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6 Incredible Garage Conversions
Trading car storage for capacious living space, these garage conversions leave their former incarnations in the dust
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia. I've been writing about design online for quite a few years over at Hatch: The Design Public Blog.
Houzz Contributor. Hi There! I currently live in a 1920s cottage in Atlanta... More »
If you want to expand your home's footprint but cannot add to it, look to the garage. Weigh the extra living space versus just how much your car needs to be protected from the elements. Then, shake the thought of those bad garage conversions where the driveway goes right up to some awkward windows and doors that clearly used to be a garage opening. We're not talking about those conversions. We're looking at some very clever conversions where even a trained eye would probably not guess the space used to be a garage. See if any of these remarkable transformations inspire you to leave your car parked on the street.
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by FABRE/deMARIEN
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| The architects at Fabre/deMarien in Bordeaux, France, transformed this 441-square-foot garage into an ingenious modern home. |
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by FABRE/deMARIEN
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| The inside is light and open, and there's even a little bit of outdoor space. |
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by FABRE/deMARIEN
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| Because of its teeny size, the home is full of clever storage tricks that allow for dining, sleeping, living and work spaces. See the rest of this home |
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by AHMANN LLC
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| Thomas Ahmann of Ahmann Architects transformed a narrow garage into this family kitchen in Washington, D.C. |
by AHMANN LLC
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The beams on the ceiling help unify the L-shaped space.
by AHMANN LLC
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A bay that juts out onto the patio provides a lounging area at the edge of the kitchen.
See the rest of this home
See the rest of this home
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| Architect Margaret Menter turned this garage into a creative space that will grow with the family as their needs change. |
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| For now, while the children are young, it includes play equipment and space to do crafts, and it can be easily cleared out to become a party pavilion. |
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The space also has a utility sink and a bathroom.
See the rest of this space
See the rest of this space
It's hard to believe, but the part of this house with the chimney flanked by windows used to be the garage.
| Inside, you'd never guess you were sitting where the lawn mower used to sit. |
| Soft upholstery and finds from the Round Top, Texas, antiques market take the renovation up a notch. See the rest of this home |
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| BEFORE: I hope you are braced for this "before" shot! This was the space Pi Smith, of Smith & Vansant Architects, was faced with before beginning a ranch house's major renovation. |
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AFTER: The space now contains a "mud alley," where the family members enter the home and hang up their snowy outerwear, organize the mail and leave their wet boots to warm next to the woodstove.
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| The other side of the mud alley contains a comfortable and light family room. See the rest of this home |
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by Ira Lippke
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| We can't talk about garage conversions without including artist, welder and designer Michelle de la Vega's 250-square-foot former garage home in Seattle. |
by Ira Lippke
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The open, industrial space has a tiny kitchenette, a sleeping loft and a bathroom with a bathtub. The bathroom was the only part where she added to the single-car garage's tiny footprint.
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by Ira Lippke
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| The steel sculptures to the left of the woodstove are by de la Vega. See the rest of this home More: More Living Space: Converting a Garage Take Back the Garage |
Ideabook published on June 17, 2012.
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I'm currently shopping for a home and it's amazing how many have "converted" the garage into extra bedrooms, but at the same time neglected to add another bathroom. Thus there are lots of four bedroom, one bathroom homes on the market, very unbalanced. Do you reconvert the bedrooms to their former garage space or do you invest in a new bathroom space?
So before you convert the garage to living space do some careful thinking on the negative effects to your vehicles, not to mention where will all the other stuff the typical garage hold be moved to?
Many municipalities don't allow garages to be converted.
And if you do it anyway, you may have trouble selling your house.
@Smoore if you convert a garage into usable and easily defined living space (eg a dining room, bedroom or extended living room), then in most cases it can add value to your home (as long as you've still got somewhere to park a car).