I live in a flat in a city, and having a workshop was off the table. We also own a cabin where we spend most weekends. The cabin has an annex, and last year we had it insulated. This gave us an extra room for several things: My son plays (electrical) drums there on his old drum set, and we also work from the cabin from time to time, so an office was a nice addition. But I wanted a workshop, like I always hoped to get one day.

As the room is not big and was supposed to be used for several things, a full time workshop was out of question. But then I got the idea of workshop in a cabinet! In the end of the room, we have a few cabinets, and a shelf. All from IKEA.

OK. Easy enough to store the tools in a cabinet, but what about a workbench? Of course I would wish I had a big, heavy and sturdy workbench. But I don’t, and there is no room for it. So what kind of a workbench could I have stored in a cabinet?

After a lot of thinking, I designed a foldable workbench in the lower cabinet that would be enough for smaller work:

The profile of the bench was cut into the shelves

The plate is made of oak, and the hinges is screwed into another oak plate going through a hole in the cabinet onto the wall behind it, so it really can take some force onto the wall.

To use the workbench I need to do the following:

• Swing up the workbench to a horizontal position
• Fold down a leg to hold the plate.
• One leg is not enough, so then I place another set of legs under the plate to take more weight. Sometimes I add a fourth one right behind the vice if I hammer on chisels there.
• Then I use two box tensioners next to the hinges to make sure that the workbench isn’t wobbling in the hinges too much

Voila! It all takes less than 10 seconds to set up, and although I could wish I had a bigger workbench and a more sturdy one, this has actually enabled me to do a lot of smaller work!

The vice is from Sjöbergs.

So what about the tools? Some are stored on the remaining shelves in the workbench cabinet, but the cabinet above that is what stores most of the tools:

I made French cleats inside the entire cabinet, so I can rearrange it all as it suits me. A small cleat on the left side door is empty, so I can move whatever I use the most at the moment and hang it there while working.

I made a small shelf with the drawers to store smaller things in, like screws, nails, dove tail guides etc.

The plane rack has magnets to hold the planers, and I can grab the underside of it and swing it up as it is has hinges on the top. I store my sandpaper under the planers

So this is my little woodworking world! I know it isn’t much compared to more common workshops with larger workbenches, but it has opened up the world of woodworking to me, which makes me very happy!

What do you think? How do you manage in a small place? I would love to see other small space workshop solutions!