Garage cabinet design is choosing the type, depth and material of each cabinet to fit what you store, the floor space you have and the damp and cold of a garage. The short answer for garage cabinets: measure the room and add up the weight. Then pick a cabinet type and a material that will not rust or swell in damp and cold. It works for cabinets you buy off the shelf and for custom garage cabinets built to your walls.
Drywall crumbles around a screw under load, so the weight has to go into the studs behind it. Studs are often 16 inches apart, center to center, and a stud finder locates them. On a block or concrete wall, use anchors made for masonry and rated for the load. Car and Driver tested one cabinet of each type and found the same thing: a wall cabinet holds what its mounting holds, not what the cabinet could.
How much weight should garage cabinets hold?
List everything that will go in the cabinets before you pick a single door style. Then sort it three ways: how heavy it is, how often you grab it, and whether it can freeze. The garage in the photo comes from one of our Fenton remodel case studies.
Put heavy items on the lowest shelves. A gallon of paint weighs about 11 pounds, so a shelf holding six gallons carries about 66 pounds before you count the shelf. Keep items you use every week at chest height. Store light items you use once a year up high.
| Item | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hand tools, bits and fasteners | Drawers in a floor cabinet | They are small and heavy. Drawers keep them sorted and low. |
| Rakes, shovels and brooms | A tall cabinet | They stand up. Shelves waste the height. |
| Paint, stain, caulk and glue | A closed cabinet, off the floor | Many carry a storage temperature on the label. A cabinet does not make a garage warmer, so check for “do not freeze” and bring those items inside in winter. |
| Cleaners and lawn chemicals | A closed cabinet you can lock, or one placed high | It keeps them away from children and pets. |
| Balls, helmets and sports gear | Open cubbies or a tall cabinet with hooks | You grab them often. Doors slow you down. |
| Holiday and camping gear | Upper cabinets or overhead storage | They are light and rarely used. |
Typical weights of common garage items:
| Item | Typical weight |
|---|---|
| Gallon of paint | about 11 lb |
| 5-gallon bucket of paint or sealer | about 55 lb |
| Gallon of motor oil | about 7.5 lb |
| Gallon of washer fluid | about 8 lb |
| Cordless drill with battery | about 4 lb |
| Circular saw | about 9 lb |
| Case of 12 drink cans | about 9.5 lb |
| Bag of ice melt or fertilizer | the weight printed on the bag, often 40 to 50 lb |
Add up what you plan to put in one cabinet, then compare it with two numbers on the maker spec sheet: the rating for one shelf and the rating for the whole cabinet. Capacity differs a lot between cabinets. Car and Driver lists cabinets from about 50 pounds to about 600 pounds, so read the rating on the exact cabinet you buy.
How deep should garage cabinets be?
Measure from the wall to your parked vehicle, take away the walking space you want, and what is left is your cabinet depth.
How deep can your cabinets be?
Park where you normally park, open the door as far as you normally do, then measure from the wall to the nearest part of the vehicle.
Room left for cabinet depth: 24 inches.24 inch deep: fits18 inch deep: fits12 inch deep: fits
A worked example with no tool: 60 inches from the wall to the car, minus 36 inches to walk, leaves 24 inches. A 24-inch-deep floor cabinet just fits, and a shallower wall cabinet has room to spare. Those depths are examples, so ask the maker for the exact depth of each unit. The tool only knows the two numbers you type. It cannot see an opener rail, a door swing or a step, so run the checklist below too.
Then check what else needs room.
- The garage door and opener. Most home garage doors are 7 or 8 feet tall. Tracks, springs and the opener rail run along the ceiling and the sides, so tall cabinets must clear them with the door fully open.
- The electrical panel. Keep the floor in front of it empty. The distances follow below.
- A water heater or furnace. Follow the clearances printed on the appliance. They are set by its maker, so no cabinet should crowd it.
- Windows, outlets and switches. Plan the cabinet layout around them. An electrician can move an outlet before the cabinets go up.
The National Electrical Code, section 110.26, requires empty floor space in front of an electrical panel. For most home panels that means 3 feet deep, 30 inches wide (or as wide as the panel, if wider) and about 6 1/2 feet high. The panel door must also open at least 90 degrees. IAEI Magazine says nothing should be stored in that space. Cabinets belong beside the panel, not in front of it. Ask your electrician or your local building department about your own panel.
