For anyone interested in how to get the most out of your space in a small shop.

Quick background on my situation…

I run a small custom auto interior shop in my personal 2 car garage. I am zoned Lt. commercial, so a business in my personal garage works with the zoning in my area. I am a 1 man shop and am busy year round. Therefore I need to make the best use of the space I have to keep up with demand. I always planned on building a bigger shop, but finding the $ and time to build new is difficult when this is my only source of income. I finally came to the realisation that if I spent $ on building a new shop, I would never get it back when selling my home. Property values are not the best in my corner of the world. The end result is.. fixing what I have and making it work until I can move to my ideal home. A place where I can build a large garage/shop with a gun range on the side. 10+ acres and a stocked fishing pond would be nice but that may be hard to find (fingers crossed).

-My garage was not built properly in the first place. So I have pulled the sag out of the roof with cable and turnbuckles. Then rebuilt the rafters with the cable providing the main support and rafters themselves acting more like secondary support. These are not engineered trusses and I am no engineer. If you plan on putting a lot of weight over head make sure your trusses/rafters can handle the weight. If your not sure find someone who does know and ask their advice. Please be safe!

Okay enough of that..on with the layout.

-Obviously floor space is limited so I make use of the space over head, and on the walls. My layout has not always been exactly like this. Every time I find a way to make something more efficient I do it. So after 15 years in this work space this is where I have wound up. I’m sure it will keep changing as I go.


-I spend probably 70% of my time at my main work table/cutting table directly in front of the 2 drawer filing cabinet. The tools and supplies I use the most are within arm's reach, mainly over head along with the materials used on the current project. I don’t like having to walk to the other side of the shop constantly to get the things I need.


-Directly overhead are many tools and supplies. Rulers, staplers, hog ringer, glue gun foam saw, drill bits, step drill bits, tape measurers, pins and curved needles, hole punches, drills grinders, squares, heat gun, micro torch, containers with screws & clips etc.


-Another view overhead, of my main work area.



-In the filing cabinet are more supplies. Staples, hog rings, button twine, rags, etc.



-Above my sewing machine are as many roll goods as I could fit. And my often used patterns.


-There is a 4 drawer filing cabinet next to my machine where I store thread, bobbins, product catalogues, scrap material, etc. Shelves on the wall hold computer, printer, samples, snacks, 2k watt amplifier to drive 8 speakers hidden in the rafters… I normally listen to talk radio but do like to rock out now and then. I also have a desk here which is usually just a catch all for anything and everything.



-Drop down shelf to hold large rolls of foam, jute, rubber nib, carpet. This shelf is hinged on one end so it can be pushed back into the rafters to be out of the way.



-more rafter storage



-more rafter storage above garage doors.


-On the opposite side of my main work area I have shelves with various tools and supplies not used on a daily basis. The table that the seats are on, is hinged to the wall and flips up out of the way if I need the extra space. I also keep my welder, torch and other auto (non upholstery related) stuff along this wall.



-At the other end of my cutting/work table I have another overhead shelf with more tools that are used fairly often. The large shelf on the wall is where my foam lives (Which is pretty depleted at the moment) along with my glue pads. Which are old bench seat covers from seats I have recovered. I also have a sandblast cabinet and collapsible table saw which are hidden from view in this pic.



-My table is topped with Rhino Mat cutting mat. This pic is from 2014 the mat was brand new, and now in 2018 it probably has about a year left before I need to replace it. I did flip it over, about a year ago. So it has held up about 2 years per side for me. I do a lot of cutting on this mat and highly recommend It.



-Under the Rhino Mat I have a router sunken into my table. Just roll up the mat and the router is accessible. I built my own acrylic plate, but there are many plates available for this purpose. Obviously there is a lot of storage space under the table as well for various things

In the end I have a large shop stuffed in a small garage. Stuff is stashed in every nook and cranny. The end result is a fairly efficient setup. Now if I had a larger shop it would be even more efficient. I’d be able to move my extra material storage out of the basement. I would still use as much overhead storage as possible. I highly recommend overhead storage for your main work area. It’s nice to have almost everything you need at your fingertips. I hope this will give some of you useful ideas for your shop.