Buyer's Guide Workshop Storage

Sealey Modular Storage Buyer's Guide

What a modular system gives you over a tool chest, how a Superline PRO run is put together, and how to work out the exact parts list for your own wall.

The planning grid Full height cabinets at each end with a bench section divided into 680mm bays. Wall cabinets, one per bay Worktop and wall cabinets span the bays only 680 680 680 680 680 680 600 or 915Bench section, any number of bays600 or 915 Your wall
Decision 1
Wall length

Measure the clear wall. The bench section divides into 680mm bays, and everything else follows from the bay count.

Decision 2
Tall cabinets or all bench

Full height cabinets at 600mm and 915mm sit outside the bench run, with no worktop over them.

Decision 3
Kit or parts list

Kits come in five lengths. If your wall is not one of them, you are building a parts list, and it takes five minutes.

What you are actually buying

A modular storage system is a wall of steel cabinets that bolt together into one continuous run, with a worktop across the middle and hanging panels behind. Sealey build five ranges. This guide covers Superline PRO, which offers by far the widest choice of individual cabinets and so gives you the most control over what ends up on your wall.

The alternative is a tool chest and some shelving. That is a fraction of the price and it stores the same tools. What the modular system buys you is the wall itself. Everything sits at a fixed height in a fixed place, the worktop runs unbroken across the whole bench, and hand tools hang on perforated panels at eye level instead of going back in a drawer. Nothing rocks when you lean on it, because the cabinets are bolted to each other rather than standing side by side.

It is also permanent in a way a tool chest is not. Once a run is built it stays where it is. If you want storage you can wheel out of the way, this is the wrong product.

The three fixed dimensions

Superline PRO is workshop furniture rather than shelving. The cabinets arrive built, they are heavy, and once connected they behave as a single piece.

2000mm tall

The height of a complete run, floor to the top of the wall cabinets. Fixed across the range.

460mm deep

Anything standing on the floor. Wall cabinets are shallower at 280mm, so there is room to work at the bench.

910mm to the worktop

Plus 36mm in pressed wood or 38mm in stainless steel, putting the working surface at standard bench height.

One 680mm bay Floor cabinet 910mm high, worktop, back panel 1050mm tall, and a wall cabinet mounted on the panel. 2000mm overall. Wall cabinet680 x 280 x 350 Floor cabinet680 x 460 x 910 Back panel, 615 x 25 x 1050 Worktop, 36mm or 38mm 2000mm 680mm bay
One 680mm bay. The back panel runs the full height above the worktop and the wall cabinet mounts onto it, which is why the wall cabinet position is adjustable.
How it goes together

Everything divides into 680mm bays

A Superline PRO run is divided into bays of 680mm. Each bay is one back panel of 615mm plus one upright connector of 65mm. Add them up and you get 680.

The uprights at each end of a run are single connectors at 32.5mm rather than doubles at 65mm, because they only have a panel on one side. So a five bay run measures five panels at 615, four double uprights at 65 and two single uprights at 32.5, which comes to exactly 3400mm. That is why the lengths in this range look odd until you see the grid, and completely regular once you do.

On the bench

Floor cabinets are 680mm wide and interchangeable. The four drawer, five drawer, two door, multifunction and reel cabinets are all 680 x 460 x 910mm. The seven drawer is 1360mm, which is two bays.

Worktops

680mm, 1360mm and 2040mm, which is one, two and three bays. Combine them to cover the bench. A five bay run takes a 2040 and a 1360, because there is no five bay worktop.

Outside the grid

Two cabinets run the full 2000mm, at 600mm and 915mm wide. No worktop over them and no wall cabinets above. This is why a 4.92m kit is 600 plus 915 plus five bays.

Odd sizes

The mobile trolley and mobile cabinet are 646mm and 650mm so they roll clear, but still take a full bay. The sink unit is 950mm tall rather than 910mm, so plan it at the end of a run.

What goes in each bay

The cabinets

Every 680mm floor cabinet fits every bay, so this is a free choice rather than a constraint. What follows is what each one is actually good at.

