As you can imagine, we at Garolla hold the humble garage in high esteem; after all, it offers a flexible space that can be used in countless different ways. However, for many homes, the garage is a sort of forgotten space - a holding area for half-empty paint cans; garden equipment; furniture that needs repairing; unused exercise equipment… the list goes on…
The garage is often perceived as a place for storing things (often junk!) in a state of limbo before they find their eventual home or use. For that reason, a typical garage around the UK fits a similar profile: breezeblock walls and a cold, hard floor, with a dim, flickering overhead fluorescent light. After all, if you are using your garage to store unloved / outdoor items, why would you bother giving its appearance any thought? But with properties continuing to rocket in value, every square inch of space needs to work harder than ever before. With the average UK garage boasting around 150 square feet in space, it’s clear we need to look at the humble garage in a different way! It’s difficult to be inspired by a space with blank walls and functional lighting; some simple - and not necessarily expensive - decoration can make all the difference, and help you understand how else you might be able to use the space.
Homeowners obsess over every aesthetic detail in every room of their house, from finding the perfect kitchen island to the colour and style of doorknobs. But - so frequently - we see garages as a huge, blank and often overlooked canvas. With modern, high-quality roller garage doors providing exceptional levels of insulation and security, the garage no longer needs to be a cold, draughty outbuilding that needs to be hidden away; they now offer a true extension of a home’s living space, or a space for a hobby or business venture.
Decorating your garage gives you the opportunity to reclaim valuable space, whilst making it a genuinely enjoyable and visually appealing place to spend time. You may want your garage’s decoration to be in line with the rest of the house, but you also have the opportunity to experiment and showcase a completely different side to your personality.
Don’t know where to start? Our guide helps you understand how to dress up a garage door, whilst elevating its kerb appeal, and also provide inspiration with some unique garage decor ideas.
It’s time to transform your cold concrete shell into a unique masterpiece.
The Exterior: How to Dress Up a Garage Door
Let’s first talk about the outside of the garage. It’s often the largest single part of a house’s façade and demands attention from an aesthetic point of view. To that end, a tired or rusted garage door significantly negatively impacts the overall visual appearance of the entire property. Similarly, it’s important that your garage door fits in with the overall style and colour scheme of your property; when choosing to decorate your garage door’s exterior, it’s important to consider its immediate architectural surroundings.
Naturally, the most significant way to impact your garage door’s aesthetic is through a deliberate choice of colour. As a colour choice, white draws attention away from the door, and towards the rest of the property. However, an invisible garage door is a missed opportunity. If you are looking to decorate your garage door’s exterior, consider architectural shades that add a sense of gravitas and visual impact. For example, a sleek anthracite grey or navy blue garage door injects a big shot of modern style to a traditional red-bricked property’s overall appearance; adding such a big contrast to the property’s external appearance might seem an unusual choice. However, such a sharp colour contrast demonstrates design intentionality and confidence, and this can actually work very well.
On the other hand, wood-effect garage door finishes like Golden Oak or Blackcherry provide warmth and a sense of premium charm, making your driveway and property more inviting.
The surface of the door is just one part of the design equation; you might also want to think about the surround - adding a border or frame can add architectural depth. External lighting is also important - not only from a functional perspective. Carefully positioned lighting can add visual impact, interest and a splash of colour to your property even when it is dark outside. Bright security floodlights are too harsh and distracting; instead consider installing LED sconces on either side of the door frame. This form of lighting can be used to add a wash of soft light across the door face - particularly dramatic in highlighting the horizontal lines of roller garage doors.
You may also wish to think about the juxtaposition between the driveway and the door itself. This can be softened by adding symmetrical greenery in the form of planters / boxes either side of the door. For side-facing garages, adding a trellis with a climbing plant can transform a dull wall into an integrated part of the garden.
Garage Floor and Wall Aesthetics
If you are to successfully decorate a blank garage interior, you first need to change your perspective, and stop thinking of your garage as an outbuilding. Transforming your garage starts by attending to the visible surfaces; we recommend starting with the floor. Typical garage door floors are grubby, oil-stained concrete surfaces - hardly a great start for an elevated aesthetic!
Epoxy resin coatings provide a stylish, modern aesthetic that’s practical and cost-effective too. Easy to clean and maintain, the smooth, high gloss finish has a real wow factor. This flooring material also provides great versatility - you can add patterns of swirling colours, or even incorporate metallic flakes into the mixture. This means you can easily match your floor with your vehicle’s colour if you wish!
Alternatively, interlocking modular tiles provide a functional option with aesthetic appeal. It is worth bearing in mind they come in a wide variety of styles, colours and qualities. Modular tiles are softer and warmer underfoot than bare concrete or hard floors, and offer a good option if you are converting your garage into a social space or home gym.
Once you’ve chosen the material and style for your floor, it’s time to focus on the walls. Garage walls are often the definition of a blank canvas, and comprise of breeze-blocks or bare brick. You might be able to leave this be for certain industrial styles of aesthetic, or if you are using your garage as a gym. However, increasingly, homeowners are prioritising practicality and convenience when decorating their garage; for example, slatwall systems effortlessly combine style and functionality. Installed across a wall in a consistent colour, they provide a clean backdrop that hides boring breezeblocks whilst allowing you to very easily hang - well almost anything - from bikes to canvases - from the wall, without needing to “drill and fill” over time. Instead, you can change what you hang from the wall in a matter of seconds. Slatwall systems offer a great use of otherwise redundant wall space, helping you to quickly find and access items that might otherwise be buried away in a corner.
If you’re looking for a more homely feel, plastering and painting your wall in a deep, dark hue creates a focal point for the room whilst adding warmth. A bold feature wall works particularly well if there is a key room feature situated against the wall - for example a TV or bar area. Remember, darker colours don’t show up scuffs and scrapes as much and are perfect for a room that blends function and style.
