7m² Studio Tour | small space organization ideas for wood & tools

Welcome to my DIY studio. This small but mighty space is where I store all of my materials, all of my power tools, where I brainstorm DIYs and also bring them to life. In here, I've been able to build things like a vanity, my husband's dream desk, a huge grill station, and just recently I built a sliding door cabinet to hide our bedroom TV. TV. Since the space isn't the biggest, I had to properly plan out in order to maximize both the storage space and my actual workspace. I designed and planned everything in Milanote, which is a free-to-use tool for visual organization. I've used Milanote to plan every single room in our home and today I'll show you how I planned the DIY studio. After creating a board, you can choose from a bunch of different templates or like me start from a blank canvas. To start off I listed out my needs for the space. First of all I really needed enough storage for all of my tools and materials. Secondly my frequently used tools had to be easily accessible and similarly I wanted a charging station. I needed a modular flexible system where I could move things around whenever I needed to and enough floor space for cutting wood and building furniture. Next, I wrote down a simple sentence of what I envisioned the aesthetics to be like and proceeded to gather inspiration pictures using the Milanote web clipper. It's a web extension that allows you to easily save images from anywhere. The way I like to organise my mood board is to group images of a similar theme or vibe or feeling. I ended up with 5 groups that helped me to understand what I wanted the final design to look like track shelving stood out as a great solution for me to maximize vertical storage while being flexible to changes so i dropped in the floor plan of the room and used the draw tool to quickly brainstorm where i wanted things to go after playing around with the layout a bit i landed on this one that will help to maximize my workspace the eva shelves i already had on one wall and a trick shelving plus table on the other wall. I also already had this arcade cabinet from Ikea that I wanted to upcycle so I created a DIY task board that included inspiration images, materials and tools I needed, measurements of the cabinet, building steps and also things like color and hardware options. There is also a mobile app that instantly syncs to the desktop version which is really handy to refer to while shopping for materials or DIY. Mailernote is absolutely free to use with no time limit. Sign up today using my link and start designing and DIYing. The first thing I do upon entering the studio is usually to adjust the blinds depending on how bright the day is. I get a lot of questions about them. They are renter-friendly clip-on bamboo blinds that I will have linked below. On the right side of the window is a white board from our old apartment that I had spray painted black. I don't use this whiteboard much but when I do it's to brainstorm how I would go about building something or to write down my cut list. This postcard is from Fox and Poet and I think of something different every time I look at it. The shelf below is a recent addition that I thought would be the perfect place to store whiteboard markers, a solar powered calculator and my larger clamps this workbench is from wolfcraft and like the room it's small but mighty i use it for all my projects and would highly recommend it if you have a small workspace like me above the white board i hung my silver button and stuck some of my favorite artwork around it i like the pops of color they give and they're usually the first thing i see when i enter an apron also randomly hangs here. I use it whenever I have to do a lot of cutting and don't want to be covered entirely in sawdust. Something else that gets a lot of questions are these track shelves. I basically just got whatever was available in my local hardware store. The track system is from Element Systeme and it was pretty affordable and straightforward to install. For the shelves, I just got some 2 meter pine boards and cut them to the sizes I needed. I also installed a tabletop that serves as my mitosaur cutting station. I've changed up the layout a few times and compared to when I first installed it 3 years ago, the shelves are now much more functional and storage driven. The top shelf is filled with boxes that contain things I don't usually reach for such as toweling tools and fabric samples. I intentionally got a mix of different boxes to get varying heights and also added fun pops of colour with the blue and the orange. I like how random they look and it adds a whimsiness to an otherwise utilitarian part of the room. These IKEA crates are like 10 years old, first used in Pat's kitchen, then our home office and now in my DIY studio. They contain a bunch of offcuts that always come in handy whenever I'm building a piece of furniture. Beside it is a paper tray, also from IKEA, that I flipped to use vertically since this shelf is pretty high for me. There are paint samples, design magazines that I found useful, some notebooks, my favourite being the ones from Envy Notebooks in Leuchtturm, larger square grid notebooks that are super handy for planning a room layout and two small cutting mats that I've had for almost 20 years now. I stacked a couple of books here that I do reach for from time to time, like this woodworking book that's filled with a ton of information. I've also always been intrigued by Dieter Rams and his 10 design principles. Especially good design is as little design as possible. And because I'm a hoarder, I have another two crates of tiny pieces of offcuts. Again, I like the pop of blue it adds to the room. And at the end of the shelf, I have this old speaker that I actually only use whenever I'm not filming. Back in 2021, I thrifted this basket for 1 or 2 euros. It holds some recycled jars that hold colour pencils, normal pencils, thinner brushes and other stationery. This transparent box has a bit of a funny story to it. I basically put things that I regularly need but somehow tend to lose. Like my gloves, sunglasses for when I work outside, notepads, my favourite pen and some hair ties. Next to it is a screw organizer that I added washi tape labels to and I