Organizing my workshop with a unique General Store storage cubby and paint shelf!
Today I’m taking you back in time when I shared my single car garage workshop with you HERE.
Building an up-cycled FREE dream workshop has been an amazing challenge!
But one area I didn’t finish was the back end…
Revisiting the workshop series
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Visit the reveal of the finished workshop (to date) HERE
Visit the entire workshop series by individual posts HERE
Where we left off:
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In truth, I dabble on the workshop progress every year. Because it’s so small and I collect lots… especially reclaimed wood (heh), I have to constantly purge and regorganize.
But I never did finish painting the shop. Along the back, the walls are still a deep taupe. The rest of the walls are a bright, fresh white!
And likely being home All. Summer. Long. (whimper…)… I decided to focus on organizing my workshop once again, possibly getting it to completion this round.
First up was gutting and purging HARD. I do this at least once a year. A run to the dump plus selling some stuff on my Facebook bidding site really loosened things up!
While I also have wild visions of something cool to cover those plain white melamine cabinet doors, today I’m focusing on a hidden piece that is fabulous… but too buried to even use properly!
There’s a massive delicious rustic old cubby that sits behind all those tall boards…
But first… let’s paint!
Time to paint!
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Once I unearthed the massively cool cubby out of hiding, I painted the wall right behind it in a bright white straight out of the can.
One corner at a time would win this race… who has room for more?! LOL
I could already vision how the rustic cubby would look planted against that pretty white backdrop!
Not even 2 weeks ago I was dreaming of some major building to enhance space.
So I couldn’t wait to fill this cubby… I already knew organizing my workshop would just make everything so much more accessible without that major building! At least for a start.
About the cubby
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Then BAM. There it was!
What a great piece, huh? My brother gave me this cubby when he was cleaning out his own garage many years ago and it’s honestly the perfect fit for this spot, missing two doors on either side of it! Talk about a tight fit.
But one improvement I wanted to make was improved paint can storage along the top.
I had stacked paint cans on top of one another, but it was always a wobbly mess, with me catching more than one when I’d pull a can off the shelf!
By golly, organizing my workshop properly this round WOULD happen! Complete with an actual paint shelf… out of barn wood.
So here’s what I did:
Reclaimed wood paint shelf
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This simple reclaimed wood paint shelf extension was so easy to make and works perfectly for my needs!
The shelves could also be built taller as long as you brace them to the wall somehow.
It’s a simple idea, perfect for the (raising hand) non-pro builder type!
Supplies used:
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2 long reclaimed wood boards – 1″ x 5.5″ x 86″ long
2 risers from reclaimed 4x4s / 8.5″ tall
Cordless drill and screws
How-to:
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- Two long boards were cut to the same length to match the length of the cubby.
- 3 risers were cut from a 4×4, cut at 8.5″ tall to clear paint cans.
- All 5 boards were dry-fit on top of the cubby along with paint cans to ensure everything fit.
- Chalk was used to trace each riser onto the long boards so it was easy to screw together.
- The long boards were screwed to the risers.
- Once shelf was complete, it was screwed to the top of the cubby in several areas.
- They can be further stabilized from behind if needed, but mine was fine.
As for those reclaimed wood boards… they come with a story…
Where I got the wood:
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Remember when my parent’s barn came down and my brother and I went shopping for wood?
I had a few long boards stored along the top of the white cabinets. But with them being so far out of reach, I forgot about them!
Once they were removed so I could paint, I promptly put them to work!
Huh. Funny how that happens. This is why it pays to have everything within EASY reach… so you’ll use the stuff!
So with paint shelf complete, it was time to put it all together, and load that baby up with paint cans and my rusty junk stash!
This organizing my workshop thing was gonna be fun…
So from the empty storage cubby before…
Cubby reveal
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… to the fully locked and loaded General Store workshop storage cubby and paint shelf!
My kinda General Store… who wants to shop first?! Ha!
How I made the General Store sign
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How I made the General Store sign HERE
Find the General Store stencil from HERE
The ‘pretty’ star of the show is obviously the General Store sign. With its red antique-looking finish, I think it marries the rustic old cubby perfectly! And with a burst of colour, adds some life and interest to a workshop.
And what a fit! It was the perfect length for this wall and piece!
As for the paint shelf, it’s perfect! Each paint can is easily removed one at a time which was so needed.
Why a cubby is epic storage!
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Each little cubby compartment is perfectly organized with my beloved rusty junk! I love finding everything in one spot but separated so I can see it ALL.
I had my junk stash stored all over the place, mainly under one work table HERE
So getting this cubby actually storing again was LONG overdue.
Random larger rusty junk pieces in red to chime in with the General Store sign were mounted to the front of the cubby for added storage and of course extra fun!
Perhaps if you can’t land a cubby of your own, you can make a similar one using these pictures as inspiration!
