Where I Wax Poetic About Pegboard

In a post from a few days past, I mentioned how much I liked pegboard. From an organizational standpoint, pegboard can't be beat. I've got some going in several places in my garage. 

By the garage door.

By the door leading upstairs,

and over the workbench.

That's all nice and dandy but my love affair with pegboard goes way beyond its ability to display tools in an organized and orderly fashion. I find pegboard stylish, as long as it's done in a certain way (not cutesy).

Of course the early queen of stylish pegboard was Julia Child and hers was a lifelong love affair.

It appeared in her Cambridge, Mass Kitchen in 1962. This NYTimes article has a few more great pictures.

I don't know the exact year that the kitchen was tweaked to accommodate her cooking show but the pegboard stayed white at least through 1964. Photo source.

Photo source.

And then came that magical bluish green that Paul Child chose. I'm not sure if this wall above the tile was ever more blue or if this photo's color is off. Either way it reads well to me for two reasons. The pegboard takes up the entire wall so therefor looks like the wall itself and the color is subtle and sophisticated. Photo Source.

I also like the way her pegboard's color was elegant, yet she freely outlined her tools with pen in a nonchalant fashion so her display didn't feel uptight. Photo source.

Pegboard that is painted with a pattern or stenciled is a no-go for me. Personally I am most fond of the look of pegboard either painted matte black or left completely natural (actually, the backside of prefinished white pegboard has a really nice texture to it). And I think it looks best when it covers an entire wall so that it reads as part of the architecture of the room.

For me, this is perfection. This laundry and storage room is by Commune Design. The utilitarian application of the pegboard draws very heavily from the 50's but at the same time this room is modern and fresh. Those sliding doors would be pretty ordinary and uninspiring if they were solid, but in pegboard they're textural and visually interesting. This image makes me want to redo my laundry room.