Combining the households of 2 grown men is not an easy task. Like we did a little over 2 years ago.
Our garage, just like yours I’m sure, was a total dumping ground for everything that didn’t have a place in the house.
Get this, we actually piled all our crap to the ceiling in there.
To
The
Ceiling.
It’s almost too embarrassing to show…but I’m gunna show you anyway.
Told ya, pretty awful.
But where else are we supposed to keep our taxidermy bass? or “See Rock City” bird house? or the old theater seats?
We did manage to keep a small (someone call for a Hoarders intervention)path from the door to the outside world.
After just about 2 years of sorting, …….and adding shelves, …….and donation trips to Goodwill,…….. and putting stuff on the curb……….we managed to get to this point…
Not too bad, but not something we are particularly proud of either. We still can’t fit a car in there. I don’t even have a picture of all the “stuff” pushed to the side out of camera range. The mess is mostly contained, but the whole place is still so…… unfinished. The walls and ceiling are just plain 1970’s sheet rock. They never even did a tape-and-bed job.
We had to do something to make it feel like a “room”…..and we needed a jumping off point. Like this peacefulness…
Mixed with this anal-retentive organization….(like I even have to tell you that it’s from Martha Stewart Living)
A little modern, a little vintage, a little wooden, a little functional garage……that’s where we were headed.
And what did we like the most about our 2 inspiration photos? The wood, that’s right.
Fencing cedar is pretty cheap. About 3 bucks for an 8 foot board. Every time I made a trip to H-Depot I picked up 10 boards. 30 bucks a pop, not much of a bite. We used it before on the front of our house to make thick columns and cover the ceiling of the patio. Both projects we are still just Ga-Ga about.
To this, in a few hours….We still need to trim the door in white moulding. And add the cedar crown moulding. (Crown moulding in the garage, aren’t we fancy?) And Jamie has something planned for that door to the kitchen too. The wood tone distracts too much from our B-U-T-ful cedar.
I can not live without my air compressor and brad gun…. Best Investments Ever..
After the kitchen remodel, we saved the old upper cabinets (in the garage natch’) to wrangle in some of the clutter. 2 of them went over the washer/dryer (y’all can see that amazingness here)…..and the others we hung along the foundation at a perfect counter height. They are shallow, because these are upper cabinets and only 11 inches deep, but that will keep the garage looking more open.
Here’s the upcycled kitchen cabinets hung along the base of the left side wall….
And after taking the cedar along that whole wall and adding the cabinet doors. Notice how the sprinkler control and electrical panel were painted khaki to blend in with the cedar….Pretty clever, an I right? Who wants to see things like that? Not us. That’s for darn sure.
This is just the beginning of this “Mind Blower”. Wait till y’all see everything we have been working on out there.
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Oh, my gosh! I never would have thought about using fence boards in the garage. That is a terrific idea! I built my home a few years back…but they left the garage unfinished and uninsulated. I’m thinking this would be a terrific way for me to finish it myself. (As in…no heavy drywall, tape, mud, sanding…yuck!) Oh, ya….off to Home Depot to get me some boards.
Tina, we thought the same thing…BUt we are taping and beding the ceiling..it’s terrible, only finished about half so far…it’s miserable work over our heads…..but a crisp white ceiling makes such a difference, so clean and bright
OMG!! I love your creativeness (is that a word?) JAMES WILL YOU MARRY ME 🙂 I could always use a second husband to help me with house projects!!
I don’t know how Your Jamie AND My Jamie would feel about that! LOL
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Really like your idea about using the cedar planking. I have a big garage and it looks much like yours when you moved in, except that I am lagging several years behind you in getting it from move-in storage to organizing. The wall are finished with fake wood paneling and has insulation, but there is a justly smell and I fear that the insulation has been compromised, so I am planning to replace the paneling bit by bit. Was looking at using bamboo paneling but it runs $60+ for a 4x8ft panel. So picking up cedar boards a bit a time sounds more doable. I’m going to check it out. Your wall look great.
Thanks Julie, I LOVE the look of cedar…and it smelled so fresh for the first few months too…should deter insects, not that we have a problem with them….
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This looks amazing. How much was the total cost of materials?
Hi David. I’m not really sure. Every week, or so, I’d pick up about $40 in cedar planks from Home Depot. Maybe $400…..or a little more.
Hello James, Thanks for sharing your ideas. I too decided a few years back to use cedar fencing from our local hardware store. As you know, there’s a rough and semi-smooth side to each plank. The smooth-side surface was good enough for my project. I built a work shed out of 100% cedar log framing from some bull cedar trees I had run through the saw mill. Then, I wrapped the entire structure with cedar fence planks so that the smooth-side could be seen from the inside. Then, I fastened insulation panels over the fence panels for insulation. Since I had plenty of sand stone rock left over from my home building project; I wrapped the shed with rock. The project turned out great and now every structure I’ve built is wrapped with sandstone (home, work shed and water well house).
Herman, that sounds amazing. I’m all for using everything you have. The Native Americans say “every part of the buffalo”. I also love the smell of freshly cut cedar and can’t wait to line our closets with it someday.
Can you tell me about how you fastened the planks to the wall. I’ve been needing an excuse to buy a brad nailer… Did you try to fasten to studs, or not worry about that? What kind of brads did you use? Thanks!
Katherine, Sorry I’m just now seeing this. I did use a brad nailer…with small nails at an angle on the sides…so there are no holes in front. It only took a few. And no, I didn’t worry about attaching to the the studs too much. It’s not THAT heavy. A brad nailer is a great investment, but they ain’t cheap. I think mine was about $200, and the gun was another $60.
This looks amazing.
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