Pimp my Garage! Or show me yours!
 

So I have this idea. I'm taking off for the holidays but I can't just sit on my keester so I want to paint my garage walls and add some framed art to it too. I was thinking of a checkered flag theme down the first 3.5 feet of the drywall wrapped around the garage and then paint the upper portion a light grey with framed pictures in the grey area. Much like as if it were seperated by chairrail. I want to post my garage pictures to see who has some awesome talent out there with photoshop because I don't. I'd like to see what it may look like with my idea, or what any other cool ideas you would come up with and if I like it, I would do it! I also encourage others to post their garage pictures! I just want to do paint, the cabinets and expensive shelves aren't in the budget right now. I already have epoxy coated the floor a semi gloss grey which I love. Can't wait to see the replies! :cheers:

http://i14.tinypic.com/44vmf15.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/2uikpok.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/447ct3k.jpg

You know that almost sounds like a challange to djomlas ! :D

He does post some impresive stuff he has done with PS.

Personally, I'd rather catch a beating than paint. I just painted stripes in one of our guest bathrooms and kept praying that I'd fall from the ladder and kill myself. I can't imagine what it'll take to paint a checkered flag. Have you considered painting the bottom in a contrasting color, separated by a checkered flag border? There are several pre-pasted variations available on the web.

I could see already that this thread will show the "creative side" of every man in this forum :D
Ideas:
Looking at your garage, the epoxy paint on the floor looks really good but not really sure about putting a lot of checkered flag paint on it, probably just a stripe right in the center and paint top and bottom that kinda blend into each other...top has lighter color and bottom will be a little darker so in case it got dirty, it won't be really noticeable...and don't put too many picture frame on it!

or, get one of your favorite poster or painting and use that as a guideline for your paint but not too much coz' you want that painting to be the central focus of the garage...

Let's start with a 52 inch plasma HDTV to cover up the ugly breaker box and add a suround sound system. You can watch movies in you car with the top down. Then add a popcorn machine and a beer cooler and forget the paint.

How 'bout you do what bnorman says except you get an old drive-in speaker and paint other cars on the walls with fogged up windows.

heres a quick 5 min pchop
http://i14.tinypic.com/2ebr8yg.jpg

Now you are talking, that might just actualy look good. :cheers:

lol, your picture looks awesome compared to mine! Don't laugh!

I am pretty good at masking and taping. I work for 3M :) Checkered flags shouldn't be a problem.

http://i17.tinypic.com/2i79snc.jpg

I sure hope you paint better than you photoshop :)

Yes I promise I do! Here's a recent picture of my pool room I painted. (Before & After) I also did all the wood work (Double crown, shadow boxes, chair rail) and installs of the surround sound (before dry wall) and tv. I'd like to do something of this sort for the garage minus wood work. Just paint of a new shade or similar but light difference. This pool room is on the same level as the garage so I don't want to walk in either door from either location and it be too crazy. Just a nice flow looking like an interior designer was payed big bucks to figure it out. It would look cool to make the garage almost look like a dealership, sleek, cool and trendy, much like the Porsche dealerships are now if you go in them. Much like the photoshop picture that looks awesome on this thread, and he said he only did it in 5 mins!

http://i17.tinypic.com/2cyitfr.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/4doemwx.jpg

2nd picture wasn't coming up... i'll try again

http://i12.tinypic.com/34j214w.jpg

Wow, it looks like you have the skills. Your game room looks great. Very nice job.

Thanks! I just need real creative ideas now since I have not come across too many garages that have been done up. Trying to find pictures online is nearly impossible unless you are looking for cabinets etc.

99box

Is that a Spencer-Marsden table from Billiardex? I just ordered one (Turin) and was looking at a model similar to your picture.

If you want garage ideas, go to http://www.garagejournal.com and sign up for the board. There are literally thousands of photos in the Gallery section, as well as every flooring, wall covering, tool selection etc, etc, etc post that you could imagine. Here's a photo I quickly pulled down from the gallery as an example...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1/PICT0008.jpg

Cool, I am gonna check out the site. The billiards table is an Olhausen. I picked it up at Games & Things. It was the first thing I bought for the house while it was being built. It was somewhere around $2500 or less installed. It's a great table. Has that accufast siding that won't break down and I believe was a three slate table system. Unfortunately I didn't get to watch them install it. I had to get one short stick for the tricky shots since the room isn't huge.

that pool rooom looks great! I always wanted to add the white wood around the lower walls and then paint the top half like that.....for a second I thought it was somone's garage when I opened the thread :D

Olhausen are a really good brand. The billardex also use three slates. I'm getting my installation on the 29th and it came to about $2500 with all the extras (cover, new heat-resistant balls>????, etc.) having 15' by 19' is often difficult. Hoping we manage.

So, lemme ask an impertinent question. Do any of you guys actually DO anything in your garage, besides maybe wax the Porsche?
Do you actually own a toolbox, or maybe just a couple of wrenches?
Those are the male equivalent of Martha Stewart's kitchen. Pretty as hell, but nothing as messy as actual cooking has taken place there.