Unique Decor Themes for Your Garage Interior
It’s useful to choose a specific theme when decorating your garage to help ensure your decor ideas hold together. As the garage is separated from the main house, this gives you the opportunity to try something completely different.
Transforming your garage into a home bar is an increasingly popular option for homeowners. In this case, incorporating stained woods, vintage furniture and gentle lighting can emulate the atmosphere of a classic bar. For a sense of American nostalgia, add in metal signage, neon bar lights and framed prints of classic cars. With excellent insulative properties, modern roller doors allow converted garage bars to be warm and inviting all year round.
A typical garage also offers the perfect dimensions for a home gym or yoga studio. Neither require fussy aesthetics, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the colour scheme should be aligned with the desired energy in the room. Bright reds, greens and yellows help to promote a sense of energy and motivation, whereas powder blue, woodland green and pale purple evoke calm. Use floor-to-ceiling mirrors for both settings, not only to check your form, but to radically increase the perceived size of the space, as well as bouncing light around the room.
If you also use the space for storing garden equipment, or ladders, these can be hidden away behind screens; bamboo is a great choice of material here, as it looks the part as well as being an extremely cost-effective material.
Bringing some of the outdoors in the form of low-maintenance plants (e.g. Snake plants and Spider plants) can improve air quality whilst adding serene visual interest. You could even create a “living wall” to make the most of the space, but be mindful to choose plants that can survive with minimal natural daylight.
When decorating your garage in preparation, you’ll want to consider painting the ceiling black to minimise light reflections, and installing acoustic foam panels on the walls. Modern foam panels come in many different shapes and designs, meaning they can form part of your desired aesthetic. Don’t have the budget for expensive recliner seats? Don’t worry! Oversized beanbags or deep second hand sofas help create a relaxed, comfortable environment where you can find yourself totally engrossed in your favourite films.
Remember, when decorating your garage, the end result should feel far removed from a typical garage interior, to the point where those inside can forget exactly where they are in your home.
Lighting for Atmosphere
When a garage is built, just like the walls and floor, lighting is usually designed to be functional rather than actively contributing towards the room’s aesthetics. Most garages have a single central light source (often a now obsolete fluorescent tube). However, this has the effect of creating shadows, whilst leaving many areas around the garage dim. Addressing the lighting has to be a priority when decorating your garage; good lighting is the foundation on which successful design schemes are built.
Installing different layers of lighting helps to add character to the room, whilst giving flexibility in how you use the room at different times of day and for different purposes.
Ambient lighting should form the basis; this can be easily achieved using LED batten lights that mimic natural light. However, the visual interest and personality of the room is introduced through accent / task lighting. For example, adding directional lamps over a desk or workbench can help you to focus on specific work. You might want to consider introducing coloured LED strip lighting under cabinets or along the edge of the floor for a futuristic glow; similarly, installing neon wall art can add more than a touch of your personality and desired style.
If you garage features a window towards the sides or rear, make the most of it! Avoid blocking natural light wherever possible, and add a shutter blind for privacy. Remember, electric roller garage doors can easily be opened (even if half way) to flood your garage interior with natural daylight when you are using it in the warmer months of the year.
Hiding and Disguising
Even if you choose to convert your garage, in all likelihood it will also serve as a form of storage for other items. You don’t usually find a lawnmower in a gym, and an exposed boiler looks ugly in almost every setting (other than the boiler cupboard!), so in decorating your garage, you need to learn how to hide and disguise elements that detract from your desired visual scheme.
Clever use of stylish screens can help to block unsightly tools or ladders from view, whilst installing permanent wooden shroud boxes around boilers and fuse boards helps achieve design harmony without unsightly distractions. Paint the wood the same colour as your wall, and the box virtually disappears.
For smaller items that no longer “belong” in your newly decorated space, consider purchasing a storage system that fits in line with your garage’s visual identity. This might be in the form of large plastic lidded boxes, but the key here is to ensure consistency. Try to avoid mixing and matching your storage, as this creates a sense of chaos; uniform storage containers blend into the background. Carefully chosen storage cabinets also provide a good option for hiding away tools.
Why Your Garage Door is the Ultimate Decor Choice
You can’t avoid the subject of your garage door when talking about garage decor. Old, tired, rusty or poor-functioning doors can ruin an otherwise pristine and visually unified room, while traditional up-and-over doors are grossly impractical for use in a garage conversion. Furthermore, the back (inside) of a standard garage door is a mess of exposed springs, cables and visible tracks (which significantly limit the available wall space). Ultimately, it offers an (unwelcome) throwback to garages of yesteryear.
A modern automatic garage door on the other hand provides a stunning modern backdrop, without functional fuss. With no exposed mechanisms, the door opens neatly into an overhead box - no exposed guide rails or wasted space. When closed, the door presents a clean, flat surface that could be mistaken for a wall. And with a wide range of colours to choose from, you will not find it difficult to find one that matches or complements your new palette. Buying a new roller garage door might be the final piece of the design jigsaw puzzle, helping you to make your new room feel truly finished, whilst bringing enhanced insulation and security properties too.
Reclaiming the Final Frontier
When you start on the path of decorating your garage, you fundamentally need to shift your mindset. It’s not “just a garage”; it’s the most versatile 150 square feet of your home. Through thoughtful use of the space (inside and out), and clever design, you can transform a cold box into the best room in the house!
The potential for decorating your garage is limited only by your imagination. Remember, your home doesn’t end at the front door; it continues into the garage. With some creativity, careful planning and a modern, practical door, you can reclaim this “final frontier” of your home, and turn it into a space that’s not only usable - it’s truly loved by all who enter it.
