4 Pull-Out Spice Racks Fitted to a Metod Cabinet with Utrusta Runners

Why the 40 cm Metod carcass earns the job

The narrow 40 cm Metod base cabinet is the useful size for a stacked spice pull-out. After the 18 mm carcass sides are accounted for, the internal clear width sits around 356 mm, enough space for a tray between a pair of Utrusta runners without the tray scraping the side panel. A 60 cm cabinet spreads single-file spice jars across too much width, so this same four-tray arrangement leaves depth unused and pushes jars into a second row that disappears from view. IKEA sells the Utrusta pull-out runner as a load-rated slide, and the 40 cm version is the part that every form of this build relies on.

Four trays in one carcass create four separate access points. Each tray opens on its own, which changes the cabinet from a dark slot into four shallow lanes. With one deep drawer holding the same jars, the front row blocks the back row and a search for cumin can turn into knocked-over bottles. Split the space into pull-outs with clear heights of 90 mm, 130 mm, 170 mm and 210 mm, and every jar gets a visible front face. The tallest tray takes 200 ml oil or vinegar bottles, while the shallowest tray suits 40 g tins laid flat.

Marking runner positions before drilling

Lay the carcass on its back first. The Metod side panels already have 32 mm System holes, and the Utrusta runner brackets clip into those holes for initial positioning before any screw is driven.

Count the holes from the bottom edge. The factory spacing gives you the reference grid and keeps the two sides matched. In an 80 cm high carcass with four trays, a workable set of bottom-edge positions is hole 3, hole 11, hole 19 and hole 27. Those positions create the ascending clear heights that put taller bottles at the top.

Each Utrusta runner is handed. The left and right pieces in a pair are mirror images, and fitting two lefts is the common build error because the front stop lands on the wrong side and the tray will not close square. Put both runners from one pair on the bench with their front stops facing you before clipping them into the cabinet.

Once both brackets at one level are seated, set a spirit level across the tops of the pair. A runner sitting 2 mm proud at the front can make the tray nose-dive, then drag against the tray underneath.

The tray can be a cut-down Utrusta pull-out shelf, or it can be a simple 15 mm ply tray. If you make the trays, measure the gap from runner to runner and cut the tray 6 mm narrower. A tray built to the full measured gap can bind as soon as the ply takes on humidity and swells.

Do this level by level, checking the tray travel before moving up the cabinet. The short test run catches a clipped bracket that has not seated cleanly, and it is easier to reseat one empty runner than to diagnose a loaded stack later.

Keeping the Blum soft-close and the tray detents aligned

Metod hinges are Blum Clip top with integrated soft-close. The door still has to shut over four loaded trays, and that depends on the trays staying fully parked inside the carcass. The Blum soft-close action pulls the door shut in the last 30 mm of travel; the trays rely on the detent built into each Utrusta runner. If a tray creeps forward even 5 mm, the door can catch the front row of jars, bounce back open, or crush the row.

Test for creep before hanging the door. Push every tray fully closed, then tap the carcass side sharply with a fist. A tray that walks forward usually has its front end mounted low. Shim the front bracket up by one 32 mm hole or reseat the clip, then repeat the tap test.

The door choice is a separate hardware decision. A single full-height door on a 40 cm cabinet is light enough for two Blum hinges, and the four loaded spice trays place no load on the door itself. Size the hinges based only on the door’s weight.

The standard Utrusta pull-out runner is rated for a working load in the region of 15 kg to 20 kg per pair, which leaves plenty of headroom for spices. Use the 170 mm tray as the busy example. Twenty 200 ml oil and vinegar bottles at roughly 250 g filled weight total 5 kg. Add a 15 mm birch ply tray of roughly 340 mm by 320 mm, near 1.1 kg, and the pair carries about 6.1 kg. That sits comfortably inside a 15 kg rating, while the front detent still has to hold that 6.1 kg seated when the door swings closed.

That is why the creep test matters more than the arithmetic. A slide operating at half its rated load can still spoil the cabinet if the tray edges forward. When buying replacement runners, choose the Utrusta full-extension version over the partial-extension type, because the full-extension carriage seats the tray deeper into its home position and holds closed better.

Where the stack stops scaling

Adding a fifth tray to the same 80 cm carcass pushes each clear opening below 80 mm. A standard 100 mm tall spice jar can no longer stand upright, so jars end up flat again, the storage problem this pull-out layout was meant to solve.

Two other conversions using the same hole grid

The same Utrusta runner logic moves into other IKEA frames. A Trofast frame, sold for children’s toy storage, can become a low bench with pull-out seating drawers by replacing the plastic Trofast bins with a plywood seat top and running the lower openings on Utrusta slides. That conversion works because the frame’s internal rails already sit to the 32 mm spacing, so the count-from-the-bottom method transfers cleanly. Cap the top with a 20 mm Karlby offcut and the bench becomes hallway seating with shoe storage in the pull-outs below.

Karlby also has its own common second life. IKEA sells it as a 3.8 cm walnut or oak veneered solid-wood counter, and people often repurpose it as a desk top. A 186 cm Karlby span can sit across two Alex drawer units with a knee gap in the centre. Because the slab is genuinely thick, it can take a threaded insert for a monitor arm without splitting.

The Besta record storage wall uses the hinge side of the same parts story. A full-height Besta run can hold LP crates on adjustable shelves, and the doors ride on the identical Blum soft-close hinges used across the Metod range. In these conversions, Utrusta runners and Blum hinges move between frames because the drilled 32 mm System appears across Metod, Besta and Trofast. IKEA does not document those crossovers, and a runner sold for a Metod spice pull-out carries no note saying it will seat in a Trofast frame. The manuals keep the product lines separate while the side panels quietly share the same drilled grid.