What do your Storage Cabinets look like?

[icecactus]

Homemade cabinets finally finished last night. I built the boxes last fall, but with a complete re-do of the garage it took a while to get a finish on them.

They are made of 3/4" plywood, with pocket screw construction. Face frames and door frames were made out of a bunch of 1x6 material that was ripped to the correct widths. I have several hundred board feet of this material. Door panels were made of left over beadboard plywood from the soffit of our covered porch.

The center cabinet is a Harbor Freight 13-drawer box that I disassembled and painted, inside and out. It won't hold any tools as my workbench is on a sidewall and have another 13-drawer box and a couple of roll aways with top boxes on them. The wall area above the HF box is being reserved for a 41" LCD. The homebuilt drawer cab will have a butcher block countertop. I've been looking on craigslist for a while, but am coming up empty. We recently had an Ikea open up close by, so I'll get one of theirs once the crowds die down there a bit.

I still have to trim out the base platforms to cover the gap at the front. There's a fair amount of slope in the slab.

Now that these are done I can finally start moving in my welders, drill press, hydraulic press, and lots of stuff that will go in these cabinets. Right now the stuff that's in them is just there to get it out of the way. Lots of organizing to come along with a small section of pallet racking to the left of these cabinets.

Love the cabinets!

What kind of paint did you use?
How did you apply it? roller?

 

[dittle fart around]

Ha-ha yes, you got me But the very first post by OP is actually titled , so I naturally though that "storage" is ok to talk about here as well.

You can talk about anything you want. Wire closet type shelving works great. If you're doing a lot of dirty work you might want something that closes up. My tools hang on pegboard and every time I pick one up I've got to wash my hands.
You might think about slat wall. It makes a nice finished look and has lots of accessories. Check it out here.

 

[csp]

Love the cabinets!

What kind of paint did you use?
How did you apply it? roller?

Paint is just interior latex applied with a 4" foam roller. Color coat was preceded by Behr primer, which was sanded to knock the fuzz off of it.

The tool cabinet was sprayed out of a HVLP gun with a single coat tractor paint.

 

[vtx531]

Here are my storage cabinests. They are the Coleman that Lowe's used to sell.

I have these also but not as many:

Guys, I see a lot of cool, creative, and some really expensive ideas for storage. I do not have a lot of tools: I do not repair cars or anything like that - just a regular home owner with a limited set of tools/things to organize in the garage. I wonder - four pages of ideas and noone (unless I missed it) mentioned a wall-attached wire shelving like the one on a sample picture. Is it because it is not sufficient for most people here with a lot of tools or there is another reason I am not seeing here?

Because the goal is to hide your ****! I am going to put some in my shed though.

 

[Scoutman]

Mine...

 

[Sunnfjordingen]

and where would one get this done

http://www.photowall.eu/photo-wallpaper/categories/vehicles

 

[Kevin54]

I have to say that this is the first garage I've seen with a plant in it. Nice touch

The only storage cabinets I have are the Gladiators that Lowes had on sale a couple of years back.

 

[PECVD2]

Dang Kevin, I think most of us had forgot about your soffit cabinets project but your place looks great. Nice use of all your space. Do you have a thread with pictures of all your car models? Looks like you have a great selection.

 

[dittle fart around]

I have to say that this is the first garage I've seen with a plant in it. Nice touch

The only storage cabinets I have are the Gladiators that Lowes had on sale a couple of years back.

I've seen the Lowes Gladiator cabinets at the store they seem pretty light duty. Did you have to assemble the ones you have. Are these the same as the ones sold at Sears? I'm selling Gladiator Cadet cabinets from Stack-On. These are assembled welded cabinets.

 

[NewShockerGuy]

I've seen the Lowes Gladiator cabinets at the store they seem pretty light duty. Did you have to assemble the ones you have. Are these the same as the ones sold at Sears? I'm selling Gladiator Cadet cabinets from Stack-On. These are assembled welded cabinets.

They sell two different ones now.
The RTA (ready to assemble) and the newer premier ones that are fully welded.

