Paint Rack

 

Rack 'em.

This post is a little different but still related to the hobby: paint storage racks. I'm once again needing to change around my work area and after looking around quite a lot for something suitable to use as paint storage thought I'd give it a go at making my own. This has been on my mind for quite some time, but now that there's only wall space available to help tidy up it became a bit of a necessity to try.

I had some specific requirements:

• Adaptable to different paint bottle sizes.
• Stable (either attach to a wall, or anchor to a desk).
• Low cost.
• Vertical stacking (flat surface space is at a premium on the painting desk).

None of the options I was looking at quite matched up. Originally I was going to anchor the paint rack to a desk up against a wall, but as the photo shows I eventually decided to attach it directly to the wall. As everything was going to be vertical I also wanted some kind of design to help keep the paint bottles on the paint rack: there needs to be a front rail to stop paint bottles toppling out, and I prefer a slight slope to each row to stop them from tumbling backwards. A slope also means the vertical height between rows can be reduced (even if only by 10mm) as an added bonus, and it's easier to take bottles out or put them back.

Walking through a hardware store one day I noticed L-shaped skirting boards. These are very nearly perfect for what I wanted to serve a each row, but are thin so I needed a way to attach them to a lightweight (i.e pine) frame. I reasoned that cutting small blocks to act as brackets would do the trick: I could screw them in as needed (spoiler: no screws required). For the frame I simply used a length of pine rough cut strip wood because it was cheap.

I should probably write down dimensions of all the wood and measurements of cuts, however part of this project is customisation: measure and cut to what is needed for the paints, not what someone else writes.

To start with I cut lengths for the frame (I already have a hand saw), and smaller blocks as brackets from the same length of strip wood. The blocks are angled such that the back marking on the frame is 10mm higher than the front marking. Clamps and wood glue (both of which I already had) and the brackets for each row were in place. As always: measure twice, cut once. Very sound advice. I did buy some screws (sold in boxes of 100, so plenty to spare) to put the frame together (I already have a drill and wood drill bits to make guide holes), but good wood glue would work if necessary.

After the frame and brackets were assembled, it was just a matter of cutting the L-shaped skirting to size and gluing that down. No screws were needed on the brackets or rows, I only did so on the frame for extra strength for the shape. I was originally going to add smaller rows on top, but decided against it at the last moment: there are two brackets in the way as a result.

All of this is stuck to the wall with Command picture hanging strips (large size, possibly overkill but I wanted to be sure). There are, so far, no problems. There are enough screws plastered over in the walls here that I didn't want to add any more holes and one day they'll need to be moved - thus ideal for those removable hanging strips.

With all of that done (much easier than I thought it might be) then I can already see room for improvement. An extra few centimetres on the vertical length is possible: there's just enough strip wood left that I could've added 50mm, maybe 100mm each side. Enough to squeeze in an extra row. Additionally I could get away with 10mm less between each row, particularly for future paints (which are shorter than the twist caps on display), and the bottom of the frame could be angled (with careful screwing) to act as the bracket for the bottom row. I figure for the same amount of material I could get two extra rows in (which is the amount of L-shaped skirting I have remaining as it turns out). The hanging strips should be able to easily handle all of this. It's also worth mentioning that the brackets could easily be from other strip wood of half the thickness; part of the reason for using the wood blocks was an intention to screw them in place, but the glue has proven up to the task and so screws weren't needed. The only other mention is that the L-shaped skirting doesn't need the "rail" to be quite so high, and it might be easier to move paints about when the rows are more compressed if I adjust that in future.

And there we have it, a low cost and easily customisable paint storage rack. Yes I already had a saw, wood glue, and clamps, but even if they needed to be bought then they aren't that expensive and are reusable across more projects.

-- silly painter