Our DIY Garage Makeover

We bought our house last year, and have completely SO many awesome projects already. We are excited to be starting a new one, though I think this is the biggest one yet! Like many families, our garage kind of serves as our storage moreso than an actual place to park our cars. We wanted to turn it into a workout/weight room but with how hot it gets in the summer, it just wasn't possible.

Now that we have our gym in the living room, we came up with another use for our garage: an art studio! Rachel needs a quiet place to do her art, and with winter (and cooler temps) coming, the garage is the perfect place. We were inspired by urban street art for this makeover, and will be posting pictures on Instagram as well as right here on the blog in a follow-up post.

Our makeover started with safety first: a LiftMaster Garage Door Opener and Automatic Garage Door Lock. I can't count how many times I've locked myself out of the house and had to have one of the kids climb over the fence and in through a window. Not safe! Now I use the MyQ app to open the garage to get in. The lock cannot be disabled from the outside, or automatically locked or unlocked from the app, which means no more getting locked out! Woo hoo! I’m sure the girls won’t miss having to climb over the gate.

Thankfully with our garage update, we installed a new garage door opener that is wi-fi connected. If the electricity goes out, the LiftMaster Garage Door Opener can stay on, which is an added bonus. With audible security, the sound of the lock engaging lets us know we are protected. We use the MyQ App for monitoring via our Smartphones for extra convenience. While the deadbolt is engaged, the garage door opener is virtually impenetrable.

I’m super excited about the garage makeover as well as the LiftMaster Garage Door Opener. We haven’t had a keypad on the outside of the garage, ever, so that’s new!

Our sensors were broken so those were replaced and the door opens now without any issues. My favorite part about our new garage door opener – besides how quiet it is! – is that the light comes on automatically when I walk outside. The LiftMaster installer said we could also set it up to where a lamp in the kitchen comes on when we walk in through the garage. We haven't done that yet but it's on the to do list. I love how easy the install was!

After the garage door was installed, I headed to the store to pick up some necessities for organization and COLOR! Rachel envisioned this urban art paradise, so I had to try and help make it happen… cuz you know I'm not going to be able to help with painting, right? I can't even draw a straight line! With the urban art scene in mind, I bought some metal open-air shelving, a huge toolbox for her tools, and a few other things we'll reveal in the follow up post!

Right now as I type this, Rachel is painting the walls a very bright color! As you know, she wasn't quite on board with all the bright colors at first… but now she's embracing it and I LOVE IT! I'm so excited to see the finished product and can't wait to share it with you.