Building a fold-down garage work bench

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Painting done and shelf installed! I couldn’t find the same brackets as the previous owner used on the other side. However, these ones are a little stronger. I also painted the rest of the garage and touched up paint on a few of the shelves. All the painting guides I read said to use flat paint for a garage. I went with eggshell (same as the inside of the house). I think it makes the walls a little easier to clean and since the house is so small it adds another useable room to the house.

Framing for the pegboard. While adding the frame, I noticed the wall isn’t actually flat. There is a slight outward bulge to the wall that can’t be seen unless you hold up something straight.

Slight mismeasurement 🙁 Turns out the wood that was already there wasn’t level.

Screwed in a 2×6 to the studs. I had to cut the bench top and the 2×6 shorter than the pegboard because there is cement block in the way when the bench is in it’s folded down state. Originally, I planned to have two legs on each side that would attach to the wall and swing out. Then I found that the wall isn’t perfectly 90 degrees from the floor. This made it so that the legs wouldn’t swing out parallel to the floor and the table.

A change to the master plan was needed! Since the whole table can rest on the 2×6, I ended up going with single 2x4s as legs. The legs will fold in. I also found the garage floor is lower on one side than the other (drainage I’m guessing?) so the right leg is longer than the left leg.

View of the hinges (4 gate hinges).

Remember when I said the wall was bowed? Here is the result. The table is flush with the pegboard in the middle, but has a small gap on each side. You can see here that the bench top rests on the 2×6.
 

Added the hinges for the legs. The bench now stands on it’s own! Feels surprisingly sturdy.

Garage cleaned up and bench folded down! You can see here that the bench folds down nice and parallel to the wall. It’s 1 1/2 inches from the wall which is enough room for the 2×6 mount and the 2×4 legs to hide behind. Also scored this kegerator from Craigslist $50!!! Woman cave complete!

Aaaaaaand bench up!

Here is a side by side view of the plan and the final project.

Time for some scrapbooking in the garage.