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Cabinet suggestions for my outdoor shed

24K views 28 replies 12 participants last post by  Pop Alexandra 
#1 ·
After long contemplation I had an outdoor shed done at a reasonable rate. I further would want to make it more efficient by getting a cabinet installed. I guess usually the standard size is some thing around base 24"deep, cabinets 12" deep and tall cabinets 24" deep. Can anyone give me an estimate of expense I may have to bear in getting a cabinet done? Would prefer affordable yet lasting ones. Thought of going with Ikea, since it is said to be less expensive. But recently I saw an article which says the opposite http://www.lancastercustoms.com/blog/luxury-upgrades/ikea-cabinetry-will-end-costing-custom/. I want long lasting cabinets, hope plastic ones are available with all custom cabinet makers. I need suggestions on the size, type of material and the services to be approached for.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Edited Oct 29.

I always made my own while I was able to. Bought the 4x8 wood panels from H-D, and did my own design using hinges, glue, and other things that I could get from Lee Valley, so it's hard to suggest an estimate for your outdoor shed without dimension of the shed.

The best thing to do is to get the dimensions (is the shed a 10 x 12?) and then do a layout on the long side opposite the entrance door.
Custom made cabinets can be very expensive and doesn't a lot of sense to make custom cabinets for a shed.

You don't have to buy the expensive doors for them.

Use the same dimension to cut the doors out of a 4x8 melamine sheet 9 or plywood/particle board, whichover turns out to be cheaper for you. . H-D can cut the pieces for you as well. First 3 cuts are free and $1 per cut after that, and
you will have the door panels to mount hinges on to take in your vehicle.
That is..if you aren't too particular and will accept flat panel doors instead of formed door panels.

You can buy a full 4x8 sheet and have them cut top pieces from this 4x8 sheet of 3/4 inch thick melamine panel
(or plywood/particle board) and have these cut to size at H-D for free. You can then screw the top surface to the base cabinet yourself or have a handy person do it for you.

Still, the cash outlay will be over $100. It's hard to do any projects cheaply these days, other than scrounging as suggested, because the wood is so expensive at these home improvement stores.
 
#3 ·
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idk, these HD cabinets are going to cost $500, $700, plus $200 for the handyman to assemble & install the job?

but it's only for a garden shed. One does not really need martha stewart.

me i'd d look at garage sales, church basement sales, sally ann shops, freebie furniture dumps in laneways & on craigslists. It could take a while, but sooner or later a serviceable used storage cabinet should materialize for something like $0-$50 max.

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#4 · (Edited)

Edited Oct29


It really all depends on what the OP is looking for to organise her shed storage.

looking for the "right" storage cabinet(s) at:
garage sales, church basement sales,
sallyann shops,freebies furniture dumps in laneways
etc etc ...

could be a big waste of time if the right dimensions are not available. How do you get these cabinets home as well?
Hire a panel truck for $100 a day at Hertz? and arrange for a couple of friends with strong backs to lift them onto the truck?

Expensive way DIY project:: would just spend the money for knockdown cabinets and take them home in your vehicle[/B]. Assembly is a snap and that can be done right in the shed itself.
You don't really need doors on these in a garden shed, but doors do add to the aesthetic look of the cabinets as well as hide the clutter inside.

Less expensive way DIY project:
Ideally, the best (and less expensive) way is to design the cabinet(s) to the shed on a piece of paper,
prepare a cutting diagram/ parts list for H-D with dimensions (sides, bottom, top and base) and
take these dimensions to H-D who can cut them from a large 4 x 8 sheet of 3/4 inch melamine particle board.
OR use existing shelving material available in 12inch w x 8ft long or 16inch w x 8ft long and using metal hanging brackets.
i have done a lot of this in my garage and garden shed. H-D will cut them to size and these will fit in the trunk
of your car.
All you need is some screws and a power screwdriver and be able to use them.

You can make TWO 24inch wide x 30 inch tall cabinets from 2 of these 4x8 melamine panels and have H-D cut them for you in their store to handy 24x30 and 24x 36L (top/bottom) panels to assemble.

Two 4x8 large panels should do it..at $52 each plus tax.

Thats about $104 + $14 tax = $118 (or roughly $59 per cabinet. There should be enough material left in the second panel to make FOUR (24W x 30H) flat panel doors. Hinges and handle would be a bit extra...but
If you can DIY..you can save a lot of dough and a lot of time running around looking for stuff in yard sales that might work (or not!) AND get the cabinets built and installed in record time.

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.58-inch-4x8-melamine---cabinet-maple.1000152822.html
 
#5 ·
In my area, HD sells cabinets separate from doors. If you don't require doors, you can get a cabinet for about 40 bucks.

From there, I installed french cleats on the walls of the shed. I have them in each of my garages, also. This allows me to move cabinets between locations because they are simply hung on the wall. For this to work, the french cleats have to be mounted in a specific and consistent location. In my case, this location is 6" from the top of the cabinet.

