share post

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming Year

by | Jan 8, 2018 | Decorating Inspiration, My Garage, Offices, Organization

This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure Policy here

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming Year House and Home – Garage Studio Inspiration

One thing we liked about our house when we were house hunting in Seattle was that it offered us a lot of flexibility. Even though it is a fairly modest house (1500 square feet of main floor living space), when you add in the basement level, the attached garage and even the good sized backyard, it really expands the potential!

We have always visualized a number of ways we could use our lower level in future years (besides everyday family activity) including as a place to expand our business, a rental opportunity or even as a place for my parents to live with us if they wanted to! All of those options are still on the table.

My office and business space as well as our laundry room are currently downstairs (and all the stuff we aren’t sure what to do with at the moment ends up down there, too. Anyone else have a basement like that? Hahah). So, while we feel quite settled in many ways, we still have plenty of things to work on this year.

Depending on other needs for space, we have even considered converting and organizing our garage (which we do not use for a car) into a studio space for our business.

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming Year

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming Year

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming Year

Our Garage (when we moved in!)

I can imagine all sorts of potential in here. I have already started my inspiration file of possibilities (I’ll show you a few in today’s post!).

This week I’m working on a post to bring everyone up to date on our progress in this house so far (with before and afters), as well as our plans and goals for the upcoming year! :)

What are some other topics and subjects you’d like to read about this year?

Enjoy this inspiration for converted garage studio spaces!

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearHouse and Home – Garage Studio Inspiration

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearApartment Therapy – Sabrina Soto from HGTV

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearApartment Therapy – Sabrina Soto from HGTV

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearDetached Garage – Southern Living

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearBHG

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearBHG

Garage Studio Space Inspiration & The Upcoming YearBHG

What are you working on this year? What would you love to see and read about on The Inspired Room in 2018? :-D

 

Related Posts:

My Home Office

6 Tips to Kick Start Your Garage Organization

Creative Studios and Craft Room Inspiration

Shop My House / My Latest Decor & Home Organization Finds

17 Comments

  1. Kerry

    I have a newly emptied nest – my youngest moved out in October 2017. In many ways this has been difficult for me (I miss my girls) – but it has opened up possibilities for new use of the space in my 1450 Square Foot Townhome. In December my husband I were finally able to get a new bed- Yeah!! In order to make that change we had to moves some things around and are now in the process of sorting through our things and trying to make the most of our 3 bedroom home. I would love some ideas on suggestions for using the additional bedrooms for additional living space while still preserving the option of guest room/bed room.
    Blessing for your new year!!

  2. Debby

    I love that glass-paned orange garage door in the last photo! I am so jealous–we live in the Midwest, so in winter we need to always park our two cars in the garage. My husband is a graphic designer by profession but he also paints. We didn’t have room for a little studio for him in our condo, so he carved out a corner of the garage where he has his easel and a work table. I love watching him paint in a coat and hat with the space heater on in the winter! I would love to see ideas for transforming just a part of a garage for hobbies/woodworking/craft area, but if you’re lucky enough to be able to use the whole garage, more power to you! I can’t wait to see what you do.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Yes! I’m sure there would be wonderful ways to carve out a small corner for creative pursuits and make it quite comfortable (so funny about the hat and coat, I used to wear my coat IN THE HOUSE when we lived in our big house, it was drafty and so cold in the winter!). I was born in the midwest so I remember the need for a garage for the car was a must! We just don’t seem to care about that as much here (or maybe it’s just me, I don’t care about cars ha).

  3. franki

    Our daughter and family purchased the house next door to us at “the lake.” Need to come up with a wrap around deck idea…they just installed “sliders” on the entire lake side…their view is spectacular…but…now they need a deck to open to without marring “that view”…oh, the dilemma…

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Sounds like just the kind of problem I’d love to have to solve hahah! :) Enjoy! How wonderful to have her next door!

  4. Christie

    Love it! I’d love to renovate a garage someday using a garage door with windows!

  5. Ryal

    Our garage has never seen a car either! Since we live in Florida, we have no basement (we’re at sea-level), so our garage is our storage. My first thought about converting a garage into work space is temperature. Can garages be insulated? In the summer months, our garage temperature is unbearable; I would imagine Seattle winters would make the space uninhabitable.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      They can be insulated! They are actually more affordable to renovate than adding on since you already have the structure, so it’s a great way to capture living space if you need it. We can either have our furnace duct run through for heat in the winter or add wall space heaters and I think it would be fine all year round! In the summer our garage is the perfect temp, cool and comfortable :).

