You awake to a sunny weekend morning, yet your significant other reminds you to pretty-up the garage rather than spend time on the couch or at the pub. The garage has grown too ugly to ignore any longer, and here are quick and easy ways to make an eyesore a bit more pretty.
The Door
Garage doors, single and double, sometimes don’t fit the style of the rest of the home, with construction companies opting for cheap fixes rather than aesthetic selections. Consider painting or switching the door out with another model. Or,use drywall solutions to seal the opening, making the garage appear as an extension rather than a space for the car or storage. Also, rather than an automated door, you could implement another door, adding a second entryway to your home. If you’re looking at hiring someone to install a garage door, there are some affordable garage door options, so you can search the web for some quotes, as prices can vary a lot.
Image by Eric Trabert & Associates via Houzz
Shelves
Initially, you may have accepted the square footage provided by your garage, but over the years, tools, toys, clothing, and other items cluttered the walking and entryway. Hang items on the wall rather than setting them on the ground. You’ll find you have an entire new room for storage, parking the car, or transforming the garage into a study or playroom. Rather than shelves, a series of sturdy hooks can maintain the weight of tools, bags of clothing, tyres and car extras, etc. It’s a quick and economical way to immediately free-up added space in the garage.
Image by Backyard Buildings via Houzz
Insulation
If you’ll be spending more time in the garage, making it into a workspace or playroom, you’ll need to account for uncomfortably warm and cool days. A space heater or fan is a quick and economical way to counter hot and cold droughts. Yet, for those who want to add more insulation, strip drywall down to the frame to make room for added insulation, introduce carpeting in the space, as well as air-seal walls (buy Great Stuff) for holes, cracks, and unwanted airways to the outside. Of course, if you’re considering adding drywall, as suggested above, you’ll need to address the insulation first to avoid later renovations.
Image by Rill Architects via Houzz
Interior
Now that you have addressed droughts and heat, you can dress the room as you would the rest of the home, introducing furniture, wallpaper, paint, doorframes, and more. Choose a theme for your transformed garage, such as the beach, the woods, or adopting a style from another country or location. Those, putting forth more effort, get excited realizing they now have a ‘new room’ in the house, which can adopt the function of another room (becomes a place for pets or children’s toys), freeing other areas throughout the house for alternate interior design.
Image by Sand Creek Post & Beam via Houzz
Customize
Rather than simply clean your garage, transform it into something completely different. A radical redesign does not need to cost an enormous amount of money. Be methodical and create a multiple step process to complete the transformation in pieces. For example, one person transitioned the garage into a gaming room, replete with checkerboard tile floors, space for games and equipment, a big-screen television, as well as cabinets and shelving to house necessities and added wants (like a mini fridge and small hibachi grill).
Another motocross hobbyist made the garage into a hangout and mechanic space, where they and friends can conveniently find tools and work on cycles. They even situated a mini ramp used on or off the premises.
Image by m_Royce Architecture via Houzz
Lastly, another couple transformed their garage into a lounge, with poker tables, casino-like carpeting, and extra lighting to accommodate all times of day. The great thing about transformation is the initial improvement; so, even if you grow to dislike a particular theme, the space is already lighted, insulated, and cleaned, making it easy to decide upon another use or design.
Your garage may look rougher than a diamond in the rough at the moment, but with a bit of planning and elbow grease, you’ll soon have a glittering addition to your home.
Author bio
Owen Gell works a four-day work schedule, so he likes to tackle one DIY project each weekend. After doing this for a time, he likes to write about it to help others use their weekends to their best advantage. Look for his informative posts on a variety of websites and blogs.