And of course my collections have stories of their own…
The phone was given to me by my uncle with his old phone number still intact!
And the Arizona plate is when I paid a visit a few years back. My fav thing to collect as souvenirs are license plates from those given areas. What better way to represent where you visit? Plus they look super cool on stuff like the black Utah license plate I added to the front of my DIY screen door HERE.
You can read about my Las Vegas adventures HERE
Along the top paint shelf, I had some room to spare to junk it up a little with a few other collections.
The galvanized wheel on a stand was found at my local MCC thrift store. It’s apparently a root cutter (for some vegetable) that was used in India! It has sharp blades which I had intended to remove. I liked how industrial it looked, and screwed up high on the shelf, it’s as safe as can be as-is.
I love old vintage wheels and rusty gears. Can you tell?
All I can say is… now that’s an ‘organizing my workshop kinda cubby!’
With more workshop revamps to follow, because I just can’t leave those plain new looking white melamine cabinet doors alone when this funkified beauty is right next to them! To be continued…
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Cool piece, huh? What would you use it for?
And are you doing any organizing of your own spaces lately as well? What are you working on?
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Other related posts you may enjoy:
Take the entire up-cycled Workshop Tour
How I made (and antiqued) the General Store sign
Make this Rusty Junk tool storage station
Visit other STORAGE and ORGANIZE posts
Find the General Store stencil from HERE
Check out all my sign projects HERE
I LOVE your cubby space! Doesn’t it feel great to get all your treasures organized? ?
Thanks Gail, and YES! I have more treasures in the house that can go there now… Marie Kondo would be so proud… haha
Wow That was enthusiastic!! It’s beautiful and such a great place to hold all the junk!
Thanks Susan! Yeah, it’s a great piece that was totally under-utilized. Until now! 😀
Donna,
Great job!
This is amazing! That cubby! I have a suggestion for your cabinet doors. What if you layered line cuts of wood in different sizes and shapes on those doors? Painted , not painted. I think it would look awesome.
Thanks Deb! And YES! I love the strip scrap wood idea for the cab doors! I’m going to be testing out the nail gun to make sure it works ok on them, then I can come up with a plan B… fun!
Looks fantastic!
All you need is something from Tim’s ( ha ha – just kidding! ??)
Love that cubbie!
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I love it! That phone and all the cubbies. It’s heavenly!
Donna, that sure looks beautiful and what a sense of accomplishment! I so miss being able to stop at local garage sales and rummage sales 🙁 looking for rusty goodies.
Thanks Sharon! And SAME. It’s been good in my case though as I’ve been relinquishing a little more each week. Gotta make room for when stuff opens… haha
I’m so envious, I’m drooling! LOL It looks amazing!
I love your new cubby! We must be antique soul sisters — I love red accents and have a thing for rusty gears and wheels too. Your comment about having to purge yearly since you collect stuff … that’s me! When I saw the red phone I was intrigued, since the prefix for phone lines where I live in Sask. is 858! I’m guessing your uncle didn’t live here in area code 306 though.
I’m currently getting my new-to-me shed in order, and this type of cubby would be perfect for the odds and ends I seem to have everywhere. I’ll have to keep an eye out for one of these at an auction (when live events resume) but in the mean time I could use the multiple lengths of corral boards to build shelves to keep things in order. It’s exciting to see your progress! It inspires me to keep it up in my own spaces.
Wow, cool about the 306! And you are right, my uncle lived in BC.
Glad my own progress is helping to inspire you! Goodness knows I needed to do this… and SO much more! Covid has been a blessing in some ways at least… way to stay put and gitter done! haha (wah)
There aren’t enough words to tell you how much I LOVE the cubby! I have tons of rustic things in crates, boxes, etc. scattered throughout my garage. This is so perfect and I even have the same red phone. Great job Donna!
Donna it looks great!! Congratulations!
Only you can make rusty junk look like it belongs in a 5-star boutique. Goodness me. How do you do it? Every bone in my body wants to rush out to our workshop and reorganize it now. Love what you did Donna.
wow!! Love it all. the sign, the junk in the bins, the bins the paint shelf….all of it!
see you on fb.
blessings
Barb
That was a huge job done! Being stuck at home paid off, lol. Perspective right?? I love your whole space!
What an awesome finished result! You ‘style’ things beautifully. I love the clipped in red phone, although it looks like it would snap off someday – that would be my luck. The red sign and red accents look great. Just beautiful.
This work spot with cubby hole shelving is fantastic. You were right in that it was a tight fit. I would say it looks it was designed and built for just this spot. The pops of red drew my eye. The sign on top and the red phone hanging by a clamp. I remember those phones fondly. And goodness, they could be heavy. You could knock someone out with them. But happily, the red phone is much better hanging on your cubby hole shelving. LOL! A super cool storage unit Donna!
Thanks Joanne! I sure had fun with this one! It’s super productive too!
Love this, and love how organized your space is!