I just picked up two of the 30" cabinets from sears and they are the fully welded ones. The ones I got hold a max of 200lbs per cabinet.. So I think that's pretty good considering...

I almost got the RTA ones but read too many issues of metal bending and just what you described as light duty...

We'll see once I mount them though.

-Nigel

 

[rhastings80]

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[icecactus]

Is that a wheatie???

 

[rhastings80]

Is that a wheatie???

It's a goldendoodle, the parents were a standard poodle and golden retriever. It's a great dog is there is very little shedding.

 

[icecactus]

Oh ok, i couldnt tell if it was a wheatie (wheaten terrier) or a golden/lab doodle.

I got a wheaten terrier that loves to be out the garage with me.

 

[Kevin54]

Dang Kevin, I think most of us had forgot about your soffit cabinets project but your place looks great. Nice use of all your space. Do you have a thread with pictures of all your car models? Looks like you have a great selection.

I've seen the Lowes Gladiator cabinets at the store they seem pretty light duty. Did you have to assemble the ones you have. Are these the same as the ones sold at Sears? I'm selling Gladiator Cadet cabinets from Stack-On. These are assembled welded cabinets.

No thread with the diecast cars. But when I had my '62 Impala, I collected a couple of '61 and mostly '62 diecast. Not sure how many I have. Plus I have a few others in there like the American Grafitti '58 and a few Muscle Machines just because they were cool looking. Most of them are boxed up now.

They are the cheaper Gladiators that you have to assemble. I find though that I can pack them pretty full and they handle the weight alright. To me the flimsiest part are the doors on them just for the fact that they seem to want to twist slightly when opening them if the catch is tight. The shelves hold what I can throw in there though.

Here is a pic of some cabinets I used to have before I built my new bench and put the Gladiators up. I gave them all to a buddy of mine that did not have any cabinets in his garage. The doors were $5/ea. from a place that sell seconds on doors and cabinets. 2x4 frame for the bottom with 1x3 for the facing. The uppers are made from pine 1x12 shelf boards and 1x3's for the facing. I just had a piece of OSB for the top as I never got the top made that I wanted before I gave them away.

 

[xxtreem11]

Not complete yet, but they're getting there. All home built

Oh..... and.... excuse the mess!

 

[ejalbertini]

Re: Garage Cabinets and Storage

I built these cabinets for woodworking and reloading storage in the "clean" side of my garage.

The lower units are 18" deep. The uppers are 12" deep and set flush to the front of the lower units. The 6" void behind the uppers contains horizontal storage bins for dowels, tubing, gun barrels, etc. This works well for me.

 

[Toolfool]

Here's mine , at the moment. Will change as I complete the 'shop' space.

 

[KCarGuy]

I have several "Retro" White Metal Cabinets in my Garage and some "Home Built" Wooden overhead cabinets.
I also have a Upstairs loft that is Used as a Poker-Bar area, but still wanted some storage upstairs. So when you first walk up the stairs, the First 10 feet is Storage, as well as behind the "Knee walls".
I got a large Industrial Metal Cabinet years ago for free.
I mounted it to a Piece of Plywood, added some small casters.
Cut the top on the same angle as my Rafters.
And (at one time) hinged it to a Shelving Unit.
This way it could be swung out of the way to give me access it for other storage.
I recently moved everything, so it needs to be re-Hinged.
But it tucks in Tight and moves out of the way.

 

[icecactus]

Paint is just interior latex applied with a 4" foam roller. Color coat was preceded by Behr primer, which was sanded to knock the fuzz off of it.

The tool cabinet was sprayed out of a HVLP gun with a single coat tractor paint.

Is it behr interior paint as well? What sheen is it? I like how yours turned out, a bit of reflection but not super glossy...

 

[csp]

No, the black is craptastic WalMart paint I bought after seeing recommendations here. Never again. It takes forever for it to fully "cure" and not peel up when anything touches it. Satin finish.

