How I finally stopped digging through drawers for my tools - build a wall organiser

Oct 20, 2026 Last reply: 2 hours ago 3 Replies

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aspen_keeper

I built one of these for my garage bench about a year back and it changed how I work too. Mine hangs off a French cleat so I can pull the whole panel down when I want to clean or rearrange, which turned out to be handy more often than I expected. I used 4mm veg tan for the back…

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After years of rummaging through a drawer every time I needed an edge beveler or my wing dividers, I finally hung everything on the wall and I honestly wish I'd done it a decade ago. The setup is simple: a wooden dowel mounted on the wall, and a leather panel with slots and pouches that hangs off it. Took me a weekend, and most of that was fussing with layout.



The trick is to trace every tool on paper first before you cut any leather. Lay them out on the bench, play with the spacing, and mark where each pouch and loop goes. Make the pockets a bit deeper than you think you need, because a skiving knife or a pair of shears will work its way out over time otherwise. I stitched mine with contrasting thread mostly because it looks nice, but honestly a running stitch is all you need, it's not structural. For attaching the heavy stuff like a rotary cutter, I used rivets through doubled leather at the pouch bottoms. Rivets beat glue every time for anything that gets yanked out of a pocket twenty times a day. Also leave a couple of empty loops at the end. There's always a new tool six months later, and you'll thank yourself for the spare space.



One more thing: hang it at eye level, not above the bench where you have to reach. The whole point is grabbing a tool in one motion mid-project and going straight back to work.


I built one of these for my garage bench about a year back and it changed how I work too. Mine hangs off a French cleat so I can pull the whole panel down when I want to clean or rearrange, which turned out to be handy more often than I expected. I used 4mm veg tan for the back panel and it has held up fine with all the pulling and shoving. The one mistake I made was making my loops for the maul handles out of the same weight leather without skiving the fold, so they were stiff as boards for the first month and I nearly tore a stitch getting a hammer back in. If I did it again I'd wet-form the loops around the actual handles before stitching them on.

Also agree on rivets. I glued a couple of pouches at first and both let go within a season. The heat from a car in summer plus the constant tugging did them in fast. I also found putting my awl and groovers on the panel meant I stopped losing them in the lawn, which alone paid for the weekend of work.

First post here after lurking a while. I don't have a workshop, just a corner of a spare room, so I'm wondering if something like this could hang on the back of a door instead of a wall. Would the weight of a loaded panel be too much pull on the hinges over time, or is that fine if the panel isn't huge? Also I only stitch with an awl so far, would all those pouch seams be painfully slow that way or is it manageable once you get a rhythm going? Sorry if these are basic questions, still working through my first few projects.

Did something similar last winter but went smaller, made it like a roll-up tool wrap instead since my bench is basicly a card table. The tracing trick saved me big time, I'd have made every pouch too tight otherwise. One thing I'd add is keep the stuff you grab with your non-dominant hand on that side, sounds obvious but I had my edge guide on the wrong side for months and kept knocking other tools loose reaching across. Also those spare loops at the end, take that advice seriously, I filled mine within a month.

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