DIY Spray Paint Cabinet

This DIY Spray Paint Cabinet makes use of a deep, narrow space that’s perfect for our ever-growing spray paint collection!

Just call it the Hydra House.

In Greek mythology, Typho (the last son of Gaia) and Echidna (a charming half-woman, half-serpent monster) had a wonderful and joyous child named Hydra.

Like her mother, Hydra was a monster – feared and reviled by mortal men – but what her mother only possessed one of (namely a head), Hydra had in spades. And if that weren’t enough to put on the next family Christmas card, Hydra had the ability to grow back two heads if some hapless fool attempted to kill her by cutting off just one of her many heads.

I’m reminded of Hydra often around the Navage Patch. No, no, I’m not talking about Handan – she only has one head!

I suppose it started back in Connecticut. Every Saturday, we’d go to the dump to drop off the week’s trash. But our dump in Glastonbury had Put & Take – a local drop-off point for unwanted treasures. So each week I’d dump a few bags of trash and load the car with castaways.

The same theme has played out with many DIY and crafting supplies, but none so often as with spray paint.

Each time I finish a can – especially if it’s a commonly used color, it gets replaced with two more (and sometimes 3, 4 or more!)

It wasn’t long before our spray paint collection needed a bigger shelf, then multiple shelves…then its own bookshelf.

But eventually it grew out of its bookshelf, and cans littered the garage floor and accumulated in old cardboard boxes. Hydra needed a new home.

Here in Florida, where space is at a premium, every cubic inch of potential storage space must be explored and evaluated.

So when we found ourselves with a narrow void – only 12 1/2 inches across, but 24 inches deep – my babes declared it to be the Future Home of Hydra, aka our new spray paint storage cabinet.

Of course, a space of these particular dimensions, plus the fact that my babes wanted a single pull-out 7-foot drawer made this the custom build of all custom builds.

I sat down at my computer to try to cobble something together on Sketchup, but my engineer babes got tired of waiting for O’l Dunderhead to finish his figgerin’ and calculatin’ so she grabbed the nearest pad of paper and within minutes had my blueprint.

It can be painfully annoying being married to an engineer, but it can also be incredibly helpful.

Armed with this detailed plan, I set out to build a spray paint cabinet.

Cabinetry is a project that needs proper thinking and planning, but once the planning is done, it’s best not to dawdle, but to jump right in and start cutting.

Otherwise, you may psych yourself out or get caught in an endless revise-and-perfect loop. Sometimes you just gotta let the sawdust fly and see where it lands.

Cutting plywood is a relative breeze with the right tools and technique.

Since cutting a full sheet on a table saw is no longer an option due to my advanced age and smaller table saw, I cut plywood on top of a 4×8 sheet of insulating foam. This is the perfect solution, and as long as I’m spry enough to scamper around on my hands and knees, I can cut with no problems.

To keep my cuts straight, I use the Kreg Rip-Cut Circular Saw Guide along with my HART 7 1/4-inch cordless circular saw.

If the pieces are small enough, I use my table saw and 12-inch miter saw. I may still be spry enough to scamper like a monkey, but I’ll take standing up over crawling any day of the week!

Once I had all the pieces cut, I drilled pocket holes so I could join together the pieces for the sliding/rolling cabinet. The Kreg Foreman is a game-changer when it comes to pocket holes – especially for plywood. And with a lot of cabinetry in my future, I’ll be getting a lot of use from this tool!

I assembled the carcass first – two long sides and a top with four support strips running along the back. It fit like a glove into its space, and I fit like a mashed potato into it.

Next, I built the rolling base upon which the paint cabinet would sit. Because it’s nearly 7 feet tall, I would be stabilizing the rolling cabinet with a set of drawer slides on the top and bottom of the cabinet.

I used 4 very large and heavy duty casters to make rolling easier. Before I could screw them into the base, I had to remove the wheels.

Below are two wheel supports installed. The long pieces of plywood are inset from the bottom of the base to accommodate the drawer slide.

Re-installing the wheel to the caster.

Back outside, I assembled the cabinet frame from 3/4 inch plywood and pocket screws.

I installed 6 shelves made from 1/2 inch plywood.

This is the rolling cabinet base with drawer slides attached. Let’s call it Exhibit A.

And this is the spray paint cabinet. Let’s call it Exhibit B.

In theory, Exhibit B should fit perfectly on top of Exhibit A.

And it did! Phew!

I Installed drawer slides to the top of the cabinet carcass and to the top of the rolling cabinet.

I cut 14 pieces of project panel to act as shelf rails.

I put a little wood glue along 3 edges and pressed the rails in place.

What a difference the rails made to the overall look!

Before making a face frame for my spray paint cabinet, I primed and painted the carcass and the outer-facing parts of the cabinet.

I cut a piece of project panel a little larger than the existing cabinet face and secured it with construction adhesive and brad nails.

To add a little interest to the monolithic face, I miter-cut more strips of project panel and placed them around the edge.

It may be a lowly paint cabinet in the garage, but it deserves to look as good as it can, so I filled the brad nail holes with spackle.

Then I primed, caulked and painted the front.

At last, the final step was at hand! Handan and I considered a few options for a handle, including a towel bar and an old IKEA rod for hanging pots and pans. In the end, we used three cabinet door handles we had left over from our Georgia kitchen renovation.

And with that, our spray paint cabinet, aka Hydra’s New Home, was finished and ready to be filled with cans!

I started filling the cabinet but quickly realized this was a job for my babes. She’s the organizer in the family, not me!

Let’s take a look!

So much storage, and not a moment too soon!

The slides/wheels work beautifully.

With this DIY spray paint cabinet, we’re one step closer to finishing our garage and workshop makeover.

Stay tuned for more!