Garage Cabinets --- Ideas?

[ut-jeff]

I am in the process of finally finishing out my first garage. I have lived here for 2 years and just now my garage majal is coming together. It is a 2-car detached garage, originally only studded. I have now drywalled it and had to add a bunch of joists up top where they were large gaps in the ceiling for reasons unknown to me. At that point I enlisted my childhood friend/professional painter to tape, float, texture and paint the garage & ceiling. Looks great now, and now it is time for me to build my work bench and cabinets.

I need ideas for the cabinets. Wife is bugging me to buy some, but I am of the belief that I will appreciate them much more if I construct them myself. I consider myself handy but by no means am I Bob Vila.

Thoughts on cabinets? I do not want to use MDF, Melanine, and will likely go with plywood, but I just wanted to see some thoughts on this...

Also --- epoxy floor....thoughts? Brands? A colleague told me to go with Sherwin Williams 650? Something like that - I can't recall now.

Anyway, really enjoy this site and will be posting the pics of my progress from the beginning to the end (hopefully in a week or two) for all to see.

Thanks in advance...

 

[moose knuckle]

There are so many threads on cabinets and benches. If you just want ideas on them, use the search button, lots of pics of great spaces.

 

[JayClay]

I know what you mean about the cabinets Jeff. I'm working on finishing up my drywall/insulation project in my new garage and have not decided about work benchs and storage cabinets yet. I dont have a very high budget and am not willing to go el cheapo for quality. SO I think the only option here is to build them. I have been keeping and eye on CL and the junk sales around here for any old steel boxes but nothing has turned up. If you come up with a good design that will hold some good weight let me know. Im still working on ideas.

 

[28HopUp]

My suggestion would be to epoxy your floor before building the cabinets and workbench. Take advantage of the garage being (relatively) empty.

 

[BPJOOP93]

craigslist look for home kitchen remodels. got my cabinets from my brothers house. they worked out pretty well.

 

[Snake87]

I am in the process of finally finishing out my first garage. I have lived here for 2 years and just now my garage majal is coming together. It is a 2-car detached garage, originally only studded. I have now drywalled it and had to add a bunch of joists up top where they were large gaps in the ceiling for reasons unknown to me. At that point I enlisted my childhood friend/professional painter to tape, float, texture and paint the garage & ceiling. Looks great now, and now it is time for me to build my work bench and cabinets.

I need ideas for the cabinets. Wife is bugging me to buy some, but I am of the belief that I will appreciate them much more if I construct them myself. I consider myself handy but by no means am I Bob Vila.

Thoughts on cabinets? I do not want to use MDF, Melanine, and will likely go with plywood, but I just wanted to see some thoughts on this...

Also --- epoxy floor....thoughts? Brands? A colleague told me to go with Sherwin Williams 650? Something like that - I can't recall now.

Anyway, really enjoy this site and will be posting the pics of my progress from the beginning to the end (hopefully in a week or two) for all to see.

Thanks in advance...

Just a thought for you, I don't know what the situation is with the rest of your house, but...

I'm going to be buying new kitchen cabinets as the cabinets I currently have are very old. When that time comes, I'll be taking the old kitchen cabinets and putting them in the garage. If your wife is the type that would love new kitchen cabinets, maybe take them from the kitchen and make her happy at the same time? Build up some credit there.

Just a thought.

 

[meissen]

If I do say so myself, there's a lot of good info that I gained from the responses in this thread that I started - http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76597 and I also have pictures of the cabinets I built inspired by a fellow Garage Journal member's cabinets.

 

[Scout Driver]

Kitchen cabinets work well. Here's my build.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68658


Scott

 

[kmacht]

It all depends on what you want to spend and if you plan on using it as a shop or a showroom. Used kitchen cabinets are usually a good deal. They are well constructed, can take alot of weight, and you can find them in just about any size or shape needed. You could build your own if you wanted something a little more custom but you probably won't save much money over buying used cabinets. Plywood is running pretty high now. You might want to check your local home depot. Mine just had 3/4" plywood with both sides sanded and knott free for $25 a sheet. It was listed as a special buy. Normally it is $25 for 1/2" plywood with only one side good. The third option is to buy garage cabinets. This is going to be the most expensive option but there are tons of different styles and materials out there. If you want a showroom look this is the way to go.

Epoxy is a touchy subject around here. Take a look at the flooring sub-forum. There are tons of posts on the different options out there. Some have spent thousands on wolverine, some have spent hundreds on epoxy coat, and some like me have spent $35 on some stuff from Sears when they were selling all their paint 50% off. I suggest reading reviews from people who have used the products. If you ask the manufacturer they are just going to tell you their product is the best out there. My stuff from sears was cheap and pretty easy to install but it definatly isn't meant for a show room. If I drop a heavy tool on it or scratch it up I don't really care.

Keith

 

[ut-jeff]

I have read and re-read the thread on this subject and the reason why I am still posting is b/c after reading it all, I am still uncertain.

As for whether or not I want a shop or a showroom...I would have to lean towards showroom. In the beginning I didn't care, but now after sinking the money I have thus far on the drywall, electrician, recessed lighting, painters, etc., it looks and appears like a showroom.

So I need cabinets that will look accordingly. However, I do not want to spend a ton of money on it b/c my wife will then decide it is time to spend the equal amount on the inside of the house for either new flooring, appliances, or hell...new shoes. Because of my garage majal I had to buy all new Kitchen Aid appliances last week!!!!

