If you’ve been following me over on Instagram you know that I’ve been slowly trying to make our garage into more of a cozy outdoor living space. We have a three stall garage, so one small stall can house most of the “stuff”, like bikes, baseball gear, the mower, gardening supplies, etc.
That means the main garage is basically a 24×30 (I have no idea if this is accurate, I’m just guessing) room with a ton of potential (and yes, still a ton of stuff).
The first step was purging A LOT of outdoor toys, over the course of several garage sales. During our spring sale, I talked the kids into giving up things like the rarely used hockey sticks, and their surplus of frisbees (since they owned a couple dozen and never even played with one). We cut down on the number of bicycles per child (still working on this), and hung as much as we could in the rafters on a makeshift pully, or on the walls using simple hooks.
The kids haven’t missed a single thing and actually spend MORE time playing in the garage now that it isn’t such a mess.
If your studs are exposed, I recommend using these exact hooks for hanging things like bikes, strollers, and hula hoops. You wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff they can hold! We also have hooks like these, that I used to hang a handful of bicycle helmets, and other things like that.
I tried to keep a certain color scheme going with the hooks, but eventually, the frugal side of me said “just use what you have”, and I mixed all sorts of colors on the wall from my pile of old hooks. They function, and that’s what matters!
We picked up a couple of fans from Menards. They’re also available on Amazon. We aren’t electrical savvy, so we had an electrician come run new wires and install them. We need them here for a security system upgrade anyway.
The fans make such a huge difference in the airflow! I love them! I do wish the fan blades were flipped to show the black side, but I didn’t dare tell my sweet husband that after he put the fans together with me (and I didn’t think I’d mind much until I saw them already on the ceiling…oops).
The most recent upgrade we did this week was adding a couple sets of outdoor string lights. I’ve admired these for quite a while and originally wanted to hang them in the basement family room (I might yet). I wish I had a spot in the backyard for them too.
They’re simply gorgeous!
I love the Edison bulbs!
The light strands are heavy duty, and easy to install (if you aren’t afraid of standing on a ladder and getting sweaty while you work.. THANK YOU, Mr. Awesome). They are also built to be outdoors and withstand the weather (even rain).
Again, being frugal we used what we had to install them, which was a bundle of zip ties I was sent last year to do a review of. I’ve been using them everywhere and actually will be ordering some again soon! To fit around our rafters I had to connect TWO zip ties together. No big deal, I did this on the ground while Chad basically stayed on the ladder and I handed him the supplies he needed. He must have said “zip tie” and “light bulb” about 30 times. He’s a good leader! The kids helped some with handing supplies too. Most projects here are a family affair (Mr. Awesome and our oldest daughter have been staining the outdoor playground together).
FYI: You can also use cup hooks like these for installation. However, zip ties were faster and didn’t damage the rafters. I’m a “good enough” kinda gal.
Lest you think it was all butterflies and roses, It was almost a HUNDRED degrees outside, and we had a little miscommunication about where to add the ties, how to space the bulbs, that kind of thing. We got the job done though! At the end of the day, we both like how it turned out, and it really didn’t take very long at all to get hung up.
The results were toally worth working in the heat! These give off such a gorgeous warm glow, and really brighten up the space.
In hindsight, I WOULD’VE gone with the indestructible bulbs, rather than glass, but the price was right on these. I ordered them from the Amazon Warehouse Deals. So take my advice, if you’re considering hanging these around kids, go with something like this. And be sure to get LED, they’re much more efficient to run and don’t put off heat.
The kicker to our garage transformation is that I’d still like to be able to park both our cars in the garage in the winter, so I’m trying to be really intentional about what updates we make, and keep things tidy.
Have you transformed a garage? If so, I’d love to see pictures and hear your tips!
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