I’ve been less than impressed with my cheap paint brush carousel lately. Plus, it creates a ton of visual clutter and moves the brushes out of (easy) reach. Add to that the fact that I’m spending more time switching between various brush types (oils, acrylics, enamels, putty, drybrush, pigments, etc.), and I needed a better way to organize.

So I headed to Lowes and spent some time on the PVC pipe aisle. I’ve been surprised how many times I think “I need to do something” and the solution reveals itself in the combination of various shapes and configurations of PVC pipe fittings. After a few minutes, the solution revealed itself. This holder is made up of the following parts:

  • 1.5″ Y fittings (x2) – these are the main “holders”
  • 1″ pipe caps (x2) – these are stuck in the bottom to close up the Y fittings
  • L-bracket (x2) – these are used to attach the whole thing to the desk
  • 8-32 bolts, lock washers, nuts (4 sets)

Construction was easy:

Place the Y fittings next to each other on a flat surface. Take note of where the fittings touch, and use PVC adhesive on those points to bond the two pieces. Once it dries, float a bit more adhesive (but don’t go crazy) into the joints. Glue the end caps inside the Y fittings making the “bottom”. Because I was using caps they are small and not truly meant to fit, I used a bit of extra adhesive to create some gap filling too. The caps go in with the “cavity” pointing down and out, not up and inside. Otherwise, it creates too deep of a “well” and the brush bristles would be banging against the side of the holder.

I gave the whole thing an hour to fully cure and then flipped it over and drilled holes for the bolts. After bolting the L-brackets in place on the holder (with the other side of the “L” sticking out the back of the holder, I was then able to quickly mount it by screwing the L-bracket into the underside of the table. (This is the same technique used for other workbench fixtures)

Nice and easy! Took longer to write this blog post than to create and mount it!