Under the worktop

Floor cabinet, 7 drawer, APMS62 APMS62 · 680mm, 54.6kg Floor cabinet, 7 drawer Five 70mm drawers and two 150mm. The densest storage in a single bay, and the one to build a run around if you work mostly with hand tools. View product → Floor cabinet, 5 drawer, APMS59 APMS59 · 680mm, 48.8kg Floor cabinet, 5 drawer One 60mm drawer and four at 135mm. Deeper drawers than the seven, so better for boxed sets and power tools than for spanners. View product → Floor cabinet, 4 drawer, APMS51 APMS51 · 680mm, 46.2kg Floor cabinet, 4 drawer Two extra large drawers at 225mm deep. The choice when you are storing bulky items rather than sorting small ones. View product → Floor cabinet, 7 drawer, APMS64 APMS64 · 1360mm, 80kg Floor cabinet, 7 drawer Two bays wide, with a full width 1250mm drawer that nothing else in the range offers. Long tools lie flat rather than diagonally. View product → Floor cabinet, 2 door, APMS52 APMS52 · 680mm, 28.8kg Floor cabinet, 2 door An adjustable shelf behind two doors. The cheapest way to fill a bay, and the right answer for consumables and boxed stock. View product → Multifunction cabinet, APMS57 APMS57 · 680mm, 32.5kg Multifunction cabinet A drawer over a cupboard. A middle ground when a bay needs to hold both loose tools and larger items. View product → Reel cabinet, 3 drawer, APMS63 APMS63 · 680mm, 41kg Reel cabinet, 3 drawer Made to take an air or electrical reel with drawers below. Put it where the air line already comes into the workshop. View product → Sink unit, APMS67 APMS67 · 680mm, 34.8kg Sink unit A 630mm basin with a cupboard beneath and a 360mm tap. It is 950mm tall rather than 910mm, so plan it at the end of a run. View product → Mobile workshop trolley, APMS66 APMS66 · 646mm, 22kg Mobile workshop trolley Three working surfaces on castors. Lives in a bay under the worktop and rolls out to the job. View product →

Full height, outside the bench run

Above the worktop

On the back panel

Getting the mix right

How to divide up the bays

Drawers cost more than doors and hold less by volume, so a run made entirely of drawer cabinets is expensive and wastes space on bulky items. A run made entirely of cupboards means everything ends up in a heap on a shelf.

The mix that works for most people is roughly two thirds drawers to one third cupboard, with the cupboard at the end furthest from where you stand. Sealey's own kits sit close to that ratio, which is a reasonable check on it.

Two things are worth spending on early. A back panel in every bay, because retrofitting one later means taking the worktop off. And the widest drawer cabinet you can fit, because a 1250mm drawer takes things no 565mm drawer will.

A starting point by run length
Three bays

One seven drawer, one cupboard, one trolley bay. Add a full height cabinet at one end if the wall allows.

Five bays

The 1360mm seven drawer across two bays, then a cupboard, a reel or multifunction cabinet, and a trolley bay.

Seven bays or more

Two drawer cabinets at the working end, cupboards at the far end, and a sink unit if there is water nearby.

These are our suggestions rather than Sealey specifications. Any 680mm cabinet fits any bay, so nothing here is fixed.

Turning a corner

If your run turns a corner, the corner cabinet is 865 x 865mm in plan, so it occupies 865mm along each wall measured from the internal angle. The corner wall cabinet above it is the same 865mm square at 350mm high. Bays then run out along both walls from there.

A corner also needs four single uprights rather than two, because it is two runs and each has its own open end.

The corner in plan An 865mm square corner cabinet in the angle with 680mm bays running out along both walls. Corner cabinet865 x 865 680mm bay460 deep 680mm bay460 deep 865mm Set the corner cabinet first, then run bays out along both walls
Set the corner cabinet first, then run bays out along both walls.
The shortcut

Once you know your bays, the rest follows

Every complete kit Sealey sell follows the same pattern, without exception. Count your bays and the panels, wall cabinets and connectors are decided for you.

So a four bay run needs four back panels, four wall cabinets, three doubles and two singles, whatever cabinets you choose to put underneath.

For a run of N bays
Back panelsN
Wall cabinetsN
Double uprightsN minus 1
Single uprights2
A run that turns a corner takes four single uprights.
Worked examples

Three walls, drawn to the same scale

Each of these matches a complete kit, so you can compare building it from parts against buying the kit outright. The cabinets chosen are one sensible arrangement rather than the only one. Swap any 680mm floor cabinet for any other and nothing else changes.