French cleats are simply a piece of wood with a bevel cut on one side.

The whole system is super easy, cheap, and we've found it to be highly effective. I hang other stuff from the french cleats also but I'm a wood worker. Even if you do not happen to be a wood worker, you can buy hangars for items and simply screw them to a french cleat to hang on the wall wherever you wish.

By the way, HD always tells me I "forgot the doors" when I buy cabinets. Some of the doors they sell are over $100 per side. Crazy.
 
#9 ·
By the way, HD always tells me I "forgot the doors" when I buy cabinets. Some of the doors they sell are over $100 per side. Crazy.
I've always made my own doors on my custom cabinets.
I've done quite a few nice solid pine raised panel doors with a router/shaper and the 3 router bit set with raised panel for the inside and the two bits for the stiles.

During the winters of 2004-2008, I just bought pine boards H-D from a pile of pine shelving they had in their stores for a $1 a foot or less for 10 inch wide boards Had to do a lot of selection to discard the knotty ones or cracked boards, but usually came home with a good dozen or more of nicely machinable pine board to resize on the table saw.
Glued these up with panel gluing jig with the clamps from Lee Valley here in Ottawa.
Made a total of 5 three corner pine cabinets for myself and my kids. The doors on top were beveled glass stain glass.,bottom doors were
raised panel pine with my own carving designs on each door. Also did quite a bit of stain back then.
 
#6 ·
I'll add that I had some Ikea kitchen cabinets in a garage some years ago. They are relatively easy to hang, as you just have to install the steel hangar, and then it takes a couple of people to bolt the cupboards to the steel.

If I didn't have a table saw or circular saw to make french cleats, I might still go with the Ikea cabinets.
 
#7 ·
hey it's a small, unheated, unlit garden shed.

me i'd go more martha stewart for a garage, but not for a garden tool shed.

$40 for a cabinet? the one carverman was showing would cost $230 for the cabinet, not including the top or taxes or shipping/delivery. Add the countertop, tax, ship, the sub-total for the item rises to $400 & that is for only one measly cabinet.

most folks would need to shell out an additional $100-$200 to a handyman/carpenter for assembly & installation.

it's true that the home workshop gang would love the challenge. Gosh, they'd probably build the entire shed themselves. Out of recycled silver-aged barn timbers which they would personally haul in from the country.

while they are at it, how about a miniature doll's house for the children. This should be much fancier. Martha stewart can go wild on the playhouse. Mullioned windows that actually open. Tiny verandah with antique child's rocking chair. Pint-sized window boxes full of red geraniums ...

actually i've been wondering whether our friend "carol palmer" might in real life be a vendor of those original plastic garden sheds .:peach:

.
 
#10 · (Edited)
hey it's a small, unheated, unlit garden shed.
previous rather abrasive rant deleted, apologies to Humble....XOXO :apologetic:

Garden sheds can be a source of a mans pride and joy, especially if it's a summer hobby shop.
Mine was setup that way and I made my own cabinets and shelving to store tools and hobby materials
stain glass, lead came etc..and this is what I was visualizing..storage space +workspace in a 10x12 wooden
shed with windows. .:friendly_wink:
 
#8 ·
I don't think it matters what type of cabinet you go with. It's durability is going to be based on how you treat it. Someone who throws in a circular saw after using it is probably going to have scratched up plywood/chipboard cabinets or dented and dinged metal ones. Unless you're going industrial grade metal ones, I feel like the sheet metal will ding, scratch and dent easily. And I've never seen a cheap metal door cabinet that closes straight or flush. They always seem to warp.

We went with Ikea kitchen cabinets in our garage. I have 5 wall mount cabinets and 2 base cabinets (one with drawers) along with their solid oak butcher block countertop for a workbench. They can handle a lot of weight and their Blum hardware/hinges are actually higher end. I went with their Grevsta stainless steel door fronts which are chipboard covered in stainless steel sheet metal. Looks fantastic. They have cover panels and kickplates in stainless steel too.
 
#17 ·
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i have a beautiful item that my neighbour gave me just before she put it on the curb when her kitchen was being remodelled.

it's a four-shelf open herb & spice shelf rack in pine. Not quite a metre high, about 4 feet wide, with shelves 4.5 inches deep, it easily holds from 40 to 60 glass jars of dried seeds, herbs, grains & spices.

a few years have mellowed the pine into a attractive dark honey-amber colour. The linseed oil french polish finish i gave it didn't hurt either. The entire structure fits perfectly into a small recess next to the stove, behind the kitchen door, as if built to order for my house.

what i like best is that the unit was made by her husband. The neighbourly generosity exudes. I'm pretty sure it will become an heirloom for my children. On the other hand, her own children are growing up now, it's entirely possible that some day i'll give the spice shelf back to one of my neighbour's children.

seriously, we are supposed to buy/acquire objects made of natural materials that last a long time. We are admonished to reduce consumption, stop buying new, never use disposables, re-use all items, recycle. We are instructed to repair, rebuild, re-frame, restore.

long live my pretty neighbour's spice shelf. It's the curbside dump that keeps on giving & giving.

