A Tool Wall

I used to keep most of my hand tools in tool boxes and on shelves and in drawers. Sometimes it was a little bit hard to find a tool I needed. Then I saw several nice tool walls that people made to organize things. Some used French cleats and other fancy approaches, but I remembered that when I was a kid, my wood shop instructor just had all the tools hanging on nails on a wall. A tool wall can be as simple as a sheet of plywood and a bunch of nails and screws. So I attached a sheet of plywood to the wall, screwed in a bunch of screws, and there it was. The nice thing about this approach is that if you decide you want to move a tool on the wall, you just unscrew that one screw and screw it in again at the new location.

My tool wall is in a narrow hallway so I wasn't able to get nice straight-on photos of the entire wall, but the photos I was able to get are good enough to let you see what a tool wall can look like.

Note: The shelf above the tool wall in the picture is not part of the tool wall and is not needed to make a tool wall.

Even though I show seven steps, you can do a good job with just two steps (step 1 and step 5). The rest of the steps are optional.

(1) One or more pieces of 3/4 inch plywood (19 mm) , sized to fit your available wall space.

(2) #6 finish nails (used to hang small tools)

(3) 2 and a half inch screws (used to attach plywood and to hang larger tools) Deck screws will work fine.

Optional:

(1) Two by four to make shelf, if wanted (see optional step 4)

(2) Bits of wood to make wooden holders, if wanted (see optional step 6)

The plywood can be a full 4 foot by 8 foot sheet or any smaller size you have room for. You can orient the plywood vertically or horizontally. The tool wall is going to be heavy so you have to make sure the screws go into studs. You can't just screw into drywall and expect it to hold, especially when you start hanging heavy tools on the wall. I used multiple pieces of plywood for my tool wall, but you can use just one piece if that works for your needs.

You don't have to paint the plywood, but raw unpainted wood will look slapdash and unfinished. I recommend paint.

You don't have to plan much but most people will probably be happy if all their wrenches are in one area of the wall and all their pliers are bunched together in another area, and so on. To be honest, I was a little haphazard about planning and could have done a better job of it. But I'm still happy with the outcome. And if it really bothered me, I could change it without much effort.

OK, I didn't really plan to have a shelf. But the first big piece of plywood I attached didn't reach the floor and I worried whether the screws alone could support the weight. So I attached a two by four horizontally under the plywood with big screws that hit studs. Then I put two more short two by fours vertically under the horizontal two by four. That ensured that nothing could come down. Then I realized that this arrangement made a really sturdy narrow shelf that could hold my heavy socket sets. That horizontal 2 by 4 killed two birds with one stone.

I added a small piece of wood to the entire length of the horizontal two by four to add a "lip" that keeps tools from falling off the shelf.

Also, I painted the shelf.

The shelf construction can be seen in the picture in this step. You can also see the shelf in the picture that is in the introduction.

Since the plywood is thick (3/4 of an inch), you do not need to make sure you hit a stud in the wall. In other words, you can place a tool anywhere on the wall.

The first time I put screws and nails in, I left too much room between tools, which wasted wall space. So I bunched them closer. I advise minimizing gaps.

You can use a nail to hang small tools that are not heavy (such as a utility knife). When hanging a larger or heavier tool (such as a hammer), you will want to use screws. When you use a nail, you can (optionally) drill a small pilot hole to orient the nail correctly. If you drill pilot holes, make sure the drill bit is small enough to allow the nail to stay snug in the plywood.

Some tools (like wood chisels) can't be hung vertically with nails. So I made small wooden holders for the wood chisels, some drill bits, a stubby wrench set, and my ratchet wrenches. See the four pictures I included in this step. (OK, you caught me leaving my handmade wooden holders unpainted. How gauche! I keep telling myself I'll paint them one of these days.)

You can see that I used magnetic tool holders in two places in my tool wall. I bought 18 inch magnetic tool holders from Harbor Freight for $4.99 each. I used one tool holder for my cold chisels, drifts, punches, and files. I used the second tool holder to keep my ratchet wrenches snug against the wall. You don't need to use store-bought tool holders, there's always a way to handmake a wooden holder. But I liked how the magnetic holders worked for me.

If there is not a Harbor Freight store near you, you can order from HarborFreight.com and they will deliver the tool holder to you.

Even after I made this tool wall, I keep my wire cutters, lineman's pliers, wire stripper, needlenose pliers, and a separate utility knife in a toolbox. I know that when I do electrical work, I'll usually need all those tools, so I keep them in one box, ready to go, along with GFCI tester, voltage tester, electrical tape, etc.

I keep all my screwdrivers in a cardboard box on a shelf. It's convenient to know that no matter which screwdrivers I need, I know where they all are. That said, since most of us usually only need a combo screwdriver that has a small and large flat, and a small and large Phillips, it would probably make sense to put one combo screwdriver on the tool wall.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the tool wall? Did you make any enhancements I didn't think of? If so, please leave a comment so others can benefit from your ideas.