Your slab also slopes. The International Residential Code, section R309.1, requires the parking area of a home garage floor to slope toward a drain or the main door. That way spills run out (Building Code Trainer explains it). The code gives no number, but that author says most experts accept 1 percent or more, about 1/8 inch of drop per foot. Measure yours with a level. Cabinets on adjustable feet can be set level. Then the doors close and the drawers stay shut.
Which type of garage cabinet do you need?
Car and Driver tested one cabinet of each of four types for materials, shelf capacity, assembly and usability. Here are those four, plus tall cabinets and built-in custom cabinets. Garage wall cabinets leave the floor open, and floor cabinets carry the heavy items.
What do you want cabinets to fix?
Tap the one that matches your garage.
Tap an option to see which type fits.
| Type | Floor space | Best for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall cabinets | None | Light items, cleaners and seasonal gear | Mounting. A wall cabinet holds only as much as its mounting holds, so keep the load light. Hang them at chest height so you do not bend or lift. |
| Floor cabinets | Uses floor | Heavy items and drawers. They are typically a few feet tall, and some are wide enough to work as a bench | They take depth from the walkway. Level them on a sloped floor. |
| Tall cabinets | Takes little floor for the storage it holds | Long-handled tools and bulky gear | Doors need swing room. The top shelves are hard to reach. |
| Rolling cabinets | Uses floor | Tools you carry to the car or bench | Casters rated for hundreds of pounds cost more. Lock them. They tip more easily. |
| Freestanding cabinets | Uses floor, can be moved | A first set, a single bay, or a rental. They look like lockers, with doors | Each one is a separate box, so sizes and gaps may not match. Large ones need a second person to assemble. |
| Built-in custom cabinets | Built to your wall, with no gaps | Odd walls, a full wall of storage or a matched look | They are measured to your garage first, then built and installed. |
To see built-in cabinets in different layouts and finishes, browse our garage cabinet installations.
What is the best material for garage cabinets?
A garage swings from freezing to hot, gets damp when a wet car pulls in, and holds oil and chemicals. In St. Louis that means humid summers and hard freezes in winter, so choose the material whose weak spot you can manage.
| Material | What it handles | Weak spot |
|---|---|---|
| Wood panels | Easy to cut and finish, so fitting odd walls is simple | Raw edges and screw holes soak up water and swell. Particleboard and MDF are pressed wood fibers, so they swell and crumble when wet. Plywood tolerates damp better. Look for sealed edges, a finish over the cut sides of the panels. |
| Powder-coated steel | Strong and easy to wipe clean | Rust starts where the coating chips or scratches. It is heavy. |
| Aluminum | Does not rust and weighs less than steel | It can dent. |
| Resin (plastic) | Does not rust or swell | Weight capacity depends on the model, so read the rating. Overloaded shelves can sag. |
Whatever the material, ask for cabinets that stand on adjustable feet. The feet keep the bottom panel off a damp floor and let you level the cabinet on a sloped one.
Garage cabinets, slatwall or overhead storage?
Closed cabinets are best for what you want out of sight. What you reach for every week, like rakes, hoses, bikes and helmets, is quicker on a wall. That is the job of slatwall. Bins you open twice a year belong overhead, off the floor, in overhead storage.
If most of what you store is bikes, ladders and long tools, cabinets are not the first thing to buy. Start with the wall and overhead storage, then add cabinets for the rest.
For ideas on what to hang, read 10 slatwall ideas for the garage. Short on space? Garage storage ideas for small garages covers it. If a workbench is the goal, see power tool storage ideas for a garage workshop.
What cabinets cost depends on the length of wall, the type and the material, so any number here would be a guess. Our custom cabinets page explains how an estimate works.
More questions about garage cabinets
Want help planning your garage cabinets?
I own Garage Designs of St. Louis, and we design and install custom garage cabinets, slatwall and overhead storage. If you want help applying this to your own garage, call 314-308-7780, then pick a time for a free on-site estimate. Bring the measurements and the list you made here.
See custom garage cabinets for the cabinets we install, or read our garage organization guide. Our shop is at 772 Merus Ct. in Fenton. We are open 8 AM to 5 PM, Monday to Friday, and we have remodeled St. Louis garages since 2002.
