Before and After: Black Paint and Beadboard Make This Tool Shed Look Chic (Seriously!)

published Mar 29, 2022
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Let’s face it: A tool shed is usually all about functional storage, not about being the chicest spot on a property.

But home DIYer Kassy Randazzo’s tool shed was neither functional nor appealing. “It was an unfinished space, like most sheds,” she says. “[It had] no wall paneling or flooring. The old wood was discolored, and the makeshift shelves and tables were created with no real plan in place.”

As a DIY blogger, Kassy (@kassyondesign) needed to actually be able to use her shed. “Tools are an everyday necessity, and I wasn’t able to find most of mine in the heaps of unorganized chaos,” she says. The disorganization was also costing her money. “I was spending more money than I needed to buy parts and pieces for tools that we already had, but [that] I couldn’t find in the messy shed,” she says.

Kassy wanted to make the shed a place that would encourage her to stay organized — and that she didn’t hate going to. “[I wanted] a space that made me happy to enter instead of dreading the treks outside to get another tool!”

In a weeklong renovation, Kassy overhauled the shed, giving it a monochromatic black look by hanging sheets of beadboard paneling and painting them black using Behr’s Limousine Leather. She also bought a black metal storage rack to hang tools and black plastic bins to organize small parts and pieces. “I tried to label as much as possible to keep myself organized,” Kassy says. A bigger and brighter shop light now brightens up the space.

Kassy saved money by repurposing old wood from the shed to create shelves and rehanging the old pegboards. “I was able to reuse so much of what we already had in the space and only spend a little on shelving and paneling,” she says. All in, she says the shed renovation cost $500.

Kassy’s new shed is just what she needed. “I love it! It is so much more functional than before and everything has a place,” Kassy says. She also has a sense of pride that she did it herself. “It’s my tool shed,” she says. “I created it and I use it.”