Garage + Workshop Organization Ideas

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Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Krylon® Brand. Although we were compensated to write this post, all opinions and content are our own, and we stand behind and use all brands and products we endorse on our site.

Our shop is a hot mess and getting it whipped into shape has been on our to-do list pretty much since we bought the place over two years ago.

The days of searching for any paint brushes…trying to find the exact bit…and scouring through all the junk to find the right tool that Jamie called and asked me to grab and run to the job site for him are over because we spent the weekend getting this disaster in order!!

So long are our disorganized workshop days! We’re already feeling so much more productive working in this cleaned up and organized space.

Today we want to share with you 10 of our workshop organizing ideas to help inspire you, as well as our spray painting tips!

And thanks to Krylon® Brand, we were able to bring some fun new life into our shop with some fresh colors using less than 3 cans each and all within a weekend’s time.  

• Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer Matte Sunrise (1 can)
• Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer Satin Hunter Green (1 can)
• Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer Satin Island Splash (1 can)
• Krylon® Chalkboard Paint Black (3 cans)

Tips for Using Spray Paint

The magical thing about spray paint is that everything looks good as new in seconds. No messes with brushes, paint trays, liners and cans. Everything we sprayed in the workshop took one coat of paint, and we got everything hung later that day. This workshop transformation took us one Sunday, 7 hours due to dry times, and then we just cleaned up and styled the space the next day.

• Make sure to spray in a well ventilated space.
• Prepare and protect for overspray. We always lay poly down and then more than you think for added protection.

• Clean your project surface before you spray and thanks to Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer, there is no need to sand or prime beforehand as long as your surface is clean and smooth, which we love because that is usually the most time intensive.
• Spray slowly and evenly across surface. Don’t hold down in one spot, keep moving across surface.

• Typically you would want to do a lighter spray with multiple coats, but with Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer we were able to coat everything in one.
• Follow safety instruction on back of can.

Him vs. Her Workstations

We knew this was the first thing we had to do to save our marriage within our shop. Haha! But seriously.

There’s nothing that Jamie gets more irritated with than when I start bringing all my random paint samples, cutting boards, and craft supplies and what he likes to call “junk” into our shop and dump it all over the place.

Organizing step one for our workshop was creating a his vs. her space! Already, a game changer people.

Jamie and I are pretty different in a lot of ways and one is the way we decorate. If it were up to him, we wouldn’t have one thing on our wall. While I, on the other hand, am trying to put up as many gallery walls in our house without him noticing as I can. Same goes with the workshop. I want stuff up on the wall, while he wants to see nothing.

Add Cabinetry

When we first got our shop, Jamie installed a few cabinets and painted them gray. As we collected more tools and materials and then started working in our shop, we quickly realized gray was not the color and that we had limited cabinetry space.

To create our his and her workspace, we had to get additional cabinetry for my side, and since we were cleaning up, we decided to spray paint them all with Krylon® Chalkboard Paint.

I voted for the chalkboard paint because I wanted to have the option to write on my drawers for labeling my stuff, hence why there is no hardware. We were pleasantly surprised by the finish of this spray paint. We first did a test run on similar material to make sure it wouldn’t look too matte, and it turned out great, so we did all the cabinetry in the entire space. You wouldn’t even know it’s chalkboard paint if you looked at it. Nor would you ever guess it’s spray paint!

Add a Closet

Jamie also decided to build out a closet for all of his workshop sweatshirts, boots, and motocross gear. Previously, these items lay folded up in the corner of the shop and always got full of sawdust. He quickly built this out in a day; spray painted it Krylon® Chalkboard Paint in Black and his items are dirt free, placed inside.

Label Everything

I’m all about labeling! Might be because I constantly have mom brain, but I always feel so much more organized with things labeled in our home. Thanks to Krylon® Chalkboard Paint it makes making labels easy.

We made this sign from a fence that we had in our first home together as husband and wife, and I use it all the time for events or just for our to-do lists. Every time I use it, I have to re-chalkboard paint over it because for some reason the chalk never cleans completely off. Typically I have to go and buy an expensive little can of chalkboard paint and new brushes, but with Krylon® Chalkboard Paint, the application process was easy. I was able to spray it on and it covered the old chalk up in one coat.

Now we can use it to make sure we know just whose side is whose!

Bit Organizer

We wanted to build as many organizing systems within our drawers and cabinetry too. Bits are one thing that we’re constantly losing, so we made a quick and easy bit organizer for our drawers.

Using a piece of pegboard, we cut it down to the size of the drawers, spray painted it with Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer Satin Island Splash, so we could think of laying on a tropical beach somewhere, and placed it right into the drawer and organized our bits.

Wall Storage

Jamie will eventually do some upper cabinets on his side of the workstation, but for me, I like it all out in the open. I also want it to be organized, so we got some more pegboard from our local home improvement store and spray painted it with Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer Matte Sunrise. This color made me so happy when I saw it spray out of the can! I knew every time I got to work in my area, it would help to get my creative juices flowing.

We only had to do one coat and hardly used any of the can of paint we had. Then we got some hooks and spray painted all of those with Krylon® Chalkboard Paint in Black.

 

PVC Storage Shelf

I wanted a shelf on the wall as well…something that I could set things on top of and that held items, like my drills. Jamie whipped this up from scraps we had laying around in the shop.

We had some extra PVC, 1x wood board, and a magnetic strip. Jamie cut the wood down and nailed one board into the other at a 90-degree angle. Then he cut up some square pieces of wood that fit snug into the size of the PVC we had and drilled those into the board. We then cut up the PVC, making the bottom two angled, to tilt up to store pins and such and the top three straight out to hold our drills.

The reason why we didn’t just drill the PVC into the backboard was that the drills fit so snug into the PVC for the size we had on hand that even a tiny nail sticking out of the PVC made it too snug to fit the drill.

Once we were done building it out, we spray painted it Krylon® ColorMaster® Paint + Primer Satin Hunter Green and glued a magnetic strip onto the front of the shelf.

Magnetic Strip for Bits or Brushes

We wanted this magnetic strip to either hold more of our go-to bits or paintbrushes that are constantly getting misplaced.

Utilize Height with Racks

As much as we can, we also tried to get things off the floor! From upper racks to hold our seasonal bins of decor to this bike rack. Living with three boys that are all about dirt bikes, road bikes, scooters, and BMX makes for way too many bikes in our shop. Creating a rack where you can hang things vertically instead of horizontally also helps save on space. We also painted this rack with Krylon® Chalkboard Paint in Black, to be able to label the boys bikes when the fighting begins whose is whose… I’m sure soon.

Hope you can take a handful of tips away from today and get your workshop whipped into shape too! It makes the world of a difference to get those creative juices flowing when you have an organized and inspired space to work out of.