If you don’t need to park your car in it and you don’t need it for piles of aimless boxes, a garage, whether attached or unattached, can be turned into a number of different creative spaces. In this post, we’ll explore some creative things that you can turn your garage into. We’ll also take a look at some creative upgrades on those spaces.
1. Wellness and Fitness Space
No, we’re not talking a home gym. If barbells and punching bags are your thing, then that’s awesome. But if fitness for you is more about creative exercises and yoga, then a studio can be built out of your garage. Obviously for most modern fitness spaces you’re going to need a lot of floor room. The biggest part of this renovation is putting in a floor that you don’t mind being barefoot or walking around on. Consider putting in built in yoga mats for additional fitness space. You may also want to consider setting up a small bed or sleeping platform, stocking a fridge and kitchenette with place to make smoothies and juices. Additionally, consider a meditation space for you to get lost in yourself to recover yourself. Get creative and you can put up a ton of awesome, functional fitness centers in a single small space.
2. Studio or Sleep Space
Your garage, if attached or unattached, can be turned into a really cool studio apartment or simply a spare bedroom. If you’re feeling more ambitious and want to create a studio apartment, you can even rent out that apartment to help out with rent. If you don’t have a studio apartment vibe then you can create an extra bedroom or living room that is primed to sleep and entertain guests. If people are staying the night often and you need a place that you want to put up guests–consider converting the garage.
3. Coffee Shop or Bar
Love coffee shops? Want to run one of your own? Try setting up a coffee shop, food space, or bar space up in your garage. While you might not be racking up customers, it’s a great spot to have people over and entertain. Plus if you are of the work from home variety or have kids that need a cool spot to study and do homework in peace, the coffee shop space can be absolutely perfect for that. You might need to run water and garbage hookups to the coffee shop space and it would be ideal to have a bathroom, but those things can be negotiable. You can always simply stock a bunch of water jugs in the coffee shop space and refill them when low.
4. Entertainment Space
You can go ahead and leave the caves of all varieties in the 2010s, but you can bring the premise into the 2020s! The garage can be turned into a clever space that you can watch sports or simply hang out with friends. It’s an all purpose space where you can fit everything from old game tables to full service poker sets. Don’t just limit yourself to sports and sports memorabilia. Figure out what would be fun to play with friends and toss that in. Maybe you love sports, but maybe it’s board games, video games, role playing games, or simply deep conversation. Whatever you love to do–convert the garage to be the space that facilitates it the best.
5. Work Space
This could go in a couple of different directions. First of all, you could have a job that you bring home often or do from home. Then you could replicate an office or creative space in your garage to facilitate the best kind of work. Plus, you can use the garage space to create a different kind of workspace. Set up a no phone space by putting a bucket for your phone at the door when you walk in. Provide additional music or lighting that facilitates your best kind of work.
But if you don’t want to take work home–you can also use the work space to pursue hobbies and passions that you’ve never had space for before! The garage makes a wonderful art studio, sculpting garden, dance studio, writer’s retreat, or coder’s hangout. Make your next app or finally finish that painting.
6. Cinema
Make watching TV something that doesn’t just happen in bed with your phone or in front of the couch as you veg out and let the day wash away. Make TV something that is artistic and intentional by setting up the perfect space for it to unfold, in your very own home cinema. Now, if plush red theatre seats and popcorn machines are your thing, that’s awesome. But you aren’t restricted by the old guard of Hollywood. It can be a horror movie retreat or a modern art cinema space complete with vision boards and a movie journal.
7. Open Garden Space
If you snag a garage door with plenty of windows and add light streaming in from other places, your garage can become a greenhouse or garden space! While you’ll still have to focus on plants that grow mainly indoors, it gives you plenty of room to experiment. Plus, you can always couple the garden space with any other idea on the list. Make the garden a place where you come to write your next application or video game. Make the garden a coffee shop that you come to read and hang out.
8. One Car Garage
If you have a two car garage, consider converting only half of it. Leave most of the garage as is but then renovate the floor to be something that is friendly for rubber wheels and rubber soles. The other half can be converted into that wellness space so that you see it when you get home, a home office, or an art studio.
9. Library
Physical books take up a ton of space, and if you want to endlessly collect books, you may need a spot set aside for it. If you love used books, an old garage can be converted into an awesome library and combined with any of the ideas on this list.
