French Cleat Project

So French cleats have popped up in a couple of garage organization threads recently. After watching a few YouTube videos, I figured I’d give it a shot. 

I bought a new house fairly recently and I’m still setting up the garage. I moved all of my workbenches and cabinets from my old house, and set them up with lots of peg board, on the single car section of the garage. That is going to be my woodworking and house project section of the shop. The two car side is going to be the auto and metal working side. It’s a blank canvas, so I had to decide what to do for storage. I love peg board, it has worked out great for me for years. But the French cleat system looked interesting, and capable of holding a greater variety of objects. Plus it looks like I can build outwards a bit with French cleats, and fit more tools in the same wall space. 

I started off by building the cleats to attach to the wall. I wanted it to look nice but also be cost effective. I’ve seen both plywood and solid wood boards used. I figured boards would be quicker and easier, since I’d only have half the cuts. They had 5 1/2”x8’x3/4” pine boards for cheap, and I ended up with those. Yes, pine is soft, and was a bit of a concern. But the real problem with it was that when  ripped in half at a 45, some of the perfectly straight boards twisted as soon as they passed the saw blade. I got enough straight ones to do the wall, but I should have listened to my gut and stuck with plywood. I then painted them white with some leftover exterior paint to blend in with the wall and protect them. 

Next I attached them to the wall. I started just above where the workbench will be and worked my way up. It went pretty quickly. Though pine is soft, it appears to be plenty strong enough for anything I could possibly try to hang. It held my weight without trouble. 

Okay, that was pretty easy. Quite a bit more work than peg board with all of the cutting and painting, but not too bad. Time to hang tools! This is where it set in that this part would be a lot more work than peg board. I’d have to make everything. I was desperate to hang something, so I grabbed a wrench set and bolted on a cleat.

Okay, not really what this was meant for, but it’s a start.

I’m putting up a second air hose reel on that side of the garage, so I figured I’d move my auto related air tools over. I made this fairly quickly, painting took most of the time. More leftover exterior house paint from the old house. I like the color. 

I just laid out the tools I had and added a couple spare slots. I’m going to add another row half way down, behind the top row for little things air tool related. Here it is with a few tools. 

I wanted some convenient storage for my supply of auto nuts and bolts. I picked up these bids for $10 from the hammer store. They appear to be the same as more expensive ones elsewhere, I actually picked up another set. Mounted them to a board, painted it, attached a cleat.

So here is where I am now, randomly arranged. I’ve got a lot more ideas in mind. I picked some post style socket holders, that should make a nice project to keep some sockets readily at hand. I’ll update this thread as I add to it, and I welcome ideas. In the end, this is quite a bit more work than other options, but I think it will be worth it in the end. 

Nice!  I desperately need something like this to help me get organized. 

Once our living room redo is done I think I am going to do something like this in my garage.  Looks good so far.

Looks good!  I've become a fan of this system as well.

It also works well for some light weight shelves in the house.

Last year, I redid our kitchen/living room wall, going from this:

To this:

Those little quarter-round shelves are held up with small French cleats, so they look like they're floating.

I put in a little 90° bracket on the top just to keep them from tipping forward if someone pulls down on the front center, but it's small enough that it's easily hidden by the decorations.

I built a new tool holder tonight. A pretty simple socket holder using Harbor Freight organizers. I really like these for the price. Others had the sizes marked down at the base, not easy to see. These have the size marked right at the top of the post. I was going to make this more elaborate, with room for ratchets, extensions, etc.. But I wisely pumped the brakes and kept it small and simple. The point is to be modular after all, small and flexible. I’ll build something else for the other stuff. Besides, this is small enough to remove from the wall loaded with sockets. I should probably add a carry handle. 

I also wanted to see how it would work if I built something the exact height of one cleat. This is strong and secure.   

Ive embraced the french cleat system. Even have my workmates hung! 

Make sure you have full contact with the cleat. Partial contact will allow stuff to randomly fall off. Just ask the hood of my duster.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

 

Make sure you have full contact with the cleat. Partial contact will allow stuff to randomly fall off. Just ask the hood of my duster.

^ Classic French Mistake.

I built a pliers holder this evening. I’m happy with how it turned out, simple but very functional. 

I had to take a break for a bit to tackle some other projects. It highlights the greatest weakness to this system. You need to dedicate quite a bit of time to make the holders. I was able to get back to it today. I made a holder for my angle grinders. I had them on peg board on the other side of the garage, and they were taking up quite a bit of space. I did some searching for ideas, but wasn’t happy with any that I found. Most required the handles to be removed and stored separately. Most had the grinders mounted vertically or horizontally, which took up a lot of wall space. Others had them protruding from the wall, but those stuck out a bit too far. I decided to split the difference and have them come out at a 45. I found that they fit neatly in 4” ABS pipe. 

As a bonus, the pipe makes for great cord management and makes everything look clean. I can also readily identify which head is on each grinder. 

I’m very pleased with how it turned out. Materials cost was about $15. 

While I was at it, I added a small shelf to the air tool holder that I previously made. 

I’ve only used about a quarter of my cleat space so far, so I’ve got a ways to go. Next up will likely be something to organize my automotive testing equipment. 

nicely done.  i've been moving very very slowly on my tool board.  I am still working out of suitcase so to be speak on my tools.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this project. Other things got in the way, so this got put on the back burner. Definitely illustrates why this is not the quickest solution. That said, I’m really happy with how this one turned out...

I used the Harbor Freight sorting trays. I ended up using aluminum L brackets instead of strips of wood to support the cases, as it tightened things up enough to allow for one more case in the same size rack. 

Want to come over and hang out at my garage?