This is a follow-up to the posts on Cedar Planking our garage and Installing the Lack Shelves over the washer and dryer.
When we last showed y’all our garage a few months ago, it looked like this…
We had hung our old kitchen cabinets along the left side wall and started planking cedar over the unpainted drywall.
I continued planking the cedar and floating the drywall seams in the ceiling…
and Jamie installed the cabinet doors (including the Ikea Tyda handles that we would have used in the kitchen if they were available in other sizes) and painted the cabinets sparkling white…
Over the hottest of the Texas months, working a little at a time, we slowly got to this….
After a little more detail work we reached this point…
“Pure Coolness” in a garage, am I right?
We topped the cabinets the cheapest way that we could think of, with framing lumber. Total cost was about $12. This was the only way we could get a 14 inch deep counter that was 10 feet long. It’s not a super efficient workspace, but it is just the right size to drop paint cans and open tool boxes. Besides, there is a decent sized work table in the middle of the garage that is always covered in “assorted important stuff”.
Here are a couple of “steal-able” ideas to make a garage workspace a little more efficient.
Ikea, I know another plug for Ikea, sells knife magnets for the kitchen. Why not use them in the garage too? Now we have a perfect place to hang the things we usually have to rummage through several toolboxes, or drawers, to find. Needle nose pliers, sharp scissors, paint-can opener…..Yepp, right there. There is also no better way to dry paint brushes.
Tomato soup cans hung on the magnet strip are the perfect place to put pens, pencils, and paint brushes. They don’t really take up that much counter space, but they are just easier to find at eye-level. And yes, I choose the cans for the red color….and a slight nod to Andy Warhol.
We built open shelves to lengthen the counter top space because we only have about 7 feet of cabinets. Cool, red baskets wrangle extension cords, shop towels, rubber gloves, and assorted electrical supplies. If we can see it, we can find it faster. The minute I saw those baskets I knew I’d find a home for them somewhere.
Our friend Jimmy was getting rid of these “C- Shaped” metal medicine cabinets. We have other plans for the bathrooms, but they work great here…..
All those little things have a home now. Upcycled salsa and baby food jars are unmatched for holding screws, nails, thumb-tacks, jingle bells…….pretty much anything. The baby food jars filled with metal fasteners always remind me of my grandfather’s tool shed. It was shaped like a red barn with an American eagle plaque over the doors.
I still need to get in there with a label maker, (Lord knows that I LOVE a label maker), but I’m pretty confident that everything is easy to find now.
There are more uses for plumbing pipe then just making shelf fixtures, firewood holders…..or for actual plumbing I suppose. Try strapping one across a wall with toggle bolts and using hooks to hang necessities.
We used kitchen pot hooks (from, you guessed it, Ikea) to hang all those odd-ball things. They are only about 1$ each.
Now that the garage is clean-ER, we can hang all those things that haven’t quite found a place in the house yet. Like this “longhorn-less” longhorn hanging over the old Coke machine. Wouldn’t y’all just expect there to be extra horns just laying in the streets of Dallas? Well, there aren’t. But someday I’ll find a replacement set for him.
We have barely even started planking the right side of the garage…but we do have a few more projects out here to show off.
I don’t want to ruin any surprises…but we found a few unexpected places for storage.
Just wait……
THE CAVENDER DIARY 
Unbelievable. I’m drooling. I’d put that long horn, sans horns, in my kitchen. Loving all the red accents and brilliant paint brush holder.
I’m so glad that you like my longhorn, he is Seriously huge!…..and has been laying in the garage for months. He’s such a Texas icon….a lot of people are offended by the taxidermy …..but not Texans.
If you want horns on him, take him to a taxidermist! They will rebuild him some! My husbands deer head fell off the wall one year and we thought the rack was a goner for sure but we took it in and they fixed it and you can’t tell anything was ever broken!
Great idea Holly. Last year we found a set of matching horns at the Ft Worth Rodeo. 30 bucks, and they fit her very nicely. I just screwed them on……
Love, love, love all that you have done in your garage! Really quite spectacular! That planking is fabulous! I am always envious of people with really good organizational skills…and you two have it in SPADES!!! Can’t wait for your NEXT update…until then: GREAT JOB!!! and thank you for sharing!
Ooh, thanks Vickie, it’s quickly becoming our favorite room in the house. We spend a lot of time out there doing projects……..and that’s where all the beer is.
honestly, I’m swooning. Seriously great.
We love it so much….can’t wait to start working on the other side…and hang barn lights.
I have a garage on the east… And a garage on the west, attached to the pool house… And they would both make your head explode.
They are HOORRRIBLE.. YOURS LOOKS AWESOME… What a handsome bovine someone found for you!
If only that “someone” had found horns to go with him….(hint, hint)
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THIS IS GREATNESS!!! I’m gonna show my husband and see if we can tidy up our garage! Thanks for posting it and giving us great ideas!
So glad that you liked it !!!! We still have a little more work to do out there…(just bought barn pendants the other day) …..so keep checking back
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You guys and your house are such an inspiration to me. By the way, I too have a taxidermied (is this a word?) head but it’s a deer. She (Dear) resides in my retail boutique with a flower on her head and pearls. I had someone yell at me once for having a deer head on the wall. I said “well, I didn’t kill her I just decorated her!”. Shut her right up. I love your cow and I have a niece, who is in Lubbock, watching out for one for me! An already taxidermied one that is. I love your house so much. Look forward to many more posts. Get busy.
Hi Cindy, we have a deer head in the bedroom, he wears a Shriner’s Fez…..Just so happens that our cow head came from Lubbock, ‘prolly why she was so cheap. They have so many there. …..and we have many many more posts ahead. Glad your here!
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James, I absolutely love your garage – it is my inspiration room. What is the width of your boards? I am in the process of organizing my garage after 3years in the house and it being the “catch all”. Thx
They are just standard fence pickets, I think they are about 6 inches wide…..
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I live in an apt. in far North Dallas (hiyooooo!) and don’t even *have* a garage, yet this is enough to make a grown woman weep with joy (I think I get it from my dad, who has a place for everything and everything in its place). But I really REALLY need those red C style cabinets…do you know who makes them?
They are from Ikea…..a friend was throwing them away…and I thought, “Yeah, I might be able to make them work”..and brought them home
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I know this post is old, but I know where to get replacement longhorns!!! Or at least horns, not sure what breed they are from. I got some from Tandy leather withing the last 20 years. Can’t get any closer than that, lol. Love your blog, boys.
Hi. We bought them at the Ft Worth stock show. There was just a box of mismatched horns….. and I think I found 2 that sort of match. Have you tried Etsy or EBay?