cannot explain to you how much better this organizer has made my life On top seats these gachapon figurines that remind me of my recent trip to Japan with my parents My mom and I were so determined to get all five of them and there was just so much laughter involved that day As I briefly mentioned, this tabletop mainly acts as my miter saw cutting station I parked a green trolley underneath it and it comes in really handy whenever I'm building something in here. I also have a little bin for offcuts that I do trash and my safety glasses are hanging right here so that I remember to wear them. Below is my charging station. I have a charger for Ryobi, Parkside and Bosch. There's also a USB-C cable for charging my hotel drill. These boxes contain things I tend to use more often like my furniture paint rollers and trays, drop cloths and spray paints. This cart is also a recent addition and I store longer off carts in here. While this box contains recycled pieces of cardboard that I use to help prop up items to paint. This is the IKEA air cat cabinet that I upcycle into an apothecary looking cabinet. On top sits a snake plant and a full succulent in the cutest tortoise pod. This lamp is from our old apartment which I had also spray painted black. I thrifted this large print to add to the subtle vintage vibes I wanted in here. In a perfect world, I would have liked to have more space between the arcade cabinet and the track shelves, but the door is still fully open so it's okay. In here, I store a pretty random assortment of things like face masks, stir sticks, cleaning spirits, a cheap iron that I bought for crafting, paint samples, brushes and a couple of paper manuals that I do refer to because I have a really bad memory. And below the egghead, I have a pair of old sneakers that I use only while DIYing. On the last wall of the room, we have three eva shelving units that store most of my tools and materials i didn't want solid doors that would make the room feel closed up so i opted for these rattan ones from the eva series i hung this pegboard to hold all of my frequently used tools for easy grab and go most of these tools were actually originally owned by pet and i took over them when i got into diy and woodworking The only things I bought were this red hammer, a small level, and my very trusty hotel drill and screwdriver. There's also a lightning cable here to charge my phone and earphones, and a glass coaster for a cold drink that Pat usually makes me. Below the pack board, I have three collapsible crates. The first one has a bunch of tape that I use very often, and the other two act as kind of a catch-all for things that I have to organize later. This helps me to avoid piles of clutter scattered all around the room. The three drawers below are clearly organized. On top, we have the things I reach for the most like batteries, a box of shims, my laser level and different types of drill bits. The second drawer contains cutters, measuring tapes and smaller things like bread nails, command strips, picture frame hangers, dowels and so on. The third drawer is filled with more of Pat's hand-me-down tools such as the heat gun and mallet. And on the ground, I have a box of wall paint rollers and you guessed it, more offcuts. Behind the door is also where I store larger pieces of wood and some cable channels that always come in handy for cord management. In the top half of the second unit, I store most of my power tools. These are the ones that I actually enjoy using and I'll pop in the names of them if you would like to know. In here, we also have different types of glue, a bunch of rulers but I mainly use this carpenter square and this ruler from Mochimono. I store all of my smaller clamps here in this box including these mini wolfcraft ones that I use all the time. The red ones are from Bessie and I use them when I need stronger holding power. These are 90 degree framing clamps and this is a connector for my larger clamps that you saw earlier. The last box contains sandpaper and sanding blocks. On the bottom half, we have some jigs covered in sawdust. This is a pocket hole jig that you see me use often. This kit contains a smaller pocket hole jig that I used before getting the other one and in this container are more jigs for door hinges and making dowel holes. I use these translucent boxes from Ikea to help me organize smaller pieces like L brackets, hinges and knobs. Then we have a bunch of wood stain, oils, outdoor stain, furniture paint, primer, sealants and so on. I'm pretty sure some of them are empty cans so I will need to declutter after filming this tour and right at the bottom i have a box of wood filler and sponges wall specker related stuff and i use these to help prop up stuff when spray painting which is why they look like that in the third and last evar unit is where i store larger pieces of offcuts i screwed the doors together so that i wouldn't have to open four separate doors if i wanted to grab something I got this cart to collect everything so that I could easily move it in and out to grab the larger pieces. The thinner pieces of trim tend to fall around so I recycled some cardboard tubes to hold them together and worked out pretty well. The shelf above holds my spare tripods that I use when I need to use the laser level or shoot overhead shots. Then I have some recycled paper that come in really handy when I'm painting. And right above are boxes of felt stickers and lots of spare screws that actually came from pet don't ask on top of the eva units i store the multi-tool some leftover towels and a bunch of leftover wood a lot of them are actually recycled wood slats from our old bed frame installing these three heavy duty hooks onto the wall really helped to maximize the storage space here last but not least i just want to say that you don't need a studio or a dedicated room to start DIYing. Four years ago, I didn't even know how to hammer a nail or drill a hole into the wall. I started learning with hand-me-down tools and I would push the furniture around our living room to create some space. So if I could do it, you definitely can too. Nevertheless, it has been really nice to have a dedicated room to create, to build and film the process so i really hope you enjoyed the tour and thank you so much for tagging along