Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Have you recently converted a section of your garage into a workshop or home office? Well, if you have, you might want to consider installing garage heaters to ensure your comfort when the season changes.

The Reznor V3 series model is gas-fired and available in 14 sizes. The 30,000-125,000 BTUH gas input are approved for homes. In addition, the UDAP heaters are 82-83% energy efficient. Since these heaters can be suspended in the corners of your garage, it makes them less visible. The model for 30,000 BTUH runs under $1,000.

There are several advantages to direct-vent heaters. First, the flue gas vent can be easily installed through the ceiling or wall to the outside. Second, sealed combustion heaters are the safest option. Third, they burn outdoor air, which reduces back-draft.

Instead of avoiding your garage in the autumn or winter months, you can actually enjoy your workshop or office and even wash your car whenever you need to.

Clutter can quickly build up in your garage, and before you know it, you can barely have room to park your cars. Creating order to this area of your home will enable you to access your sports equipment, tools and cars.

Built-in cabinets are an easy way to store your basketball ball, skis, roller blades and even your gardening tools. Cabinets will give you more space where you need it most. Also, a bike rack can immediately restore order and prevent your children from leaving their bicycles where they don’t belong.

To reduce clutter on the floor, you can install hooks for hanging extra bike tires, rims, holiday decorations, etc. If you’re a handy person, also install a sturdy worktable and supply shelves. This will enable you to have a work zone where everything is in its place.

Lastly, brightly colored storage bins can cheer up the space and motivate you and the family to keep it clean.

Breezeways can serve many different purposes, and it’s a wise addition for your home if your garage isn’t connected to your home. This structure can have a gate, windows, doors and grand columns.

A breezeway between the garage and house offers a covered passageway, which you will appreciate when the weather is bad. Plus, depending on how it’s built, it can give you some privacy too. If it’s large enough, you can setup some lounge chairs so you can enjoy the front or backyard too. Or at the very least, you can decorate it with potted plants.

Breezeways can also act as a gatehouse or hallway that connects the house to the garage as well as providing a picturesque intersection between the inside and outside. Lastly, they can become a complete outdoor sitting area. Adding a high ceiling can protect you and your guests from the sun during the midday.

If your garage has grown cluttered, there are quite a few storage and organization products out there you can check into. For example, overhead garage storage shelves keep boxes off the floor, colorful pegboards organize your tools, and the Finley workbench kit lets you assemble your own area for working on projects.

Today we’re looking at the mobile garage workstations from Moduline. Their modular aluminum cabinets come with casters, so you can push them to whatever corner of the garage will work for you.

The company has several options in their mobile workstation line. The one shown here offers overhead cabinets, a 7-drawer tool cabinet, a recycle/waste bin, a 24″ x 48″ aluminum counter top, and optional under-cabinet lighting for when your projects last into the night. For those who enjoy color, the mobile storage system is available in a white, blue, red, or black baked enamel finish.

Starting around $2,500 the aluminum workstations are a tad (okay, a ton) more expensive than the simple Finley wooden workbench mentioned above, but they should last for a long time.

If you’re looking for a durable garage floor option that’s a little more interesting than the typical concrete slab most of us have sitting under our cars, you might check into modular tile systems that are specifically designed to withstand the wear and tear of being driven over and having oil spilled on them.

These garage floor tiles from SwissTrax come in several styles and unlike epoxy flooring, they can easily be installed by the homeowner. You can mix and match colors and styles to create a unique (and colorful) floor that will stand up over time (a 12 year warranty is included). If something does happen to a section, you’d just need to replace a couple of tiles instead of redoing the entire floor.

Some of the styles, such as Ribtrax, feature an open profile (holes), so they’ll drain.

And for those who like environmentally friendly home improvements, the garage floor tiles are made from 100% prime metal which means you can recycle them at the end of their lifetime. Also the company says they use zero waste in the manufacturing process and choose polypropylene over PVCs.

A workbench is a must for any dedicated do-it-yourselfer, and even if you don’t fancy yourself as a tool pro, there are times when it’s handy to have a space in the garage for projects. But what if your house came with the tiny one-car garage instead of the vast three-bay-plus chamber complete with storage and work space?

You may still be able to find a workbench that can fit into a limited area. For example, this folding workbench from Garrett Wade has a desk area that can be tucked back against the wall for storage.

“Now, those homeowners or woodworkers who are especially tight on space can have a solid folding bench to work on that will ‘disappear’ along the wall when the space is needed for other activities (such as parking the car).”

Made from red beech and high-quality beech-faced composite board, the workbench not only saves space, but it’ll look pretty good in your garage too.

$840

The garage doors take up a lot of “wall estate,” usually on the front of the house. If you’ve got two or three bays, this is even more true. Even with custom garage doors, it can be difficult to make all that door space look good.

These decorative architectural arbors, which are the perfect size for installing over garage doors, can take the eye from the blank expanse below to a more interesting focal point above. Twine some vine plants up the side and across the arbor, and it looks even better.

The arbors are from California-based Auer Jordan and are designed to add “picturesque architectural elements to garages, windows and doorways.”

They’re handcrafted and made from kiln-dried Port Orford cedar. You can leave them unfinished to weather naturally or paint or stain them to match your home’s style.

We’ve looked at some garage organization options before, such as diamond-plated wall shelves, large stainless steel toolboxes, and sturdy diamond-plated garage cabinets. If garage storage structures have a theme, it’s their color, or utter lack thereof.

If you’re ready to brighten up your workshop area, then try these colorful pegboards from Wall Control.

Even if they aren’t monochromatic, the steel pegboards are plenty sturdy enough for hanging tools.

They accept standard pegboard pegs and slotted pegs, hooks, brackets, and shelves. Sets of two pegboard panels (32″ x 32″) run you $35-$45, and available colors include orange, green, blue, black, red, and yellow.

There are lots of garage floor coverings you can consider, both to give a little color to the space and to protect the floor from stains, road salts, and moisture.

The most affordable option is simple concrete floor paint. This is a tougher version of wall paint, and all you do is roll it on as with any other type of paint. The downside is that paint isn’t as good for protecting your floor as other coating options.

If you do choose concrete floor paint, you can select from latex or oil-based, with latex being easier to apply and clean up. Latex dries to a low-sheen flat finish (oil gives you a high gloss).

The cost runs 15 cents or less per square foot for one coat, and you can pick floor paint up at any home improvement store.

The garage is probably the number one area in the home for storing things (and we’re not just talking about the car). But it’s easy to run out of floor space pretty quickly. Fortunately, you’ve got all those walls to look to, so think wall shelves.

And if you’re looking to keep a manly vibe in the garage (or just want something sturdy), it’s hard to go wrong with diamond-plated aluminum.

Speaking of sturdiness, these all metal wall shelves can hold up to 150 pounds each. You can install multiple units side-by-side to create one long shelf that runs along the wall, or you can stack them vertically to create a dedicated storage area.

$68-$96 from Texas Garages