Do you want to make great use of your garage as a storage space? One important role is painting pegboard, which is a crucial aspect in the overall storage creation process.
Have you ever thought of why many people have garages, yet they never use them in parking their cars? The most likely reason is that they do not have efficient storage planning.
Whenever winter approaches, there are many items you bought or have used in spring and summer that you have nowhere to store. So the garage will usually be the refuge of these items.
However, there is already too much stuff to store along with the vehicles. So, where will these new things go?
To get the super storage space that you need, you have to reconfigure your garage.
Table of Contents
Design features for your family handyman garage storage system
The space in your garage needs to evolve then your assorted stuff is sorted out. This process will allow you to set up a storage system wherein you can install a pegboard, along with accessories, make a new arrangement for your shelves, and set up hanging systems for your walls. Here are the features:
- Pegboard and its accessories
- Flip-up workbench
- Adjustable shelves
- Dedicated storage
Project overview
Most of the work involves setting up the pegboard and lumber. (All of the measurements are only in general terms. Just try to adapt them to fit your garage’s needs).
First, lay down grid work and perimeter of your garage space. Then measure the part of your wall where you are going to install the pegboard and the whole wall shelving systems.
Then cut the pegboard based on the dimensions of your walls. Then, choose if either you are going to screw or stick it on. Include partitions over the joints.
Make sure to include the measurements of the shelves so they can fit in any part of the bay.
To create a super pegboard in your garage, there are many great design options you can choose from: metal, custom colors, thin, thick, etc. However, if you only visit lumberyards or home centers, you can only find either three-by-sixteen inches thick brownish pegboards or white melamine-based ones.
If painting a pegboard is a top priority for you, choose a plain one that can be painted. You can paint the pegboard with a roller. Or you can choose a white one to get a cleaner effect. You can also select the thickest ones with the largest holes if that is what you prefer.
There are also many kinds of pegboard accessories: there are brackets, baskets, screwdriver holders, hooks, and many more. There is a specific purpose for each, which you can hang anything garage-related.
Do not buy the accessories yet. Wait until your garage project is done because you would not know yet which gizmo, doodad, or doohickey goes where.
Cutting pegboards are particularly messy. So it is advisable to cut it outdoors. Otherwise, your garage will be blanketed with dust.
Always wear a dust mask when cutting materials that emit dusty particles.
Directions for the family handyman garage storage project
Start at the bottom
At this stage, you have chosen the particular wall on your garage to install your family handyman garage storage wall.
Measure one foot from the end of the floor going upwards on the wall. It will be where exactly the framing begins. Then measure from the ceiling, going down to the twelfth-inch mark coming from the floor.
Then take that same length and measure horizontally. Lay down a chalk line to get it exactly right.
Set up another chalk line from the twelfth-inch mark going horizontally. Do the same process from the marking close to the ceiling.
It will serve as the dimensions for the framing and pegboard.
Set up the lumber framing
Cut two pieces of lumber, each one per end of the wall, measuring (again, these dimensions are only approximate, measure them to your garage’s needs) two-by-ten.
Set one piece measuring two-by-tens along the top and bottom chalk lines right above and below. They either screw or nail it at the corner blocking.
Install an eight-foot two-by-two piece along the left of the other two-by-ten piece, and either screw or nail it into place. There should be a space about one inch below both pieces to make room for another horizontal frame.
Construct the grid work
At this stage, you can get another person to help you. Get another piece-of-two by ten lumber and lay it in horizontal grid formation along the end of the two-by-two right at the corner. You can cut the two-by-ten pieces into splices so that they will fit the dividers.
Then attach the two-by-ten pieces in horizontal formation to the two-by-two pieces, either with nails or screws.
Make a frame
You already have the first part of the frame, measuring two-by-ten, attached to the side. Now make three others encircle your whole family handyman storage shelves project.
