DIY Customise your Shed
Whilst often seen as simply a small storage space in your garden or allotment, the humble shed can be a real source of DIY inspiration, as well as home to some really innovative and stylish ideas. Sheds are often a sadly neglected feature of a property, so we’ve compiled some great, space-saving DIY projects that will give your outhouse a new lease of life and make it a a cool, personalised and interesting space. So let’s get started!
Shovel Storage Rack
When they’re not stored properly, shovels, forks and long handed garden tools can take up far too much space in your shed. However- as long as you have a sturdy wall - this needn’t be a problem any longer with an ingenious DIY shovel rack! What you’ll need is a 16 by 48 inch chunk of plywood, with a thickness of at least 3/4 of an inch and a 2 by 6 inch ledger board. In addition, you’ll need some 2 by 6 inch supports and lag screws to anchor it to the garage wall.
To put it together, first cut several - at least 6 inch deep - notches out of the sides of the plywood, wide enough to hold the handles of your tools, even those with flared handles. Use a circular or hand saw to create straight cuts into the wood, then use a jigsaw for the inside curve. Once the plywood has the notches cut out of it, attach it to your ledger board at a right angle, supported by the 2 by 6 inch supports.
Once this is done, the rack is ready to be attached to the wall! Firstly, attach it with some temporary support screws, then more securely with lag screws. Use a spirit level to ensure that the rack is straight before attaching your lag screws.
Ingenious Under-Shelf Containers
Ever wondered the best way to utilise the possible space just under your shelves? We hadn’t either, until we found this amazing idea for using old pots to store nuts, bolts screws and nails in your shed!
The idea is amazingly simple, just get the lids to old pots or jars, find some screws - small enough that they won’t poke through the top of the shelf - and attach the pot lids to the underside of your shelves. Next, fill the pots with whatever you like and screw them tight to the lids that are anchored to the underside of the shelf, easy!
Peg Rail organiser
Another great shed storage idea is a peg rail organiser, they are really simple, versatile and look great! All you need are some wooden slats the length of your shed wall to act as the
rail, several 3 1/2 inch long, 1/2 inch diameter pegs, a drill, some wood glue and screws. If you want your rack to be colourful, ensure that you paint the wood before you put the rail together.
Firstly, mark out on your wooden slats where you will cut out the holes that your pegs will slot into. It’s a good idea to line the pegs up in twos, so that they can support items with wide tops, like rakes and spades. If you are going to put several shelves at different heights up the wall, ensure that the pegs are in the same place on each slat, this will look far more tidy and organised. Next, drill a hole in the wooden slats that is the same diameter as the pegs. Once these holes are drilled, glue the pegs into the drilled holes with a good quality wood glue. With the homemade rails completed, attach them to the wall with lag screws, and you will be ready to hang up all sorts of things up which have been cluttering up your shed in the past, such as trowels, wellies, rakes and bags.
DIY Storage Bench
A simple way to both store your tools and to create a seated area in your shed is with a DIY storage bench. The tools that you will need are thick wooden boards, corner braces, screws and hinges.
The first thing to do is prepare the pieces for your box. Start by laying a wooden board to act as your base, a good estimate for size is a length 48 inches and a width 16 Inches. Once you’ve decided on a base size, you will need to ensure that you have an equal-sized piece that will be your lid, and two more to be the front and back of the box. As for side pieces, these will need to be the same height as the front and back pieces, but will have to be the width of the base piece, minus the combined thickness of the front and back pieces. This will allow them to fit in between the length pieces and connect to the base.
The next task is to connect the front, back and sides to the box. Start by connecting the back board to a side piece and to the base using a combination of corner braces and screws. Once this corner is constructed and attached to the base, add the back of the box and then the final side, again with corner braces and screws.
Once all of the upright pieces are connected to the base, use pieces of wood the same size as the sides to act as dividers in the box, depending on how big you want the storage spaces inside to be. Finally, connect the lid to the box using a series of hinges, attached to the back of your box. As long as the box is well secured, it will be able to function as a seat as well as a handy storage unit; you could even paint the box, or lay a sheet and pillows on it to brighten up your shed.
Jumbo Tape Dispenser
Tape is one of those things that is always getting lost, and it’s such a pain when you can’t find that elusive end of the roll! You need no longer worry about these inconveniences with this ingenious DIY tape dispenser! The task only requires a few offcuts of wood, some screws and a small peg to work as an axel to go through the tape.
Start by nailing together the sides and lengths of a small box out of approximately one centimetre thick wood. The size of the box is down to you, but it must be wide enough to hold any sized roll of tape, and long enough to house at least four rolls, as well as the dividers to go in between them. This box doesn’t require a base or lid, as the tape will be suspended inside on axels.
The next step is to glue dividers into the box which are the same size as the width pieces. You will need to saw notches in the middle of these divider pieces, and in the sides of the box to house the axels that the tape will be held by.
Next, cut large square filler blocks out of wood, and trim and sand them so that they will fit snugly into the gap in the centre of the tape roll. Once these hold the tape securely, drill a hole through the centre of the filler blocks as wide as your wooden peg, and push the peg through this gap; secure it in place with wood glue so that it pokes out equally on both sides of the filler block, this will act as the axel to fit into the notches in the tape box.
Finally, line up the sides of the axel into the notches on the box. If you want to give your tape dispenser a cutting edge, attach a jigsaw blade to the front of the box, and unroll all of the tape rolls to this point, you will easily be able to find the end, as well as being able to cut off pieces of tape!
These clever DIY shed customisation ideas are perfect for getting your shed ready for the summer, as well as organising your space and giving your outhouse a bit of character! Use these nifty ideas and your shed will be transformed from just somewhere to keep your tools, to a great looking and valued feature of your property.
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