There are three schools of paint storage: the tiered rack, the rotating carousel, and the drawer insert. Having designed and printed all three styles, here's an honest comparison.
Tiered racks — best all-rounder
Pros: every label visible at once, paints stay in a fixed spot (muscle memory is real — your hand learns where Dark Sea Blue lives), works against a wall, stackable upward. Cons: fixed footprint on the desk.
This is why the rack is our core range: the 60-bottle dropper rack and 44-pot Citadel-size rack both use staggered, tilted tiers plus a hidden magnetic tool drawer, and the riser add-on takes the collection vertical when the desk fills up.
Rotating carousels — best density, worst labels
Pros: highest bottle count per square centimetre; spin to reach everything; great in a corner. Cons: labels face sideways or away by design — you spin to search, not glance; they need clearance all around to rotate; and a loaded carousel is heavy to move.
Carousels genuinely win when desk space is brutal and your collection is huge. (We're prototyping one that fixes the label problem with tilted, outward-facing wells — watch this space.)
Drawer inserts — best for archives, worst for active paints
Pros: dust-free, stackable, huge capacity in furniture you already own. Cons: out of sight is out of mind — you'll rebuy paints you forgot you had, and opening a drawer mid-brushstroke breaks flow.
Verdict: drawers for the overflow archive, a rack for the paints you actually use weekly.
The quick decision guide
- Fewer than ~100 active paints → tiered rack on the desk
- Desk full, wall available → rack + riser going vertical
- Huge collection, tiny desk → carousel (accept the label trade-off)
- Rarely-used colours → drawer archive behind the scenes
All Formada3D paint storage is 3D printed to order in Melbourne in 15 colours and ships Australia-wide — see the range at formada.net.