Ask five painters how they store paint and you'll get five answers — but the right answer starts with a simple question: droppers or pots?
The dropper bottle (Vallejo, Army Painter, AK Interactive)
A standard dropper bottle is roughly 26mm across and tall for its width. It stores beautifully in snug angled wells: tip down never (clogs), upright in a rack always. Because droppers are slim, you can pack them densely — our 60-bottle rack fits sixty of them on less than an A4 footprint by staggering four tiers so every label stays visible.
The pot (Citadel, P3, SMS)
Citadel pots are ~32mm wide, squat, and top-heavy when open. They need wider, shallower wells and more clearance between rows — force them into dropper slots and they wobble or won't seat at all. Our 44-pot rack uses the same stepped-tier design with wells sized for 32mm pots, so Citadel, P3 and SMS lacquer pots all sit securely with labels forward.
Mixed collection? Most painters have one
The two racks share the same width, the same tier heights and the same design language, so they sit side by side as one system. Droppers left, pots right, and the riser stand on top when the collection outgrows the desk — it adds 38 more dropper slots vertically.
The details that matter either way
- Label tilt: both racks angle every row 13° toward you — no more lifting bottles to read them.
- The hidden drawer: the base of each rack is a magnetic-latch drawer for brushes, files and spare nozzles.
- Colour match: printed to order in Melbourne in 15 colours, so your paint wall can match your hobby room.
See both racks side by side at formada.net — designed and 3D printed in Melbourne, shipped Australia-wide.