DIY Pegboard: Great for home offices, workshops, or gyms!

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Having a beautiful home isn’t unnecessary–it’s essential to live your best life. Being surrounded by beautiful things that make us smile gives us a sense of security and comfort, but also gives us a foundation of gratitude.

If we wake up and can appreciate little things like a beautiful comforter or a meaningful family photo, then it sets us up to see beauty throughout the rest of our day.

I’ve always believed that a beautiful home has a big impact on our well-being and happiness and I’ve found it to be especially true now that we’re all spending a bit more time at home.

In fact, now more than ever, I think it’s important to try to add beauty and sparks of joy into our everyday routines. 

One routine I’m trying to infuse a little more beauty into is my daily workout. I want my workout to be a place where I feel strong, but also where feel renewed. 

My at-home gym equipment hasn’t been very organized and isn’t necessarily the prettiest, so I wanted to come up with a solution that would help with that.

The solution? A DIY pegboard.

Not only is it practical, but it was a great opportunity to bring some happiness to my workout space through the use of color.

Alright, let’s start DIYing! 

Tools

• Drill
• 3/4″ Forstner bit
• Miter saw
• Optional, but very, very helpful: drill guide

How to Make a Plywood Pegboard

New to DIY? Download our free 5 Steps to Getting Start with DIY guide!

STEP 1: MARK YOUR SPACING

Decide on what spacing you want your pegboard to have. For our 2×4′ plywood, we opted to start our holes 2″ in from each side and then every 4″.

Measure and make marks on each edge of your plywood, then grab a large level or some straight scrap wood. It doesn’t matter what you grab, the key is that it’s straight.

Line your guide up with the marks you made on each end and draw a line all the way across.

When you finish, your plywood should have a grid pattern.

Note: this spacing is for the distance between the CENTER of the holes, not the distance between the sides of each of the holes.

STEP 2: DRILL YOUR HOLES

Next, we’re going to drill the holes for the pegboard. For this step, you’ll want a drill guide to make sure your holes are nice and straight.

If you don’t have a drill guide, I’d recommend making your own guide with some scrap wood.

It’s really important that your holes are straight because if you drill them crooked, your pegs are going to go in all different directions and your shelves won’t be level.

Now that we have the drill guide figured out, grab some scrap wood to place underneath your plywood. This scrap wood will help prevent 2 things:

• your drill bit from hitting the ground or table
• your plywood from tearing out on the back

You’re going to drill through your plywood in each place that your lines intersect.

To make sure your drill is in the right place, bring the drill down and poke into the plywood using the tip of the drill bit. If the indent is on the intersection of your lines, you’re good to start drilling. If not, adjust your drill until it’s in the right place.

Once your drill is in place, drill through your plywood. I found it easiest to hold the drill guide in place with my feet so that I could use both hands to drive the drill through the wood.

If you want really clean holes:

If you want the back of your pegboard to look just a good as the front, it’s going to require some extra steps. You can see that the back of mine doesn’t look terrible, but it also doesn’t look great.

I don’t mind because I’m the only person who will ever see the back of the pegboard (well, me and everyone reading this post), but if it concerns you, here’s what you can do.

First, you’ll need to grab a small drill bit and drill a pilot hole through each intersecting line.

Then, you’ll grab your 3/4″ drill bit, line the center up with the pilot hole and drill about halfway through your plywood.

Finally, you’ll flip your plywood over and drill through the other half of the hole.

You can see that it requires a few extra steps and is a bit more time-consuming to get a clean back. I’ll let you decide which way you want to go!

STEP 3: SAND

If you got the pre-primed plywood, your sanding will be pretty minimal. If you didn’t get the pre-primed, make sure to sand the entire surface, finishing with 220-grit.

Sand the edges of the plywood and then sand around each of the holes you drilled.

Wipe your plywood clean and make sure the area you’re going to paint is free from debris.

STEP 4: SPRAY PAINT

This is where things get fun! There are so many designs and possibilities, so don’t be afraid to get creative and make it your own.

For my pegboard, I have something super fun up my sleeve. I’ll be using…

4 of the 12 Krylon 2021 Color Trends!

I love that they are all timeless colors that reflect the balance between our modern digital world and nature.

Without further ado, let’s start painting!

Okay, a little more ado… first we have to tape off our pattern.

Note: the photo with the tape is different than the final pattern I ended up with. I sprayed the whole first pattern and then decided I liked the blues too much and had to make those sections bigger😉

I started with white. Once I had things taped off, I grabbed my Krylon Chalky Finish in Classic White and started spraying.

