A garage that isn’t being utilized the way it’s intended to be is a waste of space. Imagine only having a few hundred square feet of property. The garage will make up 1/5 of your entire floor area. If you are not using it to park your car or even store the occasional holiday decorations and ski you barely used, what is it for? Aren’t you wasting away valuable space in your home?
Maybe it is time to give that old garage a glow-up? How about that? It’s been wasting away its potentials that you barely had room during the pandemic and all the kids are back home. Why let two of your kids share the same room or squeeze all of yourselves in the living room when there’s a perfectly fine space waiting for you to discover it?
If you are still not looking at your garage now as a possible extension of your living space, rethink your home’s design and layout. All you need is an extra room to solve all your woes-pantry space, storage space, home gym, playroom, entertainment area, and home office. The garage can solve all of your space problems if you only know how to maximize it.
Aesthetic Uplift
First thing’s first. Look at your garage door. When was the last time you had it cleaned, fixed, and maintained? Have you put oil on the mechanisms lately? Is it still working? Are the locks still okay? Your front and garage doors are the first things that people see when they visit your house. Make sure that they are in good working condition and that they are aesthetically appealing.
You have two options. The first one is to have the garage door fixed and repainted. The second is to find replacement garage doors that will fit the overall aesthetics of your home’s exterior. Whatever you decide on will play a huge role in giving your garage that glow-up it deserves. A new or newly fixed garage door will catch the attention of your neighbors, guests, and passersby.
Natural Lights
You can, of course, opt to have skylights or roof lights though that is not always possible in a house that has a second story. There’s probably a room above the garage, so that’s a huge undertaking. How about clerestory windows? These windows are placed above eye level in the highest section of the wall. If you want to let natural light into your garage, this is one of the most common ways that can be achieved.
Brighter Walls
Most garages have dark and dingy walls. That’s what happens when it’s been neglected by the homeowner. But if you are finally seeing your garage as a true extension of your home, then why
not repaint the walls with something brighter? You don’t need to go all out and paint it with sunshine yellow, but a nice neutral shade of beige or light gray will do well to bring lightness into a usually dark room.
Flooring
A garage usually has concrete for flooring because tiles will break from the pressure of the weight of the car. Depending on whether you’ve already decided not to use the garage for your car, you can finally upgrade the garage flooring. Of course, it is not practical to have the same porcelain tiles as the ones inside the main home. You can choose rubberized floor tiles since they can absorb the impact of the vehicle (if you decide to park it there in the future again) and other things.
Storage
What’s a garage without the proper storage space? Have someone build hanging shelves in one part of the garage. Whether you will use the space as a home office, a workout area, a playroom, or an actual garage, who doesn’t need extra useful space? Fill the hanging shelves with enough containers to store things you do not need inside the main house. You can choose colored storage containers to give the room a bit more character, or you can stay neutral with a white-and-gray combination.
There are many ways to improve how the garage looks, but it’s all about knowing what you want to do with it. Delaying the inevitable-deciding whether to use it as an actual garage or as storage space or a bit of both-will only lead to more structural and aesthetic problems in the garage. So figure out what you want to do with it before it becomes a complete waste of functional space in your property.