Genius Tutorials for DIY Garage Cabinets

DIY Garage Cabinets

If you are looking to add more storage space in your garage, you might benefit from this list of DIY garage cabinets. You can build them yourself for a fraction of the price of buying pre-made ones! For those of you who are pretty handy with a hammer and nails, you might also enjoy making some cabinets yourself!

Genius tutorials for DIY Garage Cabinets

6 Genius Tutorials for DIY Garage Cabinets

If you have ever decided it was time to organize your garage, you were most probably shocked by all the junk that you keep around. You thought of throwing it all away or renting storage space somewhere to create room in your garage. But you knew that if you could just organize your garage, you would have all the space you needed in there.  It was clear that with a little organization, the car would no longer have to stay outside.

Garage cabinets are a great way to get some of that junk off the garage floor and create some organization in the garage. These DIY garage cabinets are the perfect way to add some order to your chaotic garage! Plus check out this post on how to organize your garage with ease!

1. Floor to Ceiling DIY Garage Cabinets

Floor to ceiling cabinets

This is a really nice-looking set of DIY garage cabinets from Sugar Bee Crafts. They start at the floor and go all the way up to the ceiling, to really utilize your space.

The best thing about these DIY lockers is that you get to determine the dimensions of each locker depending on the items you want to put in there. Whether you need large lockers to store gaming equipment or that occasional spare wheel, or very tiny ones for your tools, it is important that you decide what sized cabinets or what combination of sizes you will need right at the start.

You can then tuck in bins or boxes full of the items you are wanting to put away. Add a fresh coat of paint or stain, and it will really add character to your garage. Remember to caulk and seal all gaps and seams to prevent moisture and pests that may enter one locker from moving to the other lockers.

Use sturdy pieces of timber for the frame so your lockers will be strong and able to hold anything you may decide to put in there. I have seen a friend store an entire car engine he had laying around inside one of these lockers and it held up just fine.

2. Minimalistic Garage Storage Wall

Garage shelving tutorial

Place of My Taste has a simple yet beautiful garage storage wall that will keep your things organized. I love the different ways you can customize this design from color to storage bin organization.

If the lockers are too much work, then with a few changes here and there, you can use the same design framework to build a storage wall. All you need is some sturdy timber and your carpentry set.

This one is good as you get to display all the items in your storage space so you will not have to open each locker separately looking for the drill. Moreover, for the same amount of space, with less amount of effort as the lockers, you create much more storage room.

Remember to create the top as a continuous shelf where you can store those really long objects such as skis and boat oars. Use the extra timber pieces to make a small ladder which you will be using to access the top shelves.

3. Garage Shelving System

More shelving tutorials

This is a little bit different than cabinets, but it still offers a great way to store your belongings. You use your walls to create space to hang items like saws, bikes, garden equipment, and more. Maximize all the space you can with another Family Handyman tutorial

Use that wall in your garage for much more than just hanging up the occasional broom or bicycle. With a well-designed garage shelving system, the wall will hold much more. They will also look way cooler while doing it.

Sometimes you do not want to damage your garage wall too much mounting new cabinets. Make a false wall against the garage wall using good quality plywood boards on which you can mount your shelves.

4. Giant Sliding Door Cabinets

This is a great option for when you have quite a bit of space where you can make some cabinets. These have sliding doors, which makes opening and closing a breeze, you don’t have to worry about hitting your head on open doors since they slide back and forth! You can fit bins or containers inside the cabinets to help organize your belongings. Thanks, Family Handyman for another great tutorial.

With sliding doors, the room available for your cabinets is much more as garage space will not be taken up by swinging doors. These cabinets are gifted at handling extremely bulky items such as camping, grilling, and sports gear.

When setting up the framework, it is even more important than other types of cabinets to have the frames plumb and straight so your doors will slide smoothly inside the frame. You get the bottom frame wrong, and your doors may come off their mountings or get stuck sliding.

Garage cabinets with sliding doors

5. Storage Cabinet

This affordable cabinet tutorial by Hingmy Power Tools & Woodworking might be a great option if you’re on a budget. This is a full-length storage cabinet, which means from floor to ceiling! You can tweak the length of cabinets to fit items that you are wanting to be stored. DIY cabinets for your garage

The garage occasionally gets wet. You may hose it down or oil may spill near the cabinets. To protect the wood from damage, you might want to hang your cabinets against the wall a few inches off the ground.

You may also want to have two doors stacked up one on another rather than one tall door that may become flimsy with time given its weight and fall off the hinges. Small doors are stronger and besides, you do not need to open up everything just the items you need to access whether those within the top doors or the bottom ones.

6. Affordable Cabinets On a Budget

Man-Made DIY has a great tutorial on how to make affordable cabinets on a budget. You can tweak the cabinets to fit the size you need in your garage. 

They have some good tips on how to properly build a cabinet that will last longer and hold bulky and heavy objects including,

  • Break Sheet Materials into Manageable Pieces – The first step in working with sheet goods is to break the pieces down into pieces that can be handled at the shop. I elevated each sheet off my workbench with boards and adjusted my saw depth to keep from digging into the work surface. Cut the pieces to rough dimensions and finalize the pieces on the table saw so they are all squared up and evenly matched.
  • Cut the Grooves and Joints – The cabinet frame will be much stronger with notches in the joints instead of face gluing. I used a Dado blade to cut ½” rabbets in all 4 corners (top and bottom of each side) about ¼” deep to match the panels.
  • Glue Up all Pieces – Gluing all pieces up takes a few hands or at least plenty of preparation. I used two large pipe clamps on the bottom and two on the top to make sure the joint was strong.
  • Add the Mounting Boards – The mounting board gives the cabinet a strong frame to mount it on the wall. It’s important that the board is well secured to the cabinet frame
  • French cleats – These are simple joints where you cut the faces of the pieces you want to join together in angles that correspond to each other. I am fond of 45 degrees on both faces. The joints are stronger and much neater than the 90-degree faces we are used to.

7. Forget DIY, Get to The Nearest Furniture Store

I know, I know, building up cabinets from scratch can be a pain. Particularly if you are not adept at working with your hands or you simply do not have the time. Worry not, the guys at IKEA and other furniture stores have you and your garage in mind too.

You’ll have a wide selection of cabinets to pick from. From simple, locker-type cabinets to complex cabinets with lockers, shelves, hooks, and so on. It is easy to get lost picking a suitable one.

Amazon storage cabinet for your garage

You will still get to work with your hands when assembling and installing your pick. Besides, you can always customize your new cabinets to suit your needs.  Remove a shelf here, add a hook there, repaint the entire thing to your style, and so on.

DIY garage storage cabinet tutorials

If you liked these garage storage tips, you are going to love these other DIY projects from One Crazy House:

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