Doing the same procedure as before, install the first piece of two-by-ten below the two by two. Either nail or screw it into place. After finishing the whole section below, then do the same process on the other side and top. Once done, the four two-by-ten sides will form a rectangle that protrudes outwards.
Setting up the pegboard
In this project, the pegboards measure approximately four-by-eight feet. Lay them standing up on the two-by-two horizontal grids.
Either screw or nail them securely in, starting from the bottom going up, until all the pegboards are firmly fastened.
Put it the dividers
The dividers are measured two-by-eight, slightly different from the two-by-ten frames. It is intentional because some of it will create shelves as well as barriers for other things that you are going to store.
It will be dependent on you how many dividers or shelves you are going to install. Measure and cut them to your specifications, and this time, secure them into place with three-inch screws.
Mount the shelves
After the dividers are in place and firmly screwed on, it is time to set up the horizontal shelves. Decide on where to mount it, then measure it to fit along with the dividers, and be sure to take out one-fourth inch from it so that it can fit with the brackets.
Then proceed to cut them. These shelves are still measured two-by-eight, the same as with the dividers.
Flip-up work bench
This bench pattern is about forty inches high and is foldable when not in use. The height is dependent on the base of the pegboard, about one foot from the garage floor.
If the forty-inch height does not suit you, then you have to design and measure it differently. Only be sure that there is a space of fewer than two inches space between the bench bottom and the two-by-ten frame underneath when folded downwards. Its opening also serves for your fingers not to have a hard time opening and closing the bench.
Build and piece together the bench frame
Cut the two pieces for the frame measuring two-by-two. Then four pieces measuring twenty-one inches in height, twenty-four inches deep, and narrow by two inches from the opening of the bay you are going to install.
Screw them firmly together with three-inch screws, forming a rectangular shape wherein there are four smaller vertical pieces with two larger horizontal ones.
Construct a covering for the bench frame
Measure the one-half-inch thick particleboard that would fit the front and back, covering both. Its length is approximately four-by-four feet.
To cover the length and horizontal sides, measure two pieces by two-by-two. Then another two pieces measuring about one-by-three for the shorter sides.
Install bracket for folding shelves
Add hinge support for the shelf bracket using a two-by-four piece measuring about twenty-seven inches long. You would need to screw it through the pegboard.
Then install the shelf bracket on the wooden hinge support you have just attached. Screw it in with a washer-head screw of fewer than two inches long.
These types of shelf-brackets that fold into themselves are available in specialized stores. The best brand is “KV 16 Folding Shelf Bracket,” why you can search only where you can buy it that is closest to you. You can also purchase it online and have it delivered to you.
Attach the bench
Lay the bench on the shelf bracket and screw it in with washer-head screws. Screw-in another shelf bracket on the other side of the bench and screw it. Check if all components are secure and nothing is wobbly.
Painting pegboard and other components
Assembling the different components of your family handyman storage project will take less time to finish. The majority of this project will be spent painting a pegboard, shelves, two-by-two pieces, and dividers. So be sure to paint all of the necessary pieces before putting them together.
The lumbers especially need to be applied with a top-quality primer like “Zinsser Bulls Eye 123.” Then add two coats of latex wall paint in your preferred color.
You can either utilize a white prefinished pegboard. So you can avoid the hassle of painting. Or you can use an unfinished pegboard, which you would need to sand first with high-grade sandpaper.
Then, you can prime and paint the pegboard with a roller to make it quicker. Also, put thinner coats because if you apply thickly, the pegboard holes will be clogged with paint. It will take about one gallon of paint to apply two coats to the different components.
What to do with wall gaps
This entire project does not include openings in the walls such as windows, electricity plugs, doors, etc. So before assembling the different components, think about what you are going to cover first, and if you are blocking any wall crevices.
However, if you are still intending to conceal over them, doors are much harder to cover. The two-by-ten pieces of lumber that were used for the framing are difficult to set up, will be harder to make headway and workover.
