The Best Garage Designs

Size

• Richard Newton likes The Monster Garage, a design with a huge footprint that allows for a wide range of options (see Reference 1). For most people, however, a garage of more modest size is appropriate. As well as being big enough for your car, or cars, a garage should also have enough room to allow you to get in and out of your car easily. Ideally, you will also have room to open the hood to inspect the engine. Even if you don't want to do your own maintenance, you will be able to do small jobs like topping off the windshield washer reservoir, adding antifreeze and checking the oil.

Features

• A pit, or underground space, is useful in a garage for people who want to be able to work underneath their cars in relative comfort. A workbench and tool storage may be high on some people's list of priorities. Some garages even boast spray booths and air lines, like commercially run garages. The door details are important, too. A Florida firm has a door imagination system online that lets you design your own door and see it on your chosen garage (see Reference 2).

Location

• If you have a choice in the matter, you might want to build your garage adjoining the house, with an interconnecting door to the house and a remote-controlled garage door. This way, you can get into and out of your car without having to get wet when it rains. Furthermore, you can bring groceries from the trunk of the car straight into the house. Alternatively, you might need or prefer to build the garage away from the house.

Organization

• Garages can soon become dumping grounds. If you are not careful, you may lose things. You need to organize your garage to get the best out of it. Garage enthusiast Kira Obolensky believes that you should organize to visualize (see Reference 3); in other words, if you can see it, you can find it. A garage that Obolensky champions features special grooved wall panels, like the ones used in shops, to display merchandise, but groups of wall hooks work just as well. That way, you never lose anything, and your garage looks pretty cool, too.