Give Your Garage a Design and Organization Update

In a world where you can find thousands of décor and organization ideas online, it can be overwhelming trying to plan out which room you should focus on when making your house your own. However, when you think of design tips for your home, do you ever think about how to decorate and design your garage?

For many homeowners, the garage is where you store all your gardening tools, bicycles and other various outdoor items, or maybe it is even where you store seasonal decor. If you’re like me, it’s where you store all of your husband’s various impulse buys from multiple brands of the same power drill to old motorcycle gear that he just can’t give up. But the garage has the potential to be so much more! That’s why we have decided to pull together some of our favorite garage organization and design tips so that we can encourage one another to bring life, and sanity, to this often-neglected space of the home.

Organizing the clutter

Some of my favorite tips for the garage are for organization, because if your garage is cluttered you won’t be able to give it the fresh and unexpected style it deserves. Here are a few of my favorite tips on how to gain back control over the garage.

• Purge the items you don’t use – This can be tricky if you are sentimental, or if your spouse doesn’t want to let go of his chopper days gear. But in the end the less clutter, the easier it will be to get organized.
• Save the floors, use the walls – One of the best ways to organize your garage is to think of creative ways to save floor space. Use the walls to your advantage by hanging tubs to place items in, pegboard or even add in shelving.
• Label storage bins – Storage bins can become your best friend if you have a lot of seasonal décor like I do. Can you really ever have enough Christmas decorations? Place storage bins side-by-side on shelves for easy access and label them so you can easily find your items.
• Be a ceiling fan – While the walls and floor may be obvious storage solutions, don’t forget the ceiling! Hanging belongings such as bicycles and kayaks from the ceiling is a great way to save space.

Customize the space for its purpose

Photo by Jeremy and Katie Bower.

Putting thought into what you use the garage for the most can help you determine the best way to organize the space. Is your garage mainly where you place gardening gear? Do you often find yourself doing any creative projects in the garage? Or is it simply a place where you park your car and your kids throw down all their gear when they get home from practice? No matter what you find yourself using the garage for the most, one of the best ways to organize your garage is by organizing it into zones like Katie and Jeremy – the husband and wife team behind Bower Power blog!

Jeremy and Katie use their garage for multiple different activities such as their do-it-yourself projects, a home gym and more. So, they decided on the top activities their garage is used for and organized it into 3 different zones: the workshop, storage and gym. This allowed them to organize all of their belongings as well as give each zone its own personal and creative design touches.

Add pops of color and design touches

Give your garage some love by adding unexpected design and décor touches. This can help the space feel like part of the home instead of the dreadful cave you avoid due to clutter and a lack of personality. We actually teamed up with Katie and Jeremy from Bower Power on a creative project in one of our new homes with a garage to add their own personal touch to the space.

Katie and Jeremy used several creative touches to the space – including using a jewel-toned green on the walls, faux shiplap wallpaper and creating a drop zone, which is a neat place to store your bags, shoes, umbrellas and other items when you first walk in the door. You can read about the full project and room reveal on their blog!