switching gears: remake your garage for more than a car
6 minute read
a practical potting station turns the garage into a helpful gardener's organization space.
garage living
if sports gear, kids’ toys, and holiday decorations are slowly swallowing up your house, creeping into your home office or taking over your craft room, there’s extra space you may not have considered: your garage. who said it was the sole domain of a car, anyway?
a garage is an extension of your home and, with the right design and organization, can be repurposed as an office, gym, hobby room, yoga studio, man cave/she shed, playroom or, yes, a place to store your stuff, but neatly.
smart wall storage keeps sports gear organized and ready to go.
garage living
where to start
there are plenty of professional organizers and storage designers who will take up the challenge for you. they’ll usually start by asking about your situation, your garage hopes and dreams, then they’ll come to your house, assess the space, take measurements, and sketch out some options using design software.
next, floor. material of choice is polyaspartic coating for its durability, low odour, low maintenance, stain-, heat- and fade-resistance, as well as fast drying — usually 24 to 48 hours.
the alternative, epoxy, doesn’t hold up as well. “after you drive on it, you’ll usually notice the flooring start to peel in spots around where the tires sit,” says cristy phillips, chief operations officer of clever quarters in port coquitlam. “polyaspartic was built for the changing environment in a garage, so it’s a lot more flexible; you won’t see any cracking. it’s also chemical-resistant, poreless, food-safe, easy to clean, and it looks beautiful. it feels more like an indoor space versus outdoor.”
maya ushikubo of port coquitlam’s garage living, says of their own brand, “our floortex polyaspartic floor coating has a 15-year warranty and comes in 15 flake colours, as well as custom colours. it’s the highest grade, industrial strength coating that is uv stable, in comparison to epoxy.”
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phillips says if you plan to use your revamped garage as an office, she’ll ask about the equipment you’ll be using, your height, whether you’re left- or right-handed, in order to tailor a design.
a bright, dedicated learning area for the kids.
garage living
“if the client is left-handed and needs to take notes during their work, we’ll install drawers on the left-hand side for easy access, but also to create that blank space to give them an extra work zone to put a notebook,” she says.
she recalls her garage squad’s work for a couple whose job required lots of counter space. her designers sourced a unique piece of hardware that pulls out from a desk to extend the work station but can also be pushed flush with the depth of the desk when not in use, allowing more floor space.
“there are even fold-out tables, pullout desks or tilt-down desks [that fit] into a wall unit that has additional storage and other capacities,” she says.
garage living’s crew will also quiz you about your plans. “we always ask, ‘what’s your biggest challenge with your garage right now, and how do you use your garage?’,” says ushikubo. “these two questions help our design consultants visualize the space for a full custom garage makeover. then it comes down to slat wall panel and custom cabinet configurations, overhead racks, tv mounting, with space to install a sink, hose, fridge, freezer box, wine cooler, etc.”
she says the company has tackled garage makeovers as diverse as offices, social gathering space, gyms, cold storage and doggie daycares.
storage solves
a once cluttered garage transformed into a tidy and cheerful play space with plenty of storage solutions.
clever quarters
phillips herself has a narrow, one-car garage, so she focused on the vertical space when she redesigned it for better storage. she had slat walls installed to tilt the family’s four bikes on, then added cabinets to house soccer balls and softball equipment, as well as an overhead storage rack to tuck away seasonal decor. her husband’s workbench and tools take up the back part of the garage. “a narrow garage is often deeper, so designing on the back wall gives you more room at the front.”
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she says clever quarters mounts cabinetry six inches off the ground for easy sweeping and mopping, “and getting those spiders, cobwebs and creepy-crawlies out from underneath.”
joseph neely, president of the indoor outdoor guy renovations inc., together with vancouver sheds, a division of indoor outdoor that builds or repurposes garages, studios and sheds, says, “some people build a wall down the middle of the garage, perpendicular to the garage door, get rack shelving for storage, and then have a door at the other end to access the area they’ve set up as a gym, home office, hobby room, or man cave.” (he notes that, if you’re building a garage or shed from the ground up, there’s a permitting process required which the company can help with.)
heat and light
once your space has been assessed, the flooring finished, slat walls installed to hang your gear, cabinets fitted to store your stuff, or drawers to file your work, you’ll need to think about heating and lighting for the space’s specific use.
“if the garage has been built correctly, it will be insulated and drywalled so an electric baseboard will provide the heat,” says neely.
he recommends changing out the garage door for a newer model that comes with an r rating suitable for the space and a double seal to keep out the cold.
as for light, neely says the more natural light the better. “if you’re using your garage for potting, a workshop, or office, we recommend as much natural light as possible, so three windows are ideal, and a french or sliding glass door to let in lots of light and fresh air.”
phillips says clever quarters incorporates lighting into the cabinetry, usually an ambient glow for mood. “in a workspace, like a work bench, we’ll do maybe 4,000 [kelvin] temperature track lighting underneath the cabinet shining down on the work surface. for an office, we would probably warm up the temperature to 3,000. most garage lighting is decorative and less task, so we would do back lighting to illuminate open shelves where someone might be storing prized possessions.”
a once cluttered garage transformed into a tidy and cheerful play space with plenty of storage solutions.
clever quarters
from parking to play — this garage is now the ultimate games zone.
clever quarters
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music room or garage band
whether you’re aspiring to be the 21st century mozart or the new nirvana, designing your space as a music room or for a garage band will come with some sound considerations.
“everyone’s got the right to the peaceful enjoyment of their premises, so you want to make sure that your enjoyment isn’t inhibiting somebody else’s,” says neely.
“if you’re putting in good exterior grade doors and windows, which is what we use, that’s going to cut the sound down by about 50 per cent,” as will sound-absorbing insulation, says neely. “there’s also higher-grade drywall for soundproofing. but if you want to jam with the amps on full, you should really look at an actual wall assembly that reduces sound. we’re happy to design that into a new garage build.”
a home gym in the garage makes daily workouts easy and convenient.
clever quarters
man cave/she shed
the stereotypical “man cave” with couch, wall-mounted tv, and beer fridge may not have gone the way of the neanderthals, but the “she shed” has gained in popularity. “usually (women) use them for office space, bookshelves, to store workout gear, sometimes (arts and crafts), or just as a hangout,” says phillips, who would then design with those specifications in mind. “over covid, i think men lost their man cave and it became the family cave.”
when designing a mud room for cleaner flow from cave to dwelling, she says, “we’d build shoe storage, storage for jackets, maybe hooks, slat walls for growing families so you can adapt as your needs change. maybe today it’s a small bike but in a few years, it’ll be an adult-sized bike. the ability to move hooks without drilling any additional holes in the wall is very beneficial.”
regardless of how you transform your garage, phillips says you should keep open about the possibility that it will go back to housing your ride.
“people often say they’re never going to park a car in their garage again, but if it’s not your forever home, the next buyer may want to. if we designed it to never park a car, it’s not beneficial to the resale of your home.”
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until then, park yourself, paint a picture, do some work, crank the tunes and enjoy your extra space.
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