Back in September, I was working on something and got tired of fishing the right pliers out of the pile on my workbench — flat nose for straightening bent component leads, needlenose for shaping leads, wire strippers, cutters, etc. So I made a dirt simple tool holder.
It’s just a 2×4 block with 1/2″ holes drilled in at regular intervals (Forstner bit makes nice flat bottoms), spaced for the at-rest width of my pliers handles and as close together as is easy to reach in and pluck out the one I want.
It’s cleared up a significant mess on my bench, and it’s so fast and easy to access that I tend to put tools back between each use rather than each session. It’s ugly as can be, but I wanted to know how well it would work before making a pretty one. Problem is, now that enough time has passed for me to know it works well, I’ve lost some of my motivation to make it pretty. 
VERY cool. I love the simplicity of the design. Route/sand the edges and add a little stain and you would have a beautiful minimalist tool tray. I’m halfway through building big flat (table sized) shallow drawers on one side of my workspace to hold all my pliers/cutters. This seems a superior design with a fraction of the effort. THANKS for sharing!
This seems a great solution for people without a lot of space on their bench (that’s most of us). I do, however, have reservation about storing cutters, sharp pliers, etc business end up, and open. I just got a small square of pegboard and framed it out with some small legs and 1 by on each side for support, and it works well for me too. While a bit more expensive (a lot more actually compared to a scrap piece of 2×4), it has served me well.