 

[moto367]

Here's mine. HON office cabinets. I just got these a week ago from work and haven't had time to re-paint them (machine grey) to match my workbench. They have the light underneath as well. I'm pretty stoked because I only paid $10 each. I wish they had more but 3 was it.

 

[W650Mike]

Several reconditioned (not to be confused with restored) cabinets - found for near nothing at swap meets. I have more but they aren't painted or assembled. I kinda like the old art deco display boxes from service stations and such but they are hard to find in decent condition.

 

[Javadave]

Several reconditioned (not to be confused with restored) cabinets - found for near nothing at swap meets. I have more but they aren't painted or assembled. I kinda like the old art deco display boxes from service stations and such but they are hard to find in decent condition.

Love that Milwaukee cabinet! Nice touch.

 

[Brad54]

Re: Garage Cabinets and Storage

Found this rounded corner tool cabinet at an on line antique store.
View media item 10630I'm trying to keep this string current. A lot of people are posting questions and photos of their great storage cabinets. This was meant to be a place you could put your posts and keep up on the first page of threads. To inspire those remodeling or reorganize what they have. So if it looks like I'm the only one adding to this thread I'm sorry. Yep I sell this kind of stuff on line, but this is a place for you to add to till a separate category for Storage and Cabinets is added. Thanks

I'm nearly certain that's a Craftsman tool chest. I have one I'm using as my welding cart.
I'm about to build a chassis for it and bottle holder to make it a purpose-built welding cart. It's handy because all my clamps, pliers, etc. fit in the drawers, while my leathers and helmets (mine and a "buddy" helmet) fit in the bottom.

-Brad

 

[Brad54]

Here's what I'm using as storage:
The two-door cabinet and book case came from a place I used to work--they were giving them away. I'd like to add another shelf to the cabinet. I made the plexiglass doors for the book case better than 10 years ago, and they work fantastic.

The nut and bolt bin was a rusted POS when I bought it. Had it soda blasted and I painted it red. I need to fab some doors for it before I load it up with nuts and bolts. right now it's a catch-all. I'm also going to put some legs on it to get it up off the floor a bit.
The 5-drawer organizer sitting on it, next to the Craftsman box, was a $5 ugly POS at my last swap meet before I cleaned it up. The Craftsman box holds all my metal files in two drawers, and all my tubes of lubricant, thread locker, etc. in the third drawer. The top has my gasket cutting tools.

I added the pegboard to the inside of one of the doors while at my last house, where the cabinet was used. After several years of a cluttered shop at my new place, I finally got these all moved into position and loaded up the lower cabinet with shop supplies. It's working very well.

The bench is a Pitney-Bowes mail room bench that I've written about before. 28 inches deep, with the shelf 22 inches off the work surface. I added the light and the pegboard. Being that deep allows me to keep the little Lawson box in the rear corner, filled with my tap and die tools, and on top are two drill indexes: one for wood bits, the other for metal, and a set of transfer punches.
The shelf will eventually hold my radio (the blue tape on the leading edge of the shelf has all the stations I like to listen to--Braves baseball, NASCAR, rock, country, Prarie Home Companion, etc.) I had the radio sitting on it before, but don't like the speakers RIGHT THERE--I've put the radio on the other side of the shop, and really like hearing the speakers from across the shop so I'm going to get two more and hang them in the four corners, and will put the receiver back on the shelf at that point.
The storage under the bench is currently a catch-all, and very inefficient. There are no shelves under there, so it's just a few things stacked up. I've thought about making shelves, adding a tool box with drawers, a single wide drawer with shelves below and doing away with the doors, etc. The jury is still out, but something needs to be done there.

-Brad

 

[jdub63]

Here's mine, just pallet racks with sliding doors.

 

[melliott28]

Here's mine, just pallet racks with sliding doors.

How did you do that? Did you build a box to fit on the shelves, or are the shelves part of the enclosure? What did you use for the door tracks?