Three bays and no tall cabinets

A 2040mm wall is three bays of 680mm and nothing else. It is the shortest run that still gives you a proper bench, and the one to start with if you intend to extend later. Three back panels, three wall cabinets, two doubles and two singles. One 2040mm worktop covers the lot, so there is no join in the working surface.

A 2040mm run of three bays Three 680mm bays with no full height cabinets, one 2040mm worktop. APMS62 APMS52 APMS66 2040mm
Sold as APMSSTACK12W. A seven drawer cabinet, a two door cabinet and a mobile trolley under a single worktop.

Three bays between two tall cabinets

A 3240mm wall takes a 600mm full height cabinet at each end with three bays between them. 600 plus 600 plus 2040 gives 3240. The bay count has not changed, so the parts list has not either. Choose this arrangement if you need somewhere for long handled tools, because nothing in the bench section will take a sweeping brush or a length of timber.

A 3240mm run A 600mm full height cabinet at each end with three 680mm bays between. APMS55 APMS64 APMS52 APMS55 3240mm
Sold as APMSSTACK13W. The full height cabinets sit outside the worktop run.

Five bays between two tall cabinets

A 4915mm wall is the longest run Sealey build as a single kit. Five back panels, five wall cabinets, four doubles and two singles. The worktop needs two pieces, a 2040mm and a 1360mm, because there is no 3400mm worktop. The 1360mm seven drawer cabinet takes two of the five bays on its own.

A 4915mm run A 600mm and a 915mm full height cabinet with five 680mm bays between. APMS55 APMS64 APMS52 APMS63 APMS66 APMS56 4915mm
Sold as APMSSTACK16W. A 600mm full height cabinet at one end and a 915mm two door at the other.
If your wall is not one of these

Measure it, take off any full height cabinets you want, and divide what is left by 680. If it does not divide evenly, drop a bay and leave the gap at one end, add a 600mm full height cabinet to absorb the remainder, or start the run at a door or window and use the leftover at the far end.

Decision 3

Kit or parts list

Sealey sell complete kits at 1.96m, 2.04m, 3.24m, 4.92m and a 1.55m corner. A kit is one order, one delivery, and no thinking about which cabinets or how many connectors. You put it against the wall and build it.

That works if your wall is one of those lengths. Most walls are not. A 2.6m wall has no kit, and neither does a 4m one, so the choice disappears and you are building a parts list regardless.

A kit also fixes what goes in each bay. If you want five drawer cabinets and no doors, or a sink at one end, no kit will give you that and you are choosing cabinet by cabinet anyway.

Kit lengths available
Where a kit fits your wall it is usually the cheaper route as well as the quicker one, because kits are priced below the sum of their parts. That is not true of every kit, so add up the components before you decide.

Frequently asked questions

How wide is a Superline PRO bay?

680mm, made up of a 615mm back panel and a 65mm upright connector. Almost every floor and wall cabinet is built to that width.

How much does a Superline PRO run stick out from the wall?

460mm for floor cabinets and full height cabinets. Wall cabinets are 280mm. Worktops are 463mm, so they overhang slightly.

Can I add to a Superline PRO system later?

Yes. Every part is sold separately and nothing is exclusive to a kit, so a run built this year can be extended next year using the same components.

Why do the kit lengths look so odd?

Because the full height cabinets at 600mm and 915mm sit outside the 680mm grid. A 4.92m kit is 600 plus 915 plus five bays, which comes to 4915mm.

How many upright connectors do I need?

One fewer double than you have bays, plus two singles for the open ends. A run that turns a corner takes four singles.

What about the other Sealey modular ranges?

Black Edition is dimensionally the same system in black. Rapid-Fit towers are 2080mm tall so they will not line up with a 2000mm run. Premier is 610mm deep and heavier throughout. American Pro is the entry tier with worktops built in.

Ready to plan

Send us your wall measurement and we will work out the parts list

Cabinets, worktops, back panels and connectors are all in the Superline PRO collection. If you would rather we checked the list before you order, tell us the length and whether the run turns a corner.

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