The DIY Tool Storage System That Outshines Pegboards & Other Alternatives

Home is where your tools are. Having a dedicated place to store them ensures that they'll last for years to come, and it also helps you keep your workspace organized and usable. There are storage solutions for those who are invested in the Ryobi tool ecosystem — highly rated tool storage boxes you can pick up at Costco — and various other options out there, but YouTuber and builder April Wilkerson has invented a new DIY tool hanging system that you need to check out.

By brilliantly combining the popular French cleat and slot wall concepts, Wilkerson has come up with an adjustable system to hang nail guns and accessories that she is calling "Slat 45," named after the degree of the cuts and their interlocking pieces. The project uses plywood, PVC, screws, and pieces of steel flat bar. You'll need a table saw, miter saw, and cut-off tool to make the cuts the way Wilkerson does for the main pieces before switching over to a pair of CNC machines for the hanger parts.

As shown in the video above, the Slat 45 system consists of two main parts (much like the French cleat system believed to have been used by shipbuilders in the 1800s). There is a slotted wall and three-sided hangers with matching pieces on the backs that fit into the slots. The process is not very complicated, though it can get tedious. If you need more space to hang things, you have to decrease the distance between the wall cuts. "On a small scrap it's easy to make the call to do one-inch intervals," Wilkerson says of the horizontal 45-degree cuts, "but it is a lot different when doing a full sheet." Luckily for you, the spacing of the wall slots is a matter of preference and not a hard rule.

Wilkerson mounted her tool storage system via a modular panel that was already integrated into the design of the shop wall. As an alternative, screw your completed panel into your wall's studs so that the weight of your tools doesn't cause it to come crashing down. Some viewers in the comments of the video have load limit concerns, but at the time of this article, there has not been a follow-up video posted.

The best DIY concepts are ones that can be different things to different people. While Slat 45 was designed as a storage system for tools, there are lots of possibilities when it comes to finding other objects it can hold. Borrowing from the list of ways that pegboards can be used to organize spaces, it is easy to visualize its use as a yarn and supply holder in a craft room, a display for magazines, or a spice and utensil rack in a kitchen. To create an in-home art gallery with rotating exhibitions, modify the backs of picture frames so that they slide on and off the slots. To create a puzzle game, glue the puzzle pieces to the flat faces of what would be the backs of the tool hangers. The hanging pieces can also be upgraded with magnets, eyelet hooks, velcro, or dowels.