A Room for all Reasons

Have you ever looked inside your garage and had that irritating feeling that it is a space going to waste? If so, you are in great company. Many savvy homeowners have had that same feeling. The good news is that quite a few of them took action with great results.

It’s actually an important trend, says Nick Granato, owner of Premier Garage. ”Plenty of homeowners are downsizing their lifestyle, buying smaller houses.” Reducing their total area space triggers them to look for ways to maximize all available room space, he says. “Homeowners are really starting to conceptualize their garages as an extension of their homes. Once they make that thought transition, it’s a natural progression to visualize their garage as not only a place to store their cars. It’s a place that also can double as, for example, a recreation room, a hobby workshop or a home office.”

Smart Strategy
With the garage often being one of the largest rooms in a house, it’s really a very smart strategy, says Granato. The large array of cabinets and other organizing product options available today make designing a multi-use garage easy, “one of the three partners (Nick, Viny or Scott) visits our clients’ homes for a free consultation so they are always dealing with one of the owners to ensure the most personalized service. We bring along our computer-based design templates so our clients can visualize how their garage will look once we agree on a design plan.”

Garages are also perfect places to store a lot of items that, left in the home proper, can contribute to a cluttered look, he says. “We provide our customers with attractive storage solutions for such items as shoes, backpacks and seasonal clothing. We also can design areas for refrigeration units and wine coolers.”

Design Tradeoffs
Most design plans require some type of compromise by the owners, says Granato. “Usually the space choices active families must make have to do with their bicycles. Bicycles are space hogs, each requiring at least six feet of space. With a sports-loving family typically having three or four bikes, homeowners have to decide how many cars and bikes they can realistically store in their garage.”

Thinking of their garage as an extension of their home tends to tap a homeowner’s creative vein, he notes. “We see our clients asking for such personal touches as customized floor treatments, such as the Harley Davidson logo we embedded in a customer’s garage floor.” This kind of options puts the “S” in Home, Sweet Home.

For more information or a free consultation and design, give Premier Garage a call at (866) 497-2880 or visit http://www.premiergarage.com.