Shop Tour: The All-French-Cleat Shop
When this woodworker moved into a new shop space, he made one decision: every tool, every accessory, every bin, and every jig would live on a French cleat wall. No pegboard, no dedicated shelving units, no tool chests on the floor. Two full walls of 3/4-inch plywood covered in 45-degree cleats, from floor to ceiling, with custom holders for everything. After three years, the system has proven itself completely. This is what a fully committed French cleat shop looks like in practice.
The Wall Construction
Both long walls of the 14×20 shop received a full covering of 3/4-inch birch plywood, glued and screwed to the studs with 3-inch screws every 12 inches. Over the plywood base, 3/4-inch Baltic birch strips – ripped at 45 degrees, 2.5 inches wide – were mounted horizontally every 4 inches, filling both walls from 12 inches off the floor to the ceiling. The total cleat area across both walls is approximately 400 square feet. Total cost: $600 in plywood and 3 weekends of work.
The Holder System
Every holder in this shop is custom-built from scrap plywood or 3D-printed from PLA filament. There are holders for: every power tool (drill, driver, oscillating tool, belt sander, router), every hand plane by size, every chisel by width, every marking tool, every square, every saw, every clamp in groups of 4, every finishing supply, every jig the shop has ever made, and every project template. The number of individual holders exceeds 200.
The Flexibility Advantage
When a new tool enters the shop, a new holder goes on the wall in 30 minutes. When the workflow changes – when the shop focuses on furniture instead of small projects – the holders rearrange in an afternoon. The most-used tools live at eye level on the primary wall. Seasonal tools live higher up, accessible by step stool. No screw ever touches the original plywood base – every holder slides on the cleats and can move at any time.
What Goes on the Floor
Machines only. The table saw, the jointer and planer, the bandsaw, and the workbench live on the floor. Nothing else. There are no tool boxes, no floor-standing storage cabinets, no rolling carts. The result is a shop where you can sweep the entire floor in two passes with a push broom. Clean floors mean clear sightlines, no trip hazards, and no lost tools.
What We Can Learn from This Shop
Commitment to a system works better than a hybrid approach. The French cleat wall works because everything is on it – not because most things are on it with exceptions for whatever doesn’t fit. If you’re going to use French cleats, go all the way. Two full walls of cleats cost the same as one full wall and half the shop on shelving units, and it works dramatically better. The shop that decides how it’s organized and sticks to that decision produces more work and less frustration than the shop that makes storage decisions one tool at a time.