Do you have a garage you just don’t know what to do with? If so, you aren’t alone! The garage is sometimes the easiest part of your home to ignore and just keeps spiraling out of control. This is why I decided to do a low budget diy garage makeover of our two-car garage. Making it more functional for our family. We also gave the entire garage a better overall look with a fresh coat of paint!
There are so many factors that can be figured into why we ignore our garages for so long. Cost, time and just not knowing what stays or has to go. If you can relate, you’re in the right place!
I’ve gathered a few budget-friendly ideas to help you to take control of your garage renovation project with ease. In this blog post, we’re going to look at a couple different scenarios of functions for a garage.
For instance, our garage is a two car garage that needs to have 3 different functions for us to all be happy. We needed a workout space since we don’t have a gym membership, storage for all of our holiday decor and childhood memorabilia, and a workshop for us to do our DIY projects because those get messy and we can’t do them all inside our home.
So, let’s dive into this garage makeover project and how we made our entire family happy by giving us all the functions we needed while also doing it all on a budget!!!
Workout Gym Garage Space on a Budget
The first step/area to tackle was the Garage Gym Storage. Seeing that everything gym related is insanely heavy we needed to make sure whatever we made would hold up for many years to come.
To achieve this, we built a large main cabinet out of ¾” Birch Plywood that is 2 feet wide by 8’ tall. Three of the shelves in this cabinet are permanently glued and screwed in place. These 3 shelves will hold some of the heavier things. Like weight vest plates, kettle bells, fire hose and slam balls.
There are two other adjustable shelves we use to store lighter items. Such as yoga mats, empty weight vests, dry erase board and other small various gym things. These shelves can move over time if our gym equipment ever changes.
On the side of the gym cabinet we mounted with bolts to the cabinet our bike racks. This bike rack is designed to pivot on a hinge. It folds 90′ and is completely out of the way when we need to access our water heater and air handler. This bike hinge is one of the most clever I have ever come across and we love the quality of it so much!
Then we added a door and handle to this cabinet. We needed a door to keep dust out of the cabinet when working on DIY projects. The sawdust gets on everything and makes such a mess of everything. Now, our gym equipment will be dust free.
The last bit of gym storage equipment we have is the weight tree. This thing has been a game changer in this space. It is on wheels, holds all of our weight plates and also holds the barbells. This is a really budget friendly option one we found and it has held up really well for us!
Total Cost Gym Storage was $300. This includes all the supplies to build the cabinet and the weight tree cost.
Long Term Garage Storage on a Budget
Can we just first talk about how expensive closed garage cabinets can be? It’s insane that one small wall of storage cabinets can cost thousands of dollars. That just blows my mind to pay so much money just to store things.
For a long time we just had open shelving that did store a lot of our big boxes and other random things. But, overtime the dust from DIY projects would just create this blanket of yuck on all of it. It was a mess to clean and also when getting something off of that shelf we felt like sawdust went everywhere and all over us.
So, we came up with a solution to try and build our own garage wall closed storage. These three cabinets are one giant piece that we muscled up all by ourselves. We used 5 sheets of plywood to build the entire cabinet and mounted them on steel metal legs and into studs. They also got doors just like the other cabinet to keep sawdust out.
I’m still in awe with how much storage these two foot deep cabinets gave us. Inside there is one permanent shelf in each cabinet and the rest are adjustable incase we need to rearrange things. These cabinets aren’t full yet which means we have ample space to grow into them as a family for many years to come.
Total Cost of the Long Term Cabinet Wall $400 for all the supplies needed to build the big three section cabinet. Talk about being on a tight budget and making the most of it!
DIY Workshop Garage Space on Budget
This workshop area has been a long time coming. It took me almost 5 years of moving things around and finding better storage options as I grew into my craft of DIY Home Improvement Projects. I will say I am glad I took my time piecing it all together.
The first piece of the garage workshop puzzle I put together was storage for all the miscellaneous small things. On Facebook Marketplace, we found 2 large file cabinets for only $150. There was absolutely nothing wrong with them besides needing some updating visually. It might sound crazy, but file cabinets actually work GREAT as garage storage.
To make them a little more modern and updated, I added black flat vinyl to the outside using this squeegee kit. File cabinets are built to hold a lot of weight and be used all the time, which made for a great option to hold all of our tools and stand up to the wear and tear overtime. We have had them a little over 3 years now and they are still going strong. They hold paint, hand tools, screws and all the other miscellaneous supplies and tools we use regularly.
Workshop Part 2: Budget Friendly Workbenches
The second piece of the puzzle was having a surface to work on for projects. We also needed a place for our big power tools to live permanently.
I first found a counter height metal table frame at a thrift store. It was the perfect height, size and structurally sound. I added some plywood to the top and plywood doors to the front. This not only created an elevated space for me to work but also more storage space underneath for more miscellaneous items.
The second bench I made completely from scratch using workbench plans from a fellow DIY friend. This giant 7’x4’ bench houses our table saw permanently. It allows me to cut things of many sizes by myself flawlessly and safely. The miter saw is also built in permanently and flips upside down and stores under the bench when I don’t need it. These workbench plans are so dang clever and it works so good for us no matter how big or small our projects are.
PRO TIP #1: Live in your garage space for a little while before you commit to storage long term. Make sure that storage can grow with you over time. File Cabinets are absolutely strong enough to handle tools and everyday wear and tear.
PRO TIP #2: If you have overhead space you can utilize, make the most of it. We store all of our seasonal decorations buckets in our overhead storage racks that are actually wall-mounted shelves. We have a corner overhead garage storage rack that doesn’t move. Then we also have overhead storage that lowers and raises for easy access. This lowering overhead storage is an amazing option if you don’t like or can’t use ladders.
Our Garage Storage Gym Workshop may have taken us almost 5 years to get exactly how we wanted it. But, I am so glad we took our time on the entire process and figured out each piece of the puzzle. We also made sure each of those puzzle pieces were going to work out long term and so far they all have. We hope this helps you speed up the process and tackle your garage remodel faster without breaking the bank.
Whether you need your garage to be just where cars park or for storing all of your extra nick nacks. I believe with a little creativity you can 100% come up with a solution to make it work best for you.
Every fellow DIY enthusiasts like yourself knows if there is a will there’s a way! I can’t wait to see what you come up with for your low budget diy garage makeover with these cheap garage makeover ideas!!!
If or when you decide to tackle your low budget diy garage makeover, I’d love for you to tag us on Instagram so I can see your really fun recipes and DIY projects come to life!
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