Last year I went through a period of having a couple big cabinet jobs and my shop is not huge - it is a great size, but the jobs were a bit bigger than I could fit into the space and my organization was not the greatest, things had to move around a lot and it was a pain. I took a week and went nuts clearing out some of the old work chests and made new work benches and storage across the back of the shop. Each work bench is 10 feet long and 24" deep. It only took I think 4 sheets of 3/4 (good one side) plywood, a sheet of 1/2" and 2 sheets of 3/4" MDF for the tops.
Before:
Radial Arm saw went to my wife's uncle in New Brunswick as it was not being used.
After:
Then I needed more storage for things so up went some shelves:
And I made a repeat work bench on the other side of the router table you can just see starting on the right. That work bench contains all the various fastener kits and some additional drawers for sand paper, screw driver bits etc. Further down is all the set up for the mill and lathe tools.
The boxes for the work benches are simple dado and glue and screw - no back as they attach to the plywood walls of the shop.
Some ideas for folks if you are setting up the shop: 1/2" sheeting for the wall covering: you can then hang anything anywhere, it has worked out well and is quite pleasing to the eye
See if you can get some decent kitchen cabinets for free or cheap - lots of people doing reno and they pitch these out - makes for great garage and shop storage......I do feel hungry all the time though for some reason......
The shop is pretty decently organized now - still would like to expand and have a dedicated paint area but alas....
Since this was all done I have since made a completely new router table and fence system and have been working on the mill/lathe area.......
Lots of planning when you are stuck on a ship with nothing but autocad and rough sketches....LOL