Our garages often become storage rooms full of stuff. Keeping in mind that a typical two-car garage is roughly 400 sq. ft, this is a substantial amount of real estate you cannot overlook. Whether you’re doing a home renovation or your family is growing, your garage, traditionally reserved for a car but now holding “stuff”, can easily be repurposed into a variety of uses.

If you don’t own a car or prefer to park it on the drive, you can transform your cluttered garage into stylish additions with just a little effort. Here are a few solid ideas to jog your creativity.

Home Office

Photo: Design Sponge

Converting your garage into a home office is one of the simplest conversion options. Well, the complexity or simplicity of the office will depend on the level of ambiance you want and the type of work you do. You will essentially need electrical outlets and an internet connection.

If you’re going to have an expensive laptop in your home office along with important files, and then spend hours per day in there, the room and garage door needs to be properly insulated against cold and damp. You will, therefore, need to install an insulated garage door if you don’t already have one. Other than saving you from inflated utility bills, you will be able to make your home office more comfortable.

Another important factor to consider is the noise level –of course, you want your home office to be as quiet as possible. And one way of ensuring this is by hiring garage door opener installation expert to install a whisper drive opener. Beyond that, you can also bring in some space-saving storage solutions to keep things a bit more organized. If your garage doesn’t have enough natural light, consider installing garage doors with transparent door panels.

Home Gym

Photo: Garage Gyms

If you lead an extremely busy life –nowadays pretty much everyone does, right? –it can be challenging to squeeze in some time for the gym. Most people would like to keep fit, but the distance to the gym and the membership fee only serves to discourage them. If this sounds like you, or maybe you simply like working out in peace and privacy, turning your home garage into a gym can be a great idea.

Repurposing your garage, for this reason, can be as simple as stacking up a few weights, stringing up a punching bag and maybe adding an exercise bike. Again, just like your home office, the simplicity or complexity of your home gym will depend on your budget and exercise goals. But it doesn’t really need to have all the expensive machinery for a start, the most important thing here is that you have a separate space for exercise.

Guest Room

Photo: Gardenista

Converting your garage into a guest room is a creative way of utilizing this unused space. The room can come in handy when you have in-laws visiting, friends coming over or simply an annex for Au pair –whatever your reason. It’s however important that the room is properly weather proved before turning it into a bedroom.

First, you might want to install an insulated garage door or call a garage door repair expert to do insulation and damp proofing. You will also need to look at electrics and plumping and ideally, consider en-suite facilities to give your guests ultimate superior comfort. You will also probably need to do some repainting and upgrade the floor. At some point, you will require some help for a professional or two to successfully pull this off.

Movie Room

Photo: Sjoy Studios

Now, to some fun part –creating a movie room is really not as complicated as you may imagine. All you need is a quality projector, a couple of squishy sofas, a decent sound system and a soft rag and you’ve got yourself a fully functional home cinema.

You can, of course, beef up the level of comfort by having a professional insulate the room and add in heating, depending on your personal preferences and budget. After that, simply throw a mini-fridge in the corner for cold drinks and invest in a huge popcorn bowl and you can sneak away from the noisy living room to catch up with your favorite latest blockbusters any time.

Lounge

Photo: Instagram

Yet another creative idea for utilizing your unused garage space. Remove all the cluttered “stuff”, do some repainting, floor upgrades, proper insulation, and so on. And fill in some table games, comfy sofas, a TV to watch your favorite games and even a bar if the room allows. You can keep the garage door opener up during the summer for some fun indoor-outdoor experience. This is essentially a man cave, but you can get away with calling it a lounge –if anyone asks.

Bathrooms are intensely high traffic areas in the home and it does not take long for them to start showing the strain! You don’t need to take on a major bathroom reno to get it looking back in tip top shape. Here are some easy budget friendly tricks from the pros that you can do all by yourself:

1. Repaint, Clean and Spruce

Every few months go through the bathroom and take out everything that is not bolted down, give it a good scrub, bleach surfaces, and take a hard old toothbrush to clean your grouting! Bathrooms build up a layer of soap residue and the only way to get rid of it is by thoroughly scrubbing the surfaces. Finish by drying and polishing all the shiny surfaces, be it porcelain or silver chrome to make sure that there are no marks left as wet patches dry.

ARPA Designs

2. Install a New Mirror

Whether you opt for baroque curves, asymmetrical style or a modern sleek look is up to you; but one thing is guaranteed – a new mirror, properly fitted and carefully placed can make all the difference to a tired bathroom! The other day I saw some great value bathroom mirrors at My Bathrooms. With the right eye for detail, a great choice in a mirror can make your space look bigger, brighter, and instantly updated.

Tucker and Marks

3. Wall Stickers

No longer for the kid’s bedroom, stickers are big in the décor business, enabling patterns and pictures to be fixed to walls, bath panels and even the shower cubicle quickly and cheaply. These colorful and attractive decals instantly add a splash of color and brighten up dull areas.

Wall Pops

4. Update Your Shower Curtain

Buy a new shower curtain, choosing a lovely luxurious one to replace your current, rather dull one. A curtain in a bright, vibrant hue with a glamorous trim can instantly add elegance and grace to your bathroom!

Tobi Fairely

5. Update Fixtures

Changing your drawer handles, door knobs and your taps can give your bathroom a fresh new look at a fraction of the cost of replacing all the furniture. Even the toilet flush can be changed for a glitzy gold-painted number to add some sparkle to your bathroom!

Esther Herschcovich

6. Ceiling Light

Paint the ceiling of the bathroom lighter than walls to open the room out and give an airy impression of spaciousness, even in a small, poorly proportioned room. You may also paint different patterns on your bathroom ceiling.

Hendel Homes

7. Smellies!

Keep one small section of the bathroom for scented candles, flowers and potpourri to add a lovely natural fragrance to the room at all times. The light and subtle perfume will make the bathroom seem fresh and clean, even if you have a large, rather sloppy family!

Isler Homes

8. Floating Shelves

Minimize the furniture footprint in the bathroom but maximize storage space by using floating fixtures for storage shelves and even the vanity. You can buy some amazing floating shelves from IKEA.

Hart Wright Architects

9. Storage Solutions

Every bathroom needs a certain amount of storage space so do not skimp. Make sure that everyone has a place to keep their toiletries, and then demand that they keep those toiletries neat and tidy!

Diana Bier Interiors

10. Lighting

Bathroom lighting is vital – and not only for ladies to do their make-up! Poor lighting can make us feel cramped and uncomfortable, which can making bathing and washing up an awkward occasion. Invest in a good array of lights or chandeliers and make sure that the bulbs are not the dimmest you can find!

Peter Dorne Architects