly decided to revert back to screw-top glass jars, then and there.

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To keep spices fresh they need a tight seal as WHC experienced.
Interesting idea but most spice is just not 'pinch-able'. I'm just not that
fond of touching a spice. When cooking, hands are ofter damp from
washing so often after handling meats, chopping, rinsing greens, etc.
I rarely use just a pinch of anything except salt. A Martha type tried once
to get me on board with the open salt cellar trend. Sticks to fingers,
gets under the nails and puts another gack item on the counter and if
friends are over, way too many fingers are in the thing including
nose-picking children. Also, left without a lid, salt absorbs moisture.
Salt is cheap so it can be emptied often...

But,
if you use just a few spices consistently, your wall mounted system
could hold your most used 6 or 10. Just don't put much in and keep
the bulk in the cabinet. As long as the wood is sealed correctly and
the lid surface is lined with dense foam mat, the spices would stay
ok fresh for a week or 2. French cleat the box to the wall above your prep
area. Shouldn't the containers be at least 2in dia for easy pinching?

more my speed
The Rosle system spice rack and jars are more my speed. I like and have the bulk of the Rosle system of hangers and tools.

How do you
clean out one or more compartments when required -- with a vacuum ?
Naah -- sorry. The spices need to be in glass or plastic or ceramic or metal cups which fit into the rack. Then, a casketed top as shown, and you've got it.
Less is more -- but it has to work. Wish I could make those photo-real renders like you do . . . !

Yup, tightly sealed and preferably not glass
I'm on board witht the rest of the crowd. Spices should be sealed airtight and preferably in a container that keeps them in the dark, which also helps to preserve freshness. I have stainless stee ones similar to the ones posted by 'niceguy'. The rack I have in a countertop stand on a lazy susan, The Container Store here in the US used to sell it. It's very efficient, compact storage and it looks fine displayed. I genrally like things to be put away, but I don't mind this one at all. It only holds about 20 bottles, so all my other spices are in a wires mesh basket in the cupboard in easy reach. Still in the nice little SS bottles, though.
Heath, I don't know if you are able to buy from the following companies in AUS, but if you want good quality spices, in bulk, for a very good price, check out:
Penzey's: www.penzeys.com
Frontier: www.frontiercoop.com
As a major foodie and avid cook, I but from both places. But I agree that small amount should be removed and placed into bottles, the rest stored in the freezer to preserve freshness. Never should you be putting your wet, potentially contaminated fingers into a store of spices. Salt might be the one exception as nothing grows in it. I like to pinch it as I cook, it's somehow more satisfying.
And while we're yapping about food and spices, I want to get up on my soapbox a moment an mention pepper. If you buy your black pepper preground you might as well put dryer lint in your food. It's ghastly. Invest in a good peppermill (Peugot makes the best ever) and but ONLY Tellicherry peppercorns. Lastly, only add pepper at the end of the cooking time as the flavor is greatly dampened by the cooking process. The one exception to that is Steak au Poivre, which is heaven's gift as far as I'm concerned. OK, off of soapbox now.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/steak-au-poivre-recipe/in...

Um Ummm!
Goodness, such gourmands and gourmets! We have too many good restaurants in the area that put my cooking to shame. I do however like to bake twice or thrice weekly deserts (especially cakes from scratch, natch), and always make my own stock(chicken,fish,beef). Most of the herbs that I would use when cooking a meal would come from my garden (cilantro, basil, oregano,thyme,etc). And I love my Global knives. Very sharp, great balance, haven't yet ever had to sharpen, etc.
I like your spice rack, Heath.

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Thanks for the thoughts, wood is too porous really...even sealed. I still like pinching but can see the other problems, perhaps its better suited to storing other things.
Double thanks to Olive.

Heath
First, Global knives are awesome. They feel good, they take a super-sharp edge, and they're easy to clean. I sharpen mine with an EdgePro Apex and give them a light touch with a ceramic steel after every washing, and they stay razor-sharp for half a year. Plus they look bitchin'.
I like the look of your proposed spice rack, but it seems a little wasteful of space. I have a couple racks that I bought at the Container Store some time ago; they don't look like much, but they do a lot of things right:
1. screwcaps for air- and bug-tight storage
2. clear glass jars, so you can see how much is left and so you don't have to rely on labels to know what's in there
3. labels anyway, on the caps so you can read them no matter which way the bottles are turned
4. dark storage for the clear jars, so the spices aren't exposed to the sun
5. tight packing of the jars into a small volume, with a very small footprint on the counter
6. wall-mounting option for situations in which even a small footprint on the counter is unacceptable
The Container Store doesn't sell mine anymore, but they have a new one that's very similar. The only difference is that the outer box is clear acrylic rather than steel, so you don't get the sun-blocking benefit unless you paint the thing... But you also get room for 20 jars instead of 12.

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Thanks, clear bottles in a dark box makes real sense, for now they all sit in a glass box with a plastic lid in the pantry, its an irritating mess though...I still like the thought of being able to get to all of them with a flip of one lid.
I think I'll buy a small set of Global knives, not too keen on the block though.
The ones I made years ago had turned wood lids for the steel tubes with a rubber O ring to seal...might go back to that or something like it.

The Global block?
Yeah, I agree; that thing's ugly.
Besides, blocks are a terrible way to store knives anyway. Better to stick them to magnetic strips (from Global or dozens of other manufacturers).