Salvaged workshop doors

Last year sometime, we picked up these doors at Second Use in Seattle. They were salvaged from Garfield High School - one of the older High Schools in Seattle that recently underwent a massive renovation.

From The Making of a Craftsman Home

Now, I wouldn't want to put these doors just anywhere as they're not the most attractive doors in the world, but they're perfect for separating our wood workshop and studio space. I'm contemplating taking the center panel out of the doors and replacing them with glass so that there is some visibility between the two spaces. Perhaps I'll get around to that eventually. In the coming months, I'll begin dry walling the wall to the left and right of the doors to finish the room separation project.

Workshop Shelves

This is a small side project and involves recycled materials. You may recall that a month ago I built a wood rack which was the beginning of a larger wood workshop re-org project. The wood rack is complete, loaded up, and has proven to be a tremendous tool to help organize the space. Next up, shelving.

The shelving is 12' long, and approximately 22 inches deep. The bottom two rows of shelves we designed to fit storage crates, so they're a bit taller. The upper three shelves will be slightly shorter, and will be designed as "project cubbyholes" to store all the bits and bobs associated with different projects, or that's the idea anyhow.

The framing is made up of 2x4 & 2x3 stick lumber, some of which was salvaged from other projects. For the shelf surfaces, I'm using remnant pieces of oak flooring. Because the flooring is tung and groove, I'm able to use a lot of shorter pieces to stitch the shelves together and build a strong surface

Having a well organized shop is critical. We often have three or more projects going simultaneously, and things can quickly become disheveled. The new shelving should help to keep the work surfaces clear of stuff

Next up after this project, I'll be completing the wall that separates the wood workshop from the clean studio space. I'll be installing a pair of salvaged french-doors as windows to allow some transparency between the two spaces and cross ventilation. Stay tuned!

From House Project Photos

Shelves aren't quite complete in this photo. Still have to install two more upper shelf surfaces.

Wood Storage Rack

When we bought the house, one of the selling points was a 30x20 foot garage/workshop space. The shop has been incredibly valuable for material storage. Material storage has been absolutely critical since we're doing much of the remodel using reusable building materials.

This has been a bit of a love/hate relationship, because more materials means more floor space in the workshop, which means less space to work. Organization is key to solve this issue.

I set out to build this lumber rack:



I completed the project in a weekend, and we've finally cleared enough floor space to do work again.

We both have an interest in doing more woodworking projects, and our long-term goal is to split the workshop in two: one 20x20 space for the woodshop (that you see pictured above), and another 10x20 studio space. More to come on that soon.