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#18 ·
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i have a beautiful item that my neighbour gave me just before she put it on the curb when her kitchen was being remodelled.

... It's the curbside dump that keeps on giving & giving.
I hear ya'.

I am sitting here at my computer workstation, which happens to be a large, solid and handsome oak desk with cabinets, shelves and drawers that some benefactor kindly set out in a back lane in Vancouver's West End in 2006. It took 3 trips to get it home in the back of a Corvette, leaving the rear hatch open. I could hardly believe that someone would just dump such a thing, in pristine condition, with all of its parts. It came sans bedbugs. Deskbugs maybe. Bedbugs were an optional extra and I cheaped out. I know, in modern parlance, we no longer say "optional" when it comes to things like buying cars, etc., that come with just the basics for the advertised price. Everything is now "available". Such a clever way of concealing its true nature, at least from someone with the IQ of a snail. Just like my oak desk. It's not a "used desk"; it's "pre-owned" and worth much more accordingly.
 
#23 ·
... your Corvette must have been a very sturdy and well-coated roadster to haul that heavy pre-owned oak desk or pieces thereof. Guys car owners usually don't like to see scratches or dents on their babies.
 
#26 ·
I am making mine as I didn’t like the option of having them look like they were thrown in and came from somewhere else.

I framed them out of 30×30x2mm SHS and then tops are 25mm Flooring with folded 2.4mm Zinc splashes. Doors and shelves are 19mm waxed flooring. Draws are 2mm aluminum on 2.4mm sliders. I have two shelves in each one and kickers around the base. I have just started to add upper cabinets which are actually old filing cabinets I bought a bulk lot from a tear out, so they all match. My Freind just purchased 23’ of Strong Hold cabinets off eBay for my garage and there’s a thread on here about them so I’ll just say they are high quality but tend to have cost prohibitive if you buy them new. Moduline and other “showroom” grade cabinets are nice but don’t meet your budget requirement. I find it hard to reconcile the plywood with the “showroom” look you’re going for. I’ve done a fair amount of cabinet work and building them square and sturdy with setting up time for dados can really take a long time.There are a lot of useful videos on this topic on Youtube, I will leave here one of them, I hope someone will come in handy. Good luck
 
#27 ·
I am making mine as I didn’t like the option of having them look like they were thrown in and came from somewhere else.

I framed them out of 30×30x2mm SHS and then tops are 25mm Flooring with folded 2.4mm Zinc splashes. Doors and shelves are 19mm waxed flooring. Draws are 2mm aluminum on 2.4mm sliders. I have two shelves in each one and kickers around the base. I have just started to add upper cabinets which are actually old filing cabinets I bought a bulk lot from a tear out, so they all match. My Freind just purchased 23’ of Strong Hold cabinets off eBay https://mechanicguides.com/best-garage-cabinets/ for my garage and there’s a thread on here about them so I’ll just say they are high quality but tend to have cost prohibitive if you buy them new. Moduline and other “showroom” grade cabinets are nice but don’t meet your budget requirement. I find it hard to reconcile the plywood with the “showroom” look you’re going for. I’ve done a fair amount of cabinet work and building them square and sturdy with setting up time for dados can really take a long time.There are a lot of useful videos on this topic on Youtube, I will leave here one of them, I hope someone will come in handy. Good luck
 
#28 ·
I am making mine as I didn’t like the option of having them look like they were thrown in and came from somewhere else.

I framed them out of 30×30x2mm SHS and then tops are 25mm Flooring with folded 2.4mm Zinc splashes. Doors and shelves are 19mm waxed flooring. Draws are 2mm aluminum on 2.4mm sliders. I have two shelves in each one and kickers around the base. I have just started to add upper cabinets which are actually old filing cabinets I bought a bulk lot from a tear out, so they all match. My Freind just purchased 23’ of Strong Hold cabinets off eBay


hummazing. how did we ever get from storage in a small plastic garden shed to buckingham palace

that plastic garden shed was something like 2 x 8 feet, or possibly 4 x 8 feet max. Maximkum 6 feet high, possibly less. Plastic. Airtight. No ventilation. Humidity will condense inside. Summer heat inside plastic box will soar. Metal wiil rust & wood will decay quickly. Me i wouldn't store a lawnmower in such conditions & probably not expensive garden loppers or pruning shears or other steel-bladed garden tools either.

never understood why so many in this thread keep rushing to destroy good hard dollars of expensive cabinetry inside a plastic box. OP (now long gone) appears to have been a sales rep for the line of plastic sheds.

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