Read the sequence from the top before cutting, painting, or moving pieces.
Tools. Power tools, hand tools, random tools — we love them all! But when it comes to keeping them and their surrounding workspace tidy… we sometimes fail. We do try! We’ve shared tips for organizing your garage, and options for making a tidy and pretty workbench area, and we are head over heels in love with this pegboard tool cabinet and workbench by our guest, Maria:
We love organized spaces, especially areas like garages that tend to accumulate clutter. Sometimes taming the clutter is as direct as using an ordinary object in a new place, like this mailbox gardening tool organizer (via Lowe’s Creative options)
or reusing something that you already have around, like this pallet turned gardening tool organizer by Our Little Acre:
And sometimes a garage needs more dedicated help, from some pegboard and power tools and a little bit of creativity, like this portable tool organizer by Mom4Real…
Handmade Pegboard Tool Cabinet and Workbench
by the lovely Maria
Hello fellow Bekob readers! I am very excited and honored to have my project featured on one of my go-to sites. I have a blog where I post about some of my projects pretty infrequently (in Hungarian, as that is my first language). You might like the one where I created a pretty big wall art from $35 trying to copy an $800 Horchow piece.
We (my hubby and I) just bought our so called “track house” in March, 2013 that we have been trying to make our custom home. One baby step at a time… We live in the hot Las Vegas desert, so summer is not the time for any kind of garage projects. As soon as the weather cooled down, my palms started to itch for some power tools but the place was a mess. I needed some neat, organized space where I want to do some Handmade’s. So last week we put together a direct workbench and a pegboard organizer for the tools in my garage and created my project corner:
So here it is, how we made it:
BEFORE…Who would wanna do projects here, right?
So we started… We planned the height of the bench to be 36″, the length 92″ and the width 24″.
I had Home Depot cut the 2×4’s for me, but I miscalculated (that is never fun)… so we had to correct the size of the cross bars…
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| We grabbed the chop saw and jumped right into it… |
We used our beloved Kreg jig for joining the 2×4’s. I think this tool was one of our best investments…
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| Oszkár, the inspector is checking on us, as always… |
Then we needed to cut the bottom shelf to size. I used the router to cut out the corners for the legs.
They fit pretty snug
Painting followed… When our neighbors moved out, they wanted to throw away this bookshelf that I saved and now painted from black to white… Now that’s a pain….used up a lot of primer…
We used particle board for the top secured with screws then glued a sheet of hardboard on top of that.
Workbench was done.
Now all we needed to do was to make a 1×2 frame for the pegboard and hang it on the wall… But DH came up with an option to build a boxed frame instead, That was the best option… like… ever! From there we went to boxed frame with shelves to boxed frame with doors, then to sliding doors. Well it turned out to be a bigger project than the workbench itself. LOL We looked for an inspiration piece and found this on ShopNotes. Exactly what we needed:
Boxed frame was the first to be built. We used 2 1″ x 6″ x 8′ pine board. The el cheapo kind.I cut 2 feet off of both and used the 6′ long ones as the length, the 2′ long ones as the height.
We used the table saw to cut the groove into the side of the pine board where we later we slid the pegboard in. (we also cut the bigger grooves for the doors into the longer boards with 3/4 in router.)
3 sides are done
This is where you can see the groove for the sliding door. On the bottom, it is 1/8 in, on the top it is 1/4 in so when the doors are placed into the groove, they go in but when sit on the bottom, they would not fall out.
Next we made the doors. Again, using the table saw we cut grooves for the pegboard, then cut the pieces to size with a 45 degree angle using the miter saw.
Dry fit
Then I had to do the painting before the final assembly:
Shelves…
Best. Primer. Ever.
After the primer I used Behr Premium Plus Exterior Enamel, Snowy Pine PPU10-13
I love the soft white of that paint but unfortunately the pictures don’t really show…
Door assembly:
Kreg joints…
3 sides were screwed together then we slid the pegboard into the groove . The 4th side was secured in place after that.
This is how they turned out:
Touch up…
Putting the shelves in…
Placing the doors into the grooves aaaaand: they FIT! And they slide! And they are well fitted!
Mounting it on the wall:
I bought a whole lot of plastic/glass storage containers in a dollar store and 3 cans of spray paint and here she is:
The doors slide all the way to either side of the box without resistance. I also wiped the groove with some candle wax so it slides like hot knife in butter
I. LOVE. IT!
The only boo boo is that (as it was pointed out to me quite obviously by DH) that I messed up the measurements for the doors so when they are “closed” there is a 2 inches gap between them… Oh well, but I know not to EVER make a mistake like this again
This project did not break our modest-cost. The table was more expensive than the cabinet. Here is a list of materials:
Table:
- 5 2″x4″ premium doug fir studs @ $3 each = $15
- 1 4’x8′ sheet of particle board @ $18 = $18
- 1 4’x8′ sheet of 1/4″ hardboard @ $17 = $17
- paint and primer I already had
Total: $49
Cabinet:
- 2 1″x6″ x 8′ pine board @ $5 each = $10 (box frame)
- 1 1″x4″ x 10′ pine board @ $5 =$ 5 (shelves and devider)
- 2 1″x4″ x 8′ primed pine board @ $4.60 = $14 (sliding door frame)
- 1 4’x8′ tempered pegboard @ $ 18 = $ 18
- Miscellaneous accessories @ 20 = $ 20
- 3 spray paint cans @ 3.50 each = $10.50
- peg hooks – already had = $0
- paint and primer – already had = $0
Total: $ 77.50
Finished dimensions for the cabinet:
- 6′ x 2′ x 6″ deep
- doors are 17 1/2 ” x 23 5/8″ (should have been 17 7/8″ so there are no gaps between the doors when pulled into the center)
- shelves were cut to 16 3/4″ (should have been 17 1/8″ if doors had been 17 7/8″) x 3″
Garage corner transformed for $126.50 YAY
All materials were bought at Home Depot.
Thank you for taking the time and reading my post. I hope you guys liked the project and find the walkthrough useful.
Maria
Maria, we LOVE it! Functional and pretty — love the colors you chose!
Pop on over and pay Maria a visit and see what else she’s been DIYing!
