By going vertical, garage storage cabinets can transform a tiny bit of perimeter to an enormous amount of useful storage!These garage storage cabinets let me convert an auxiliary storage dump (garage!) into an efficient work-shop. Unlike cars, shop tools MUST be stored under shelter! You won't find these at Home Depot or Lowe's - I designed and built them myself. I'm giving you my garage storage cabinets free, their dimension plans, their cut plans and their assembly process because I want you to build them. I hate to brag, but this is the MOST useful design I've ever produced - build it yourself and see! What makes this design so useful is the slim foot-print. They only project 1' from the wall; yet they pack almost 20 cubic feet of storage into each 3' wide section. They're just shy of 8' tall, but with six opening doors, and six full-span shelves, you can organize storage like never before! You'll be able to find what you're looking for because things stored in front won't obscure what's stored behind. Best of all, it only takes two sheets of plywood, a few 1x2's, and simple hardware to build! This is what my new work-shop area looked like only a few months after my garage conversion project. Every horizontal surface and floor choked!
My work-shop now - you can see the difference these cabinets made!
I caution you - without a proper mind-set and the discipline to clean-up the work-space after a days work, your new cabinets won't matter! Let's get started!I'm showing the second of two garage storage cabinets. They're not identical! Garage floors are poured to have a significant down-slope. The floor is not flat; indeed, my garage floor takes a significant plunge between the two cabinets. My plans call for a total height of 94-1/4" for two reasons: 1) it's the maximum height you can rotate this unit off the floor for assembly without hitting an 8' high ceiling, 2) it allows for a beautifully symmetric door panel layout with the six 3/4" plywood shelves. As with any custom project, take my plans as guidance - use your actual measures as gospel! Unlike the home's interior, garages are rough built. I had to take into account the footing which you would not have to worry about inside the home. I'm sure that if you take careful measurements you'll find that from the rear of your garage to the door - the height of the footing will vary by inches, 2-1/2" over the 22' length for my garage! There's enough allowance in the bottom "toe-kick" area to compensate for the garage floor's angle. Keep all of the upper dimensions but subtract from the bottom to get the three 28-1/2" door panels and the 1-1/2" facing aligned to it's mate for perfect symmetry. Here are the links to the cut plans for Sheet 1, and Sheet 2. I recommend you print and lay the dimension plan and the two cut plans side by side for study. I had Home Depot cut these two heavy, expensive cabinet grade plywood sheets on their panel-saw. They were more than happy to make the long rips for sheet 1, a single long rip for sheet 2 followed by a 1' cross-cut, and then the two other long rips. This made it far easier to bring home - the edge scrap I could rip myself. Once the pieces were home, I took the afternoon to paint all of the raw stock with Bright White High Gloss Latex to match all the other tables. It's much easier to paint before final assembly! The next photos shows the precise measure of the new cabinet's side to the side of the first garage storage cabinet, and the difficult cross-cut.
Two of the above photos show difficult cross-cuts on a table saw using a sliding auxiliary table. This project was before I built new SLATs for this site. Here are two photos showing an improved version and this link will take you to the full process of building your own sliding table saw jigs Because of the wider design and built in support for dog-clamps, you can see that this improved SLAT doesn't require roller stands to support the end making it much easier and safer cross-cutting unwieldy stock!
Once all the pieces are cut, it's time for assembly. Although this is only a garage storage cabinet, I still take the time to drill and counter sink before attaching any piece of wood using screws. Do this for the faces of each shelf support rail and the shelf ends. Attach the shelf supports to the shelves using 1-1/4" coarse thread dry-wall screws before you attach the shelf units to the cabinet sides. Start with the top. Once it's in place, measure 14" from the underside and mark the edge - that's where the top face of the next shelf attaches. Do the same for the remaining shelves and bottom. Once the top, bottom, and all the shelves are in place, attach the long vertical face pieces. I used a 5/64" bit to drill for the 2" finish nails since we're attaching to plywood edge grain - it prevents the laminates from separating. Use a nail-set and wood putty to fill the holes.
Erecting the garage storage cabinets was challenging in my shop because of an overhead light fixture in the center, and the garage door at the end. It took a little wrestling before it finally cleared everything! Before you put it in place, you MUST locate a wall stud, hopefully around the middle. Mark it's center line where the top and middle braces will lie. These garage storage cabinets are not deep enough to rely on their standing upright without help! I use 3" Deck Mate screws to anchor the cabinet to the wall. I also used the 1-1/4" dry wall screws to lock both cabinets to each other.
The last step for this garage storage cabinet is to attach the door panels. The inside edges of each door panel is rabbited 3/8" deep by 3/8" wide to allow the panel to be inset using standard 3/8" offset door hinges. This gives a clean finished look by sealing off the visible gaps. I have a set of stacking dado blades that let me do this very easily on the table saw. If you don't have a dado set, you can make three repeated passes on your table saw by readjusting the fence by 1/8" increments.
That's It - Two Custom Garage Storage Cabinets!I think my garage storage cabinets are a unique and versatile solution. I'm so pleased with how they organized my work-shop that I'm about to build two additional units for a more elegant kitchen pantry solution! Back to - Do It Yourself Better Home Back to - Home Storage Solutions
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