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Question: According to YouGov.com, what is the 11th most popular physical activity in the UK?
No, after miniature golf and just ahead of pool. That’s right, bizarrely, it’s DIY. In fact, out of an utterly unspecified number of people polled by YouGov’s Fact Wombles, the popularity of making/fixing/decorating stuff with your own fair hands ranked 54 per cent ‘popular’ - way above the likes of football at 47 per cent and pole dancing at just 31 per cent.
There is a previously oft-overlooked end to DIY deftness that is fast becoming an essential amongst those looking to expand their handyperson creative credentials: the workbench.
The Sherman tank of the table world, the workbench comes in many guises but the one thing they all have in common is the fact that they’re built to take a bashing, tackling DIY duties both day-to-day and almost industrial. Some come with pegboards, some with drawers and shelves, and some have surfaces that can be wood, metal or laminate - but all are tougher than old boots.
So, if you’re looking for a steady, solid-as-a-rock surface on which to hone your handcrafting knowhow and really drill down into DIY then you’ve come to the right place because, like your very own cut-price cost-of-living-crisis Nick Knowles, we’re here to hammer out the best workbenches to realise all your hobby or home improvement ambitions…
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Best for: Getting DIY pegged
Dabbling in DIY can be an expensive pastime, with decent tools costing a pretty penny, while the whole thing can also become an addiction that can lead to obsessive tool collection on an industrial scale. However, tooling up doesn’t have to involve parting with all your hard-earned pennies if you buy into a brand that beautifully balances cost with tool-wielding convenience, a brand such as VonHaus.
With its HQ in Manchester, VonHaus does stuff for all areas of the home, from furniture to garden gazebos, but it also does a reasonably diverse line of DIY tools, storage and, of course, workbenches – all available at a price that won’t see an influx of panic post from your bank arriving.
Here we have one of two options we’ve cherry-picked from the Haus of Von for the purposes of this round-up, the handily helpful Workbench with Pegboard, which is, you’ll not be over-surprised to read, a workbench with a built-in, wait for it, pegboard.
Capable of handling a maximum load of 230kg, with the shelf taking 100kg and the pegboard and drawer 20kg and 10kg respectively, the 120cm x 60cm MDF surface is tough enough to withstand whatever day-to-day DIY tasks you tackle, while the 20 hooks of the pegboard keep your most trusted tools to hand.
Standing 155cm high, a powder-coated finish on the sturdy metal frame keeps stains and marks at bay, and the VonHaus locking system makes the whole shebang ridiculously easy to assemble, meaning you’ll be able to indulge your tool-based fiddling about addiction in next to no time. Oh, and at a tenner under a ton, it’s cheaper than freshly chiselled chips.
Best for: Expandable surface and storage
This stick of useful furniture from Swedish meatball merchants IKEA is named after a masculine term the ABBA-loving Vikings use for ‘brother’.
With that linguistic knowledge nugget established, what we have here, Bror, is a workbench designed with storage very firmly to the fore, comprising, as it does, an 85cm x 40cm pine plywood work surface, an 89cm tall steel frame and four 37cm deep, 74cm wide drawers for stashing all your tools and stuff safely out of the way.
Withstanding dirt, moisture and loads up to 130kg, the Bror is simple to assemble and can be configured as one part of a much larger Bror modular shelving system, letting you expand to suit all your DIY desires as your need to knock things together grows.
Best for: Solid sturdy style
Familiar with BiGDUG? Far from possibly being a character of some renowned that you “don’t mess with”, BiGDUG specialise in storage and workshop solutions covering, well, pretty much anything you could possibly need to equip yourself with an unerringly efficient hand-hewing den of DIY.
Here we see an excellent example of that in the fine form of the Heavy Duty Height Adjustable Workbench, a piece of engineering ingenuity that bolts together in next to no time to form a stunningly strong and sturdy surface on which to work.
Available with worktops of top-quality steel, laminate or solid Hevea wood, which is the most environmentally friendly material in DIY, the height adjustable bench runs from 700mm to 1025mm at a 25mm pitch. It is available in two widths of either 1215mm or 1715mm, depths of 600mm or 750mm, and with a full or half-depth metal shelf. But whichever configuration you call upon, you’ll be blessed with a UDL (Uniformly Distributed Load) load capacity of a whopping 600kg, while that aforementioned lower shelf is no weakling either, capable of coping with 300kg.
Featuring a hardwearing powder-coated framework and with suspended drawer and cupboard units available as option extras, the BiGDUG will last for a lifetime of heavy-duty DIY, while also bringing an unexpected element of élan to your workshop thanks to its stylishly minimalist lines. Dig it, BiGDUG it.
Best for: Bolt-free budget basics
Shelf storage and a sturdy work surface for a penny under £60? Worried about build quality because of that low, low price? Well, don’t be, because this is our second anointed entry from VonHaus and having toiled with the Manc maker’s tools in the past we know just how robust and reliable its domestic DIY devices are.
With an adjustable height of up to 90cm and a solid metal frame, the Boltless gives you a tough MDF work surface of 120cm x 60cm and an adjustable height lower shelf, both capable of taking on up to 100kg of weight each.
Shockingly simple to assemble thanks to a tool-less locking mechanism that requires very little Meccano-based construction nous to put together, you’ll have it up and ready to take a hammering gloriously free from fumbling and swearing, the non-slip rubber feet ensuring it resolutely remains where you put it.
An absolute budget bargain for the budding DIY devotee, the VonHaus Boltless is a great solid base for those starting out, and should broken bones and near-severed fingers force the conclusion that DIY is not for you, the worst case scenario is that you’ve spent a piffling £60 on some incredibly sturdy storage.
Best for: DIY on the fly
Face it, not everyone needs a permanently built workbench, equally not everyone has the free space available to dedicate to a full-time DIY deck. For those people, those who dabble from time to time and/or those whose self-assembly skills take them to different sites, there are portable workbenches, and chief amongst them when it comes to prestige and price is this little go-able gem from über DIY brand Black+Decker, the Workmate Portable Workbench WM125.
Costing a mere 60 notes and weighing just 6.74kg, this totally totable option can still comfortably cope with up to 159kg of weight, while standing 75cm tall at the maximum extent of its solid steel folding frame.
Featuring two vices on either side for securing and clamping your stuff, the whole transforming show folds down to next to nothing, including the two wooden balance slats, for easy storage at the end of the happy DIY day.
If money is no object and you know you’re definitely into DIY for the long haul, then why not splash out on a workbench that not only offers more than ample storage? This work surface measures a massive 126cm x 50cm and has an attractive design that will have all your equally DIY-obsessed mates staring in green-eyed envy.
Built from solid FSC-certified wood, aside from the expansive tooling area, you also get three equally heavy-duty, felt-lined, soft-close drawers, a capacious cabinet (with soft-close door), an extra shelf, two vices, and built-in storage for 16 bench dogs, four metal pegs and four wooden pegs, helping to keep everything to hand.
Adjustable Rack Shelf Pricey for a piece of garage-going furniture? Yes, but this is a bench for life, whether you’re a part-time DIY hobbyist or setting up a small workshop for daily indulgence, the Lumberjack has got your tool-tampering back.