4 Ways to Make Your Garage Into More Than a Garage
When you think about your garage, you probably think of a place to park your cars. You might also think of a cluttered mess of storage, if your garage falls under that category. Or maybe to you, your garage is a place to work on messy projects, change the oil in the car or build birdhouses with your children. Some homeowners, however, don’t use their garages for any of those uses. It could be that there is more than one garage, or that they need the space for actual living area. If you would like to expand your living area and don’t really need to use the garage to store your vehicle, here are 4 other uses that you might consider:
- Turn your garage into a man cave
This is an increasingly popular option as surround sound and home theater systems get bigger and louder. If you like to have friends over for drinks, snacks and video games or a big football game on the widescreen television, turning your garage into a man cave might be the perfect use for this area. A small refrigerator, comfortable furniture and, most importantly, a great television and sound system, are just about all you need to have the boys over for a fun evening out (or, in your case, in). New garage flooring is a bonus, as are things like a pool or foosball table, or maybe a Pacman arcade game. Best of all, the garage is pretty insulated from the rest of the house, so while the guys get loud rooting for their favorite team, the ladies can talk in peace and quiet in the living room or dining room.
- Turn your garage into a spare bedroom
Has your family outgrown your house because you have more people than you have bedrooms? Whether your teens don’t want to share a room anymore or you are expecting another baby, turning your garage into a spare bedroom can expand your living area without forcing you to move. You will need to insulate the garage, run air conditioning and heating ducts, and put up a permanent wall in order to complete this project. You will probably also want to put down wood flooring or carpeting.
- Use your garage for entertaining
This doesn’t actually require that you don’t use your garage for its intended purpose, unless you plan on hosting parties every weekend. If it’s an occasional thing, you can move your cars out of the garage, hide the stored items behind the closed doors of your garage cabinets, and move the party inside! Having new garage flooring, particularly the epoxy floor coating or interlocking floor tiles, will help spruce up the look from the drab concrete floor that is there now. Also, be sure to upgrade the lighting; no one wants to party in a dark and dingy garage! You can run a surround sound system in the garage for music and have a dedicated fridge in the garage for holding drinks and cold foods.
- Save part of the garage for storage
Even if you decide to turn your garage into a family room, man cave or guest bedroom, you don’t have to dedicate the entire space to its new use. Your garage, after all, is probably quite large! You can block off a section to function as storage space. Some homeowners decide to put up a wall several feet away from the garage door, and use the existing garage door as an access point for the storage area. This would allow easy access to lawn equipment, sporting goods and garden tools from the outdoors.
No matter what you choose to do with your garage, always remember that it does provide additional square footage, should you need it as living area now or at some point in the future. Talk to a real estate agent to find out how converting the garage into something else might affect resale value; in some cases, it will raise the value, and in others, it will lower it. Get all of the information before you make a final decision.
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