Make tests on what can be done about your door. Regarding electrical boxes, the building code requires that you set up box extenders so that the plugs or switches could flow freely from the surface of the pegboard.
Adjustable and strong shelves
For your storage simplified system to work, you need to have strong shelves, which you can conform to the many things, big or small, on your garage. There are pegboard accessories that you can install along with the shelves that will make storing easier.
Different ways in using the pegboard to make storing easier
Once the family handyman garage storage is already good to go, the next step is learning how to use it to its full capacity. The pegboard especially, which has many accessories.
The pegboard surface, due to its uncountable holes, is a great area to hang different things in your garage. Your tools particularly, which you can arrange in a way that is easy to find, and not just scattered anywhere.
To make the best use of your pegboard you should know everything about it. For instance, that it has two different holes, along with two different thicknesses:
- Small hole. This type of pegboard has three-sixteenths inches in diameter for the holes and one-eighth inches thick. The holes can only fit one-eighth-inch legs. This type is useful for small and light things to hang, not heavy stuff like garage equipment.
- Big hole. It is one-fourth inches thick and also one-fourth inches in diameter for the holes. You can install strong hooks on it, like one-eighth and one-fourth inches hooks. For a heavy-duty garage space, this is what you need. Some pegboards are melamine-coated on one side, which saves you the task of painting.
What to do about hooks?
Pegboards indeed are very functional. However, they would not live up to their functionality if not for the hooks. Some of them that are available for purchase are unfortunately made of low-quality standards and always fall out when you remove something from it.
You can use zip ties to bind it, but you need access to the back portion of the pegboard to lock it tight.
Another way is to swab melted glue on the protruding leg before slipping it inside the hole.
There is also a read-made clip that can hold the hook in place that will enable it to not come apart.
Standoff space
A pegboard needs about a one-inch space at the back so that hooks can be fitted in, which is called a “standoff space.” There are pegboard panels that you can screw at the back, which can provide the needed spacing. But sometimes it might be too short and would not provide enough space.
You can use washer-head screws instead and put in two nuts to become spacers. On bigger and wider pegboards, screw-in panels in the central portion to make it sturdier. Instead of either rubber or metal spacers, utilize melted glue to hall everything in place.
How to enable hooks to hold more stuff
Some things on your garage would not hang on ordinary hooks. However, with creativity and cleverness, you can transform them to be able to hold anything like on pegboard shelves.
You can hang wooden dowels on two adjacent hooks. It will allow an hour more hanging space for many items.
You can use binder clips to hold stuff that cannot hang on hooks. You can use as many clips as you want to hold up lots of stuff.
You can cut a portion of a PVC, which you can slide into a long hook. It is a good place to slip in narrow things like brushes, pencils, and other smaller items.
Pegboards made out of different materials
Pegboards made of hardboard are the usual material most home centers have to sell. However, there are other materials that pegboards are made from:
- Plastic pegboard. This type has one-fourth-inch diameter holes. These have foldable edges so that standoffs can happen on their own without using pegboard panels. These also have connectors to link up to other panes, and as hard as hardboard.
- A metal pegboard. It also has a one-fourth diameter hole and rims to enable standoffs. These are available in sixteen inches and twenty-four inches. These are made from strong metal and have a cool steely look.
- Metal strips. These are handy if you want to hang long and heavy tools, which is ideal in a garage. These also have one-fourth diameter holes and has built-in rims on the edges for standoffs.
Other great ideas for your pegboard
Your pegboard allows for super storage in your garage space. Once you have it securely on the wall, along with many shelves, your assorted garage stuff has a proper arrangement.
Here are some things you can do with it:
- Use some stuff from the hardware store to substitute for hooks like bolts, wall anchors, etc.
- You can hang heavy-duty tools like a cordless drill on the pegboard. There are hooks especially made for them.
- You can construct custom shelves that can fit on L hooks.