 

[petee_c]

Check out this months issue of family handyman. Pretty cool idea in there

 

[abstamaria]

Modern Garage

I probably have this photo in the thread "Modern Garage in Far East," but let me contribute it here:

Those cabinest were actually acquired one at a time over many years.

Regards,

Andy

 

[daveroy]

Check out this months issue of family handyman. Pretty cool idea in there

Its actually a much better idea (IMHO) for the basement where SWMBO wants to stockpile canned/dry goods etc. than in the garage where the stuff would still get covered in sawdust and everything else.

I don't see those pull out shelves holding up to the kind of weight I would end up with on them. Also if anything gets set on the floor in front of then, it has to move to get to it.

 

[daveroy]

Andy,
That looks more like an medical operating room than an actual garage. I would never be able to keep that clean (but it would be fun gettin it dirty!)

 

[W650Mike]

jdub63,

Great idea on the sliding doors on pallet racks and a very clean look.

 

[kngelv]

Here's mine, just pallet racks with sliding doors.

I have those same pallet racks and am in the process of going to cabinets. I would LOVE to know how you put those doors on them.

James

 

[Call me the Breeze]

One of my cabinets, an old foremans desk.
View media item 5188
After Garage Journal influences:
View media item 5323

 

[jam0o0]

Re: Garage Cabinets and Storage

Pallet racking is a great way to go and used pallet racks are available in most areas. The main benefits are higher load capacities over longer spans than traditional metal shelves. Most industrial users want to fork lift pallets onto these rack so finding something used that will fit in a garage might be hard to do. Lowes is stocking a 2000 lb capacity 3 shelf unit for $170 that's a good deal for most residential garages.

View media item 10366​

that's what i got for my garage. i have a lot of heavy stuff to keep track of. it's made in the USA. or at least so says the package.

i know it's a mess right now. those that you can see are the 18" deep ones. i have 24" deep ones on the back wall. 80% of what i need fits on the 18" deep ones. the 24" deep ones are great for tires, chop saws, large jack stands,

 

[jdub63]

I have those same pallet racks and am in the process of going to cabinets. I would LOVE to know how you put those doors on them.

James

Just plastic door tracks glued to the rack beams then cut the hardboard to size. I still need to cover the sides and drill some finger holes in the doors. The hardest part is finding a glue that will stick to the plastic track and the metal beam.

Here's the website for the track, I had to special order the gray and the longer length. The 8 footers are to short for an 8 foot beam, needs around 8' 6" or so.
http://www.knapeandvogt.com/Plastic_Track_and_Upper_Guides_for_1_~~_4_-_Series_2412_and_2416.html?page=details.432

 

[petee_c]

Its actually a much better idea (IMHO) for the basement where SWMBO wants to stockpile canned/dry goods etc. than in the garage where the stuff would still get covered in sawdust and everything else.

I don't see those pull out shelves holding up to the kind of weight I would end up with on them. Also if anything gets set on the floor in front of then, it has to move to get to it.

I tried to find pics of the project online, but couldnt.

The sliding wall racks were pretty cool for rakes, brooms etc..

I guess for the pull out shelves, it would be more economical space wise to put up standard shelves and have sliding doors on them to coverup the junk.

P

 

[abstamaria]

minimalist garage

Andy,
That looks more like an medical operating room than an actual garage. I would never be able to keep that clean (but it would be fun gettin it dirty!)

Haha, we took that photo a year ago, when the garage was still new, Daveroy. I only do assembly, tuning, and mechanical work there, and no fabrication or metal work, so it is easy to keep clean. It's a pleasure to work there, I find, so long as I do one job at a time, and quite easy to keep clean.

Best,

Andy

 

[abstamaria]

Just plastic door tracks glued to the rack beams then cut the hardboard to size. I still need to cover the sides and drill some finger holes in the doors. The hardest part is finding a glue that will stick to the plastic track and the metal beam.

That's a good idea. I am planning to install higher racks for long-term storage, but wanted to put doors to keep things from falling on the cars. Earthquake country here. I'll bolt the racks to the wall.

I will follow your example for the doors, but might screw the tracks in place.

Andy