You and your friends have this weekly night out. It’s that time of the week when everyone, despite their busy schedules, would strive just to meet and have fun. Nothing fancy really happens during that day – just catch up, ask how the week went for everyone and have a good time with your long-time friends.
And now that this has become a weekly regime, you’ve thought of providing your friends with a new venue to meet up. You think that watching the latest movies or playing Wii is always a good idea to spend that weekly get-together.
With this goal in mind, you’re eyeing turning your garage into a brand new entertainment area. Because why not, right? Your family is no longer using that garage, and you know that you can turn this room into an area which you can brag about to your friends.
You’ve been looking all over the internet to look for your inspirations on how you would want your new entertainment area to look. You’ve seen entertainment areas with different themes and all of these have sparked your interest – you just can’t wait for that transformation to happen. Sure, you know what you want but do you know what to do to make that inspiration a reality? Turning your garage into a brand new entertainment area will be easy if you follow these tips:
You should be prepared:
Whenever you’re doing anything new, you should be prepared for anything and everything. You don’t want to show your friends a renovation project that’s half-baked.
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- Budget: Since turning a garage into an entertainment area is a serious business, so should your budget planning. You should come up with a budget on how much are you willing to spend on the renovation. Assess if you need to purchase any furniture, or equipment or hire any professional help. All of these should be included in your budget. You want to prepare for the expenses that this renovation might cost. When you’re in the process of budgeting, always remember that you should only spend what you have. Don’t do extreme measures such as acquiring debts from banks just to have that top-of-the-line entertainment area.
- Floor plan: Aside from the budget, it is also important for you to prepare a floor plan for your entertainment area based on your garage space. Create a clear picture of what you would want your entertainment to look like. Are you fully using someone else’s garage for inspiration or are you planning to inject in your personal touch along the way? Consider these things especially if you’re planning to hire a contractor to do the job for you.
- Schedule: If you want to be hands-on with the renovation or even plan to do everything by yourself, create a schedule on how much time would you spend on your project either on a daily or weekly basis. This can be tricky especially if you have a full-time job, but it can be done. You just have to balance your week between work and the ongoing renovation to check if everything is still on track.
Your entertainment area should be weather-prepared:
Back when you were still using your garage, you only park your vehicles there. That doesn’t need too much ventilation or whatnot, as long as it has at least two fluorescent lights, you’re all good. But that’s no longer applicable to your entertainment area. You have to prepare for a lot of things to ensure that this new room will be weather-proof and water-proof.
You can start by ensuring the safety of the garage as well as the house. Check whether you need to repair the door or install a new one.
You’ll probably be purchasing the newest models of flat-screen TVs and projectors, so you have to make sure that your room is suited for these devices. With this process, you have to contact an electrician within your area for help. You’ll be needing their expertise to install new outlets and to ensure that there are no hanging electrical wires all over the place. You don’t want your planned design to be ruined by all of these. Aside from the wirings, you would also want your entertainment area to be well-ventilated because you and your friends will be spending time here.
You should be organized:
Before you can duplicate that inspiration you got from the internet, you should be able to organize whatever stuff you have in your garage first. You can do this by scheduling a weekend just to inspect what are the things currently stored in your garage. Determine if these can still be used or not. Throw things which you don’t need and keep those which you think can be useful in your entertainment area. If you still need storage for important things, you can still use the garage but do so in a manner which will adhere to your entertainment room’s design. You can try out DIY projects for unique storage ideas – no one says hanging your mountain bikes on the wall is wrong so go ahead and try that in your entertainment area.
You should be creative with furniture:
Do you have that design inspiration with you right now? Good, because you’ll be using that in this phase. This is probably the most exciting part of renovating your old garage – shopping out for new pieces for your new room. Since you have an inspiration for how you would want your entertainment area to look, use that to look for furniture which can complement that design. You can shop from several shops around your area or even shop online to search for the best price possible. If your garage has limited space, you can opt to use multifunctional pieces such as a chair that doubles as a storage area for comics and magazines or cushions which can double up as a sofa bed (because it’s always a good idea to lay down while watching a horror movie).
Turning your garage into a new entertainment area is never a piece of cake. There are a lot of things to do and not do to guarantee the success of this project. It will require your patience, time, effort and resources to get the job done. Yes, it might be challenging but when you’re done with all of these and once you get to use your entertainment area, you’ll be proud of yourself for completing this project. You’ll be glad you’ve thought of this project in the first place! We hope you like this article from Shop Garage Door.
George Anderson
George Anderson – George is a specialist when it comes to roll-up doors. Working in the industry for over 20+ years he takes pride in helping his clients fulfil their needs when it comes to garage construction. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his family.
