To say this has been a long time coming is an understatement. I began the journey of completely finishing and organizing my garage back in MARCH and now (5 months later) I am ready to show the "new" garage to you:
Can you believe that is the same place? Wait.. let me step back a little farther so you can take it ALL in:
If you don't remember, my goal was to get five distinct areas for things I needed to house in the garage (plus my giant mini-van). They were:
Here is the original plan I drew up back in April:
#1: Storage
This was a biggie. I wanted to sort and organize all the junk that we keep in the garage. Holiday decorations, camping and sporting gear, kids clothes and equipment, suitcases, coolers.. you name it. We don't have a basement or attic so everything is stored in the garage. There was some rough shelving already installed, but it was quickly overflowing with our stuff:
I taped, mudded and painted the walls (and ceilings), as well as painted the shelves, sorted and boxed all the stuff and labeled it all with my label maker. It is amazing how much stuff can fit once you just get organized!
The niche to the right of the shelves was the perfect spot to house my #4: Freezer. I surface mounted an electrical outlet near the shelves above the freezer so I would no longer have to run an extension cord to it. (I also surface mounted an outlet above my workbench to use with my circular saw and other power tools.)
The full reveal of the workshop can be found here (in case you want to see how I was able to figure out exactly how to fit all my tools, lawn equipment, paint, workbench and paint.) Needless to say I am thrilled with being able to find everything at a glance.
And my favorite part of my workshop is still my painted pegboard:
Previously this side of the garage was stacked with boxes of old kids clothes and lawn/garden equipment. It was pretty much a disaster. Now there is plenty of room, not only for my workshop but also to house the #5: Trash and recycling bins:
Hanging the bikes off the floor, and in front of the furnace and water heater (which are ugly but can't be enclosed) is another great space saver. And to honor the fact that is a garage, I hung all the license plates we have collected off the cars from all the states we have lived in over the door. I love them!
#3: Mudroom
Without futher ado, here is everyone's favorite part of the garage, the mudroom built ins:
This is still one of my most popular posts of all time. The fact I constructed this unit out of $300 worth of Ikea Cabinets seems to hit home with people:
More details about the construction of the built ins can be found here, as well as additional FAQs here.
It has been great for us, since it provides a lot of easy-access storage right at the threshold to the most trafficked entry point of the house. And speaking of thresholds, lets not forget my newly beautified garage door:
Before the mudroom install, this space was my workshop, but it was so cluttered with stuff that you were barely able to get to the door. The grungy white door and unfinished walls made the garage feel like it wasn't a real 'room' of the house. But no more:
It was a LOT of work. I would even say it was more work than my recent kitchen makeover and it ranks right up there with the Money Pit 1.0's kitchen remodel as one of my biggest projects of all time. And even though it may not be nearly as dramatic, I am still really proud of it. Not everyone can say they love their garage.. but now I can!
Wow! That is a lot of work. I bet it feels so good to ahve a place for everything and be organized. It looks really nice. Enjoy :)))
ReplyDeleteLooks fabulous! Having an organized garage is so wonderful since it is the first room of the house you see when you arrive home and the last one you see when you leave. Job well done. Stopping over from Take a Look Tuesday. Blessings~ Carrie from The Created Home thecreatedhomeblogspot.com
ReplyDeleteYou did such a great job! It looks fabulous! We really need to do our garage too but I am so unmotivated. lol! Pinned this for some inspiration!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I really how organized your workshop area is. Maybe now I'll be motivated to tackle our garage, which I'm pretty sure used to be a chicken coop or something, so it may not come out looking quite as pristine as yours. :)
ReplyDeleteWow - what a transformation! Great work! I'm so wishing I had a garage now :)
ReplyDeleteOMG! That is one amazing makeover!! Your use of IKEA furniture is brilliant and I love your black door.
ReplyDeleteWow! What an amazing makeover. Secondly...wow again :) I don't think 5 months is that long for the awesomeness of this garage! Way to go. Love the black door and mudroom section {my favorite I have to admit}.
ReplyDeleteI have garage envy - totally awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat looks absolutely amazing!! What a great job!! LOVE the clever use of the Ikea furniture! My husband cringes every time I mention organizing his tools! He does not want me touching them! LOL!