So you can clearly see if something costs me $1,000 in the garage it really costs me $2,000 when the smoke clears, although my house is looking better and better inside, but still.

I want the showroom look, but I would prefer NOT to get someone to build custom garage cabinets for me, if I can avoid it.

I now am tackling the issue of the epoxy for the floor and I have seen so many on this site that look incredible, and I would like mine to mirror that.

I may end up just building the damn cabinets myself and painting them all black and adding nice hardware to them for a more custom look. Still undecided though...

 

[csp]

There's no reason why you can't build your own and have professional looking results.

The web is full of info on building cabinets. Don't limit yourself to this website alone.

 

[JC23]

The Habitat Re Store is another source for used and sometimes new cabinets. I got a new KraftMaid for my kitchen remodel there for like, $75.

Plus 2 on looking at Craig's List. With used cabinets, about the most you have to do is paint 'em. Boom! Instant results and on to more fun garage things!

One more idea is using the smaller cabinets normally found on top of a fridge in the dead space up near the ceiling for storing what I call 'secondary' stuff you don't use as often.

Good luck, show us what you end up with and welcome aboard!

 

[GarageEnvy]

I just purchased 23' of Strong Hold cabinets off ebay for my garage and there's a thread on here about them so I'll just say they are high quality but tend to be cost prohibitive if you buy them new. Moduline and other "showroom" grade cabinets are nice but don't meet your budget requirement. I find it hard to reconcile the plywood with the "showroom" look you're going for. I've done a fair amount of cabinet work and building them square and sturdy with set up time for dados can really take a long time.

As far as epoxy goes I waffled back and forth on this one I made John Kerry look decisive. Lots of research on here about that so let me just say that for me the Epoxy-Coat price through Lowe's convinced me to go for it. The clear coat is another decision and I am still deciding between Epoxy-Coat's polyurea and endurashield from Wolverine (alpha garage). Total cost with flakes will be under $1.50 per square foot and may be close to $1.25. Possibly as or more important in the brand decision is the consideration of prep time. Grinding, etching, cleaning and taping are ridiculously time intensive. I underestimated this part and the frustration of not being able to move on beyond this very optional step. Lots more on this over in flooring.

 

[Vettman]

I bought 3 of these a few weeks ago. They were offering free shipping! The are really pretty nice cabinets for the money. Very sturdy with an adjustable shelf, locking stainless steel door.
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=177497

 

[Jack Olsen]

I'm not really sure what people mean by showroom. A two-car garage doesn't hold much, so I think it makes sense to use as much of the wall as possible. So I put wood soffit-style cabinets above my steel Strong Hold ones. I got some 1/8"x4" aluminum to kind of make a stripe to separate the two. And I went with ceramic tile instead of epoxy or other options.

I don't know what you do in your garage or what you need to keep in there. Putting some storage up high keeps stuff off the floor and is a good option for things you don't access frequently. Below 7' or so, it's nice to have cabinets that open easily and are durable enough to take the occasional hit by a 2x4.

 

[Jack Olsen]

And if you want showroom, check out Xcyz's garage in this thread.

He also built soffit style cabinets up high, but went for a look that's almost more 'inside-the-house' than it is 'garage.' Really beautiful.

 

[slim53]

Another alternative is searching a building salvage center. One here in town has steel cabinets out of a hospital for $35/linear ft. I hope to do this for next garage and top it with a bowling lane (cut down width wise). Also, old refrigerators are given away all the time. Once gutted, a guy can make shelves and you got yourself one cool cabinet. Good luck.

Slim

 

[Daniel Dudley]

My cabinets are all salvage. I paint them all Jack Olsen Green.

I don't think it is the cabinets themselves that make the job as much as the layout and design, color scheme, etc...

You need a vision of where you are heading. I just collect junk until I am inspired. I had storage though. I probably had 25 windows that I eventually chose out of before I did my garage and guest room. Didn't get rid of any until I finished.

BTW, there are over 100 pages of GJ threads representing hundreds of different garages. It is well worth doing searches, or even going through a dozen or so pages each night until you have seen all the garages represented here. My garage did not start to come together until I did that.

 

[SteelArt]

I am making mine as I didn't like the option of having them look like they were thrown in and came from somewhere else.

I framed them out of 30x30x2mm SHS and then tops are 25mm Flooring with folded 2.4mm Zinc splashes. Doors and shelves are 19mm waxed flooring. Draws are 2mm aluminium on 2.4mm sliders. I have two shelves in each one and kickers around the base. I have just started to add upper cabinets which are actually old filing cabinets I bought as a bulk lot from a tear out, so they all match.

Not finished yet but getting there.

 

[ddawg16]

Not sure why you are so dead set against melamine.....that is what I made all of mine out of.....If I had the time, I would have used cabinet grade plywood with melamine shelves. The nice thing about melamine is that it's easy to keep clean and never needs painting.

All of the doors came from the MIL's kitchen when my wife remodeled her kitchen for her.

But if you really want to get into cabinet making....invest in a good table say, router, biscut cutter, clamps, and have access to a good wood supply....HD and Lowes is not going to cut it.

This is an example of one of the cabinets that I made in our kitchen using soft Maple.

 

[ket-tek]

My suggestion would be to epoxy your floor before building the cabinets and workbench. Take advantage of the garage being (relatively) empty.

DITTO! 3 years since my build and my floor ain't done yet. But I have bench, cabinets, lift, boxes, project cars, and misc **** packed in now. Man I wish I had took a few more days and painted before I moved in.