French cleat garage storage system #1: Starting my largest storage project ever

I decided the other day that those nifty french cleats would look real cool on my garage wall for modular, adjustable storage. My wife has a hard time dodging my tools, I can’t help bringing home new ones, and I cannot get to some to use them without 15 minutes of rearranging. The 20’ long wall I picked was relatively barren other than some yard tool holders and an extension cord holder. It is about 9’ to the ceiling and I have chosen to space the 3” cleats with 3-1/2” between them and take them down to about 24” from the floor. I had time the other day to rip some random oak boards I had laying 3” with a 45 degree angle on the backside. Today, I decided to attach what I had to the wall and get a sense of the project. I used countersunk 4” deck screws to attach everything to the walls. I also found out that 16”OC could mean 15,18,20, you name it, and it could vary on the straightness of the stud. The lengths of oak cleat were random, and most were trimmed down to fit between the wall to the left and the breaker box. All told, I will need to rip 220 linear feet to go on the walls. It’s a good thing this wood came cheap on craigslist. The pic shows some of the wood I am using in the bottom left, the start of the cleats, and about a 10th of my wood collection. Next up is ripping some more boards down to cleats and building some storage solutions to hang on what is up to get myself some breathing room.

-- My Etsy store: http://jtcwoodcrafts.etsy.com