  6. Barb V.

    Just curious, why wouldn’t you park your car(s) in a perfectly good garage?

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Many of our neighbors don’t use garages either and some don’t even have them. But personally, our garage door is also very old, heavy and really cumbersome to use because it swings OUT in order to open. So we’d have to park on the street, get out of the car, use our all strength to open the garage door and swing the door out, go back to our car to pull in the drive way. And even if we wanted to, once we got the garage door open, the garage is actually too low for getting our car in :). It would be way more of a hassle to use it than it is worth, we might as well just park in front and walk in the door.

      And even if we could get a new garage door, it’s a tuck under garage and our kitchen and main living space is upstairs to that is another strike against us using it, we like to enter the house on our main floor.

      Plus we don’t really need to use it for a car! We’ve got plenty of room to park, and we don’t live in a climate that rusts the car in the winter. While I know putting the car in the garage is convenient and would offer more protection for the car, for us it’s just not a big deal. I know, we’re probably weird!

  7. Diane @ An Extraordinary Day

    Free space!!! WooHoo!! Absolutely take it over! My first house we had a HUGE garage and I even had a worktable in there from a department store that sold fabric but took out that department. With a built-in yardstick it was so handy and high for working at when the weather was decent. But, yup, I wore a coat out there many times for a project. I miss it. My only concern for you is that it will stay dry if there is a gully washer. I’m thinking it has a sloping driveway?
    I LOVE that last room with the orange doors. Oh Wow!!!!

  8. Melinda

    We are working on organizing. We moved in to our new home almost a year ago. We just put a lot of things we didn’t know what to do with in the attic. It’s a nice walk in attic. Now we need to go through it and purge/organize it. We are also working on closet organizers. The closets are gratefully big, but with that comes a need for usable/reachable space.
    I’d love to see how you organize your basement and soon garage space.

  9. Stephanie

    I love the first inspiration photo with the bright white and all that cabinet space! I also love the orange garage door, but if it was me, I’d maybe pick a different color. I can’t wait to see what you do with this space!

    I’d really like to see a post on how to decorate a large wall. I have a few spaces I’m trying to work with and every time I bring a piece of furniture or art home it seems too small for this large space.

  10. Peggy

    How exciting! I can’t wait to see your plans for your garage space. It seems perfect to use for your office.

    One idea for a future post – how to organize a kitchen desk area (in a small galley kitchen) to be functional, but still pretty and not cluttered. It’s where I keep my laptop, calendar and some files (in a drawer). It is what it is – I can’t change the one glass shelf over the countertop or the three drawers, but I’d love creative ideas on how to make the most of the space and not take up too much counter space.

    Happy New Year!

  11. Liz (in OK)

    You have a very steep driveway to a garage that you don’t use. Would you consider filling and leveling that area to enlarge your front lawn?

    You could still have an staircase and a smaller open area to provide an entry, seating area, light and air circulation. And you could formally close in the area to become part of the square footage of the house, though that might impact the valuation of the house and taxes.

    It would really change the look of your house. I went back to the video of your home – (https://theinspiredroom.net/2015/09/02/our-new-seattle-house-tour-video/) – and I always smile. The house looks like a big face with two windows as eyes, the light fixture as a nose and the garage door and driveway as a big mouth, waiting to swallow you! And the rows of bushes look like arms coming out to pull you in.

    Silly, I know. Could you take a fresh picture of the front of your house so we can see what changes you made? Thanks!

  12. Diane Adam

    A garage to studio conversion is on my Wish List!

    I’m planning to do some major renovations which will mean losing my detached studio/office which is just a spruced up shed. I’ll be including a garage in the new renovation, so the current (separate) garage looks the likely candidate for my studio space.

    I already have visions of a coffee station, pot belly stove and a comfy sofa… not sure all that will be conducive to work though! :-)

    So… I’ll definitely be following your progress!

  13. sara

    do you have any details for the new linens on the guestroom? loving all the cozy grays :)

 

Decor Finds:

browse categories:

browse archives:

let’s stay connected!

Follow for daily
Home Inspiration:

get my free decorating guide

home decor inspiration, free downloads,
and more, straight to your inbox

css.php