6 Ways To Transform Your Garage On A Budget

Okay, so this won’t necessarily transform your garage, but it might transform the way you get in and out of your car. If you care about your paintwork, you’ll probably already squeeze your way out of the door (maybe even the window) to ensure you don’t chip the paint by banging said door against the wall, so why not make your life easier? Stick an off-cut of thick carpet to the wall, allowing you to exit your car without fear of doing any damage. There are even foam pads available if you want a slightly less ghetto look, as seen in the video above.

It’s also a clever trick for when you’re about to sell the car. When someone arrives, get the car out of the garage and let them see your little setup; if they see how much care you take of small chips in the paint, it says a lot about how you probably treated the rest of the car.

2. Paint the floor and walls

It doesn’t cost a huge amount to do this, but it will make your garage feel bigger and more professional. Slap a few pots of white paint on the walls and some durable grey floor paint on the ground and you’ll be amazed what a big difference it makes. It’ll make late-night wrenching sessions much more bearable.

3. Organise your stuff

It might seem like a daunting task, but the easiest way to improve your garage experience is to just tidy up your stuff. You can start without spending a penny. Simply taking all of your stuff out and placing it on the driveway, then returning it piece by piece to assemble some order (and remove anything that’s just clutter) will make the place look much more inviting.

If you want to get all fancy, you can install some shelving and cabinets. Channel that Ikea mentality of taking your storage solutions vertical, and you’ll suddenly discover you have so much space for activities!

4. Install decent lighting

Again, this can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. Giving yourself a nice, bright place to work will enhance your experience massively. Most people work under dingy, yellow lighting, but installing bright white bulbs and a couple of extra light sources will make it easier to see what you’re working on, find tools, and stave off stress.

To go for the professional look, get yourself some LED lights. They’ll initially be more expensive, but if you’re the kind of person who stays up into the early hours every night working on your project, they’ll start to pay for themselves surprisingly quickly thanks to the reduced power requirements.

5. Set up electrical outlets near where you work

For the electrical whizzes out there, this should be relatively easy. Instead of running extension cords from the house and tripping over them every five minutes, get a few outlets placed on either side of the garage. There are few things I hate more than seeing wires all over the place, so anything that reduces those unsightly coils is good by me!

6. Get a heater and a fan

Garages get cold in winter and hot in summer, so have something for every occasion. The fan would obviously keep you cooler if it’s hot, but also has the added bonus of keeping the air flowing around you. You can kick up a lot of dust, funky smells and undesirable particles that can sit in your lungs while working, so it’s nice not to have those lingering any longer than necessary!

If you’ve got a bit of extra cash, making sure you’ve got a proper extractor fan and/or air purifier might seem like overkill, but your body will thank you further down the line.