Sure, I wax the car, I have a few wrenches to do work and I store all my samples for work throughout the week in the garage. I have done a lot of wood working in the garage cutting molding, cedar etc and also use it as a "lab" for work related purposes. I don't do elaborate work in my garage when it comes to motor work, but painting the garage and making it "look cool" is what sets it apart from the norm. I enjoy taking on projects that keep me busy and give end results that I am proud of. I've thought about what a big difference it would make to pull my car into a nice garage everyday as well as before entering the house and how it would be fun. It's part of the house, and painting it extends the living area in a sense because you enjoy it more. I would assume it would make the whole house seam more inviting, especially since with my town house, going through the garage to enter the house is much eaier than going around the building to the front door. It would also make you realize that you can actually do something with all that space. It's called being creative and having fun doing it. To each his own! :D

You can have a nice garage space and still do real work. In my last garage (in the bad scan below), I did four ground up restorations in the five years I lived there. Actually, I found that doing the floor in epoxy and painting the walls in a washable egg shell made cleaning up a lot easier. Nothing ever harmed the epoxy floor and no matter what I spilled on it, it wiped right up. Granted, my garage was nothing that would be of interest to Architectural Digest, but it doesn't have to be a cave to be functional. Isn't it more enjoyable to work in a clean, well lit space than in a grease pit?

The house I'm in now, I'll probably die in, so I want the garage to be spectacular. I'm hoping it'll be a place where, when we have guests, we all end up hanging out at the end of the evening. But, that won't stop me from sandblasting, powder-coating, painting, stripping, rebuilding, etc.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1/scan0001.jpg

Quote:

"So, lemme ask an impertinent question. Do any of you guys actually DO anything in your garage, besides maybe wax the Porsche?
Do you actually own a toolbox, or maybe just a couple of wrenches?
Those are the male equivalent of Martha Stewart's kitchen. Pretty as hell, but nothing as messy as actual cooking has taken place there."

Originally Posted by Ronzi


Nope, sure don't. I'm a driver - not a mechanic. Working on a car is what money is made for.

- C5150

I've had oil spills, paint (base coat and urethanes) spill on my concrete and have always wondered about the epoxy paint.
It's really that good?

It's really that good. I wish I had some better pictures of my floor so I could show it to you. Even if you spill automotive paint, get it before it dries and it'll wipe right up. If not, it'll come up with a little thinner. Oil, grease, brake, fluid? No problem whatsoever. You just wipe it up with a paper towel.

The epoxy paint is that good. My old camaro would leak oil, power steering, transmission fluid. Iw would stain the concrete. After scrubbing the areas and coating the floor, it still stuck to the stained areas and when the car kept leaking, all I would do is whipe it up and that was it. Even if it was on there for days at a time. It would just sit as a puddle until you cleaned it. I love my floor.

What a dumb question.

Like some of these other guys, I have done a little bit of work to my garage, some functional (like the epoxy floor), and some not (like paint). I spend a lot of time out there, sometimes working on my car and sometimes drinking a beer w/ my neighbors, and I like a space that's comfortable and clean.

Just because my garage isn't a half-finished storage room full of grease, pictures of my mullet-wearing friends, and 1 1/2 1980's IROC Camaros in pieces doesn't mean it isn't used. I happen to keep all my tools (or my "few wrenches") organized neatly in a 6ft tall toolchest. :) Some people just have cleanliness standards.

well pretty much no matter what work you do, garage or not garage, its much easier to work in a clean/well lit place than trying to find a tool for 40 mins couse u just have no idea where it could be.
and then if you got the nice epoxy floor, even when youre done making all the mess, its cleans right up and it looks like u did no work, even trough you did.
when we moved to our house garage wasnt finished, actual drywall was never put on, and floor is not coated, me and my dad want to do it but we never get around to it..but it does its purpose

Hi again Grizzly,
How do you think it would fare against overspray (car paint) and what brand did you use? How much, price?

I did my last floor in 1995 with a Rustoleum product that I got at Home Depot. There are much better products out there now. I'd recommend either Epo-Armor, or U-Coat-It. They are different products and the prep and application processes are very different. You'll need to carefully evaluate both products to see what will work better for your application.

As far as overspray goes, it's not a big problem. It'll wipe up with a little thinner. Of course, you can't be stupid about it. Don't expect to paint a whole car with no floor protection and wipe off the excess. That's not going to happen. However, if you get a little overspray on the floor by accident, it'll come up.

As far as price goes, I've been back and forth recently with my multiple personalities regarding what I should do with my current floor. If I were to use U-Coat-It, it would run about $1200.00 for 1000 square feet. The Rustoleum I used 11 years ago was 300.00 for roughly 600 square feet.

Prep.....I'm just hoping my present floor isn't beyond prep. It's like a roadmap of all my activities over the past 20 years!
Hopefully I won't miss the history lesson.

Thanks for the info. :cheers:

Hi,

I hear what you're saying. It is not necessary to have a Showcase Garage, though they are nice.

I have a plain old garage, cinderblock construction, pre-stressed concrete roof, nothing fancy at all. I have an I-Beam in the ceiling w/ hoist which will support 2 tons, sealed the concrete floor w/ clear sealer (cleans as good as Epoxy) and a couple of nice Car posters on the wall, a boombox, my bench, tool chests, floor jack, stands, stool, compressor, Blast cabinet, etc. and I'm good to go. Have done a dozen or so complete engine/tranny rebuilds, 4 frame-off restorations.

A Dream Garage is fine, but the cars and the work's the thing for me. I'd trade all the fancy paint and floors for an extra 250-500 '² any day...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99