52 Square Feet of Heaven
In my house, I have 52 square feet of paradise. That is the total size of my shop. Yes the whole thing. Yes, that includes storage. Yes, even material storage. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My dad had a small shop in the basement where we used to work on DIY projects for around the house, Halloween costumes and fun hobby projects. When we renovated our basement I knew I wanted a shop. It was a requirement. While I wanted it to be bigger, the basement also needed to be a play room/spare bedroom, laundry room, bathroom, storage and furnace room. In reality, it needed to be just big enough for some hand tools. Our designer came up with a small shop tucked underneath the stairs beside the back door.
The first thing I got was a workbench, then built my shop around it. I bought a prefab metal bench with a wood top. I would have loved to make my own Roubo bench, but given the space I had, my complete lack of tools and with winter coming, I didn’t want to wait until spring. I modified the store bought bench by offsetting the top and adding a woodworker’s vise. The metal storage below hides some of the mess and tools making clean up a lot easier.
With the bench I could get started on making all the rest of my storage. Given how little space I had I knew I needed to put as much as I could up on the walls. I made custom brackets and holders for all my saws, planes, hand drills, rulers, clamps and hammers. As I got deeper into the hobby and added tools, I reconfigured my storage again and again. Eventually I filled every square inch of that wall with tools, each with their own home.
Slowly it started to take shape and I could start making projects.
Starting small to learn I made stools, boxes, time capsules and lamps. I carved eagles and gargoyles. Each project taught me something; each joint was an improvement on the last. At work I was ‘competing’ with buyers and vendors who had decades in the industry. Guys who had sold tools off the back of a truck, worked on job sites during their summers, renovated their entire homes or just been in the industry for ages. Having this little shop let me build my expertise and show off that while I never worked on a job site, I had some knowledge and that I knew the difference between a coping saw and a carcass saw.
Now after a long day there is nothing better than to head down to my shop. Put on a podcast or some music, pick up a tool and get lost in the process and smell of sawdust.