Garage Makeover — Everything Has Its Place

Dwight and Shar’Day Porter have a good sized garage; but without any organization, it kept falling into chaos – thanks, in part, to two active little boys.

We helped the Porters get a grip on their garage by creating some simple shelving and racks to get things off the ground and to eliminate clutter. And, establishing designated areas for specific purposes will help ensure things stay that way.

Adding Shelving and Organization

One of the top priorities for the garage makeover was giving Shar’Day a space to park her car. So, after cleaning the concrete thoroughly, we stained a section of the garage floor to designate it as such. Watch How to Score and Acid Stain a Concrete Slab for details on this project.

The key to organizing the Porters’ garage was getting a lot of the clutter off the ground and onto shelves and hooks. First, we installed short vertical cleats to support the metal shelf brackets; otherwise, the weight on the shelves would crush the drywall. For the upper row of shelves we used 16-inch wide pieces of plywood that we primed and painted. We added a 1×12 shelf, along with a peg board, for all of Dwight’s tools.

His new folding workbench from Woodcraft can hold up to 300 pounds and includes a vice and circuit-protected power strip, plus the design saves space when not in use.

We laid the lawn and garden tools on the ground to determine in what order they should stored. Another 1×4, nailed to the wall, was the perfect platform for all the hooks and brackets we needed to hang them.

Finally, we created a space for Dwight’s weight bench, complete with an overhead fan to keep him cool during workouts.