ReplyDeletevery nice indeed! the space looks great and it is organized!
ReplyDeleteTurned out great Kim! I'm glad you stopped using extension cords for your freezer - I found out the hard way that extension cords and large appliances don't work well together. - had a power surge and my surge protector strip went up in flames.
ReplyDeleteYou’re making me inspired to go home and clean our garage, but I have a feeling once I get home and open the garage door that inspiration will flee in terror of the mess and spiders.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE your garage and I want it all for myself! lol! You did such a great job! Love the painted pegboard, and also how you created your mudroom storage shelving unit :)
ReplyDeleteGreat job! Lots of work you got done there! woohoo!
~Lisha
Kim, What an amazing job you did!! Wherever you look, it says -organization! My faves are the build ins, the painted pegboard and the black door! Enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing this when you were working on it before. It came out wonderful and it was a lot of hard work!
ReplyDeleteSWEET!!!! And guess what... I'm MOVING IN!!! LOVE IT!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer.. From Dream To Reality!!
Congrats! I know that was a lot of work because I am in the before stage! You rock girl! Did you get rid of some stuff or is everything organized?
ReplyDeletePositively wonderful! When you have a family, you have stuff and got things so nice and organized. Love the black door and the space to hang school bags and the kids shoes. I can tell this was a huge project but so worth it! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't love my garage! My garage is on the small side and that prevents me from having a mudroom in there. My big old suburban takes up all the room! You've done an awesome job of turning a potentially very unsightly space to something totally pretty and functional! Nice work.
ReplyDeleteStacia@http://feathersandsunshine.blogspot.com
Looks amazing! I am so jealous that you have all of that stuff in your garage and it looks absolutely fabulous!
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Trish
This is great! One question--where do you keep your lawn mower? I feel like ours takes up so much space along our wall!
ReplyDeleteNice doggy door.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome transformation! You made it super functional and beautiful which is a challenge in a garage for sure. :-) Thanks so much for sharing this at Inspiration Friday!
ReplyDeleteVanessa
Great question!
ReplyDeleteWe actually have a small rotary push mower (you can see the orange wheel pushed up next to the brown recycling bin in the photo of the workshop wall)
We had a gas mower that I donated to Habitat to Humanity, because out new backyard is so small we could cut the grass with a scissors! Here is a tour: http://www.themoney-pit.com/2012/07/good-things-come-in-small-packages.html
Before we got rid of the larger mower we stored it in front of the car (near where the water heater was) I would flip the handle down forward every time we were done using it. That means you can park it under a shelf. But yeah, the mower (and our drop fertilizer spreader) were huge space hogs!
HTH!
Kim
I've got to say this: Yay you and yay IKEA! Those shelves can easily be used for almost anything - I just built a really cool bar out of them (http://cocalores.blogspot.de/2012/08/basement-bar-tutorial.html)! =) What's really bad, though, is that German home improvement store don't really sell that trim you used (or trim of any kind, really). Pfft! Too bad, because the trim looks really cool on your project! Well done! (What did you use at the back where the hooks are?)
ReplyDeleteFeaturing YOU today! Thanks for sharing at {wow me} wednesday.
ReplyDeleteGinger @ gingersnapcrafts.com
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/2012/09/take-look-at-you-my-favorites.html
Please come to my house and do my garage! Please!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! I love it, I could live in your garage. I had to give it a feature today! Come see.
ReplyDeleteLove this idea. I'm toying with the idea of having lockers in our garage as well. So I'm wondering how you're liking them? My concern would keeping coats out there in the winter when it gets cold. Any feedback would be great.
ReplyDeleteI was randomly searching for garage before/after photos for inspiration, found your blog, and realized, hey I know her! What a crazy small world it is. Love the work you've done on your home, the before/after pictures are awesome! - Caroline (from TSRI)
ReplyDeleteWow - so going to paint my garage door black (nice touch). All the hard work you put into your DIY are pretty awesome!
ReplyDeleteHi Kim! I LOVE your garage! What a great transformation!
ReplyDeleteI would love to feature this on my second blog, Organize and Inspire. Would you mind if I used on of your pics in my post with a link and full credit to your site?
Just let me know.
Thanks!
Traci