I applied 3 coats of the Classic White to get really solid coverage that completely covered up my pencil lines. Don’t forget to paint the sides as well!

I waited 2 hours and peeled off the tape. Then I added a new piece of tape on top of the Chalky White that I just painted. Get the tape as close to the transition as possible, but err on the side of having some of the white exposed.

You can always paint over the white with the next color, but it would stink to have a little sliver that wasn’t painted!

Once you get the lines taped, you’ll want to cover any areas that you don’t want painted. A plastic drop cloth or kraft paper works great. The key is: make sure it’s completely taped down so that no paint can make its way underneath.

Now for the next paint color: Krylon Fusion All-In-One in Matte Ink Blue! Y’all are going to love this color. It’s a deep blue that just feels restorative and relaxing.

Next I’ll adjust my tape and cover up my Ink Blue section and grab my next color: Krylon Fusion All-In-One in Satin Peacock Blue.

This color is FUN. Not only does it remind me of a tropical rainforest, it’s the perfect combination of bold and vibrant.

Finally, I’m ending with a good ‘ol classic: Krylon Fusion All-In-One in Matte Black. This is one of my most used spray paints–we’ve even used it to spray paint our kitchen hardware!

For each of the colors, I applied three light coats and waited 2 hours before taping over and painting the next color.

STEP 5: CUT YOUR DOWELS AND SHELVES

Think about what type of decor and items you’re going to be putting on your pegboard. Most decor will fit on a shelf made from a 1×8, but for our pegboard, we opted for shelves made from 1x6s.

If you’re using 1x8s, cut your dowels down to approximately 8.5″. For a 1×6, cut them down to approximately 6.5″. This will allow them to poke through the back of the pegboard and still support most (or all) of the shelf.

We also cut a few dowels to 4.5″ that will be used to hang items.

Cut your board down to any sizes you want. We made our shelves 16, 12, and 8″.

STEP 6: SAND

Sand your shelves and dowels with 120-220 grit sandpaper.

STEP 7: STAIN OR PAINT YOUR DOWELS AND SHELVES

I love that the Krylon Color trends feel like a balance of modern technology and nature. The nature side helps me to feel renewed, so I want to play that up a little more by adding some wood elements.

I’ll be staining my dowels and my shelves using Minwax Early American stain. A warm wood tone combined with the moody blues reminds me even more of a rainforest, which just so happens to be my favorite biome in nature😉

Once the shelves stained, seal them with three coats of Polycrylic.

How to Hang a Pegboard

Now that the pegboard is done, it’s time to hang it on up!

As with anything in DIY, there are a few ways you can go about this step. We’re going to use 1×2 furring strips and a picture hanging system.

STEP 1: ATTACH THE FURRING STRIPS

How many furring strips you attach is completely up to you. We’re just going to attach one at the top and one at the bottom, but you could also frame out the sides if you wanted to.

We cut our furring strips to 20″ long — not having them extend all the way to the edge of the pegboard will give the illusion that your pegboard is floating.

Position your strips between your peg holes and make sure that the top one is level. Since we’ll be attaching the photo hanger to the top strip, it’s important that it’s nice and straight.

Attach your furring strips to your pegboard with wood glue and screws.

STEP 2: ATTACH YOUR PHOTO HANGER

Attach your photo hanger using the instructions for your particular hanger.

For ours, we first attached the first piece to the back of our top furring strip, then we screwed the second piece to the wall.

Then we hooked them onto each other.

STEP 3: ADD YOUR SHELVES AND PEGS

Now that the pegboard is all hung up, add your pegs and shelves. Push your pegs in so that they touch the wall. This will give them more stability than if they are barely pushed through the pegboard.

If you’re nervous about your pegs falling out, you can add a little bit of hot glue to your peg hole before inserting the peg. This will give it some hold without being permanently stuck. Ours were plenty snug enough to feel secure without adding the glue.

If you’re nervous about your shelves not staying on the pegs, you can screw the peg to the bottom of the shelf. Just make sure to countersink the screw so that the screw head isn’t poking out!

There you have it! Now you know how to make your own DIY pegboard from plywood.

The great thing about pegboards is that they are easily customizable. Add another shelf, move the location of your dowels, or completely change the function of your pegboard. They can easily be swapped and moved to transition from online learning supplies to the gym to a brand new crafting hobby!

For me, this pegboard accomplished it’s three-part mission: organize workout equipment, make it look pretty, and add a extra little dose of happiness into my daily routine. Seeing something beautiful and practical always puts a smile on my face!

P.S. If you love color trends, you have to check out the other 8 Krylon Color Trends of the Year. There are 3 distinct palettes and they are all SO good!

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