Building Back Wall Garage Tall Cabinets - help!

[Gary Warren]

I currently have the back wall of my garage filled with every known type of hanging or free standing shelving known to man. Looks so bad I am embarrased to open my garage. Since the back wall is unfinished and simply exposed 2 x 4's with exterior paneling, I am considering box framing out from the back wall 24" with 2 x 4's and build in shelving with plywood and finish the front with 24" wide plywood doors and add a molding trim to dress up slightly. Does anyone have any good suggestions on doing this type of construction? I have never done such and need help.

[Don Bullock]

Gary, while I understand that you may be embarrassed with how the wall looks now, posting a picture and explaining the kind of things that you need to store there would hlep us all understand what you are facing and what you're trying to accomplish.

I used some tall cabinets from the BORG in part of my garage. When I considered the cost of materials and time (this was before I started buying my new woodworking machines and equipment) that this was my best solution. If you want to make your own, you can still look at those that are available. They may give you some good ideas.

[Roy Wall]

Gary,

Sounds like you are wanting to create a "pantry cabinet" look..??

My guess would be double studs around all the openings for each door. You'll want a treated 2x on the floor and double 2x's on the top plate - then of course the 2x's to create the wall and for the door sections.

If you ar planning to come out 24"........I wonder if you could get to about 30-36+ inches and just make a "hallway" out of it. THis conceals all the junk behind the wall - gives you new wall space for for stationary tools or to hang cabinets on (or just a clean look) with new outlets and such. This depends, of course, that you could get the storage items in & out without much bother. Either way, you could leave the new "false wall" open on the top about a foot or so for natural light to illuminate back there.....

Just some ideas.........

[glenn bradley]

I have 18" and 24" deep cabinets with doors. It will vary with what you are storing (I store my jigs, screws and hardware, oversize tools and such) but, I find the 24" deep cabinets to be a pain. By this I mean that other than the few large items that require that depth, things end up so far in the back that I forget I even have them. Just my experience.

[Jules Dominguez]

I did something very similar to what you describe at the back of my two-car garage at one time. It was cheap and utilitarian - I tried to trim it out neatly but didn't bother to make it look like finished interior construction. I used 2x4's for the vertical members and crosspieces and 3/4 particleboard for the shelves. It works, and you can dress up the exterior of it to whatever extent suits you.
I agree with Glenn whole-heartedly, though, that 24 inches is too deep to be practical. You're always having to hunt and dig for stuff on the shelves, and although it provides extra storage space, I think you'd end up regretting it.

[John Bush]

Hi Gary,
I built cabinets for two garages using 3/4" melamine cut out by a friend on his CNC router table. All rabbitts, hinge mortises, and shelf pin holes were done so I basically had 52 linear feet of cabinet kits. they look really good , but when I added up the cost of all the supplies(104 Euro hinges!!) it ended up being spendy. I did it as a Chistmas present not being aware of the costs. I think you are better off stick building them in place. I designed mine with the doors split into uppers and lowers to minimize wobble. Mine are 16" deep and we organized most of the "stuff" in boxes so we don't have to peak around to locate what we want. To access the back of a 24" cabinet you may want to consider full extension drawers on the bottom 1/2 and containers behind doors, or custom made wooden boxes on open shelves. That way all could see your hand cut dove tails or finger joints. You will be happy with any style you choose when you open the garage door and see an orderly garage. Good luck, John.

[Roland Chung]

Hi Gary,

I have an assortment of cabs for all of my junk. Think carefully before you write off the 24" deep cabinets. I admit that the 24" cabs that I have are more for longer term storage of tools and equipment, but I'm glad to have them.

One idea that I have thought about using is to frame the facade with 2x6 headers and 6 foot wide openings. Hollow core doors can be hung on bypass hardware. This doesn't provide much security, but it can be a pretty clean look.

Something that I did for a friend: Made tall boxes with pre-edgebanded 24" melamine panels. I laid them out so that I could use the precut 16" panels for doors (on Euro hardware). Keeping the shelves at about 30" instead of 48" helped prevent sagging. If you need to edgeband, try the self-adhesive stuff from Fastcap.

If you are sure that you want to frame the area with studs, check out a book on framing. If you stick to using these standards, everything will be easier than reinventing the wheel.

Good luck!

RC