I’m almost through with a remodel of my garage. It had not been painted or even cleaned in 30 years. The previous owner left us some dented, rusty, cheap steel shelves that he probably pulled out of the dump. So here’s the (99.5%) complete project:
This is the "before" picture, though I had already redone the formerly greasy floor at that point.
The first step was refinishing the floor. I went with Guardian Garage Floors. It's not an epoxy paint. They first grind the concrete to open up the pores, then spread glue all over the floor, then throw five 5-gallon buckets of these flecks on top. Wait for it to dry, swept up the excess and apply a clear coat. When the sun's on it, it shines like it's wet!
I installed Gladiator slat walls along both the left and right sides. They have all kinds of accessories, from baskets for your sports equipment to hooks for lawn tools. I built custom shelving on the right side to hold the bigger, heavier boxes. I matched the trim color (shelves, back door) to the color of the slat walls.
That blue stripe on the floor? Well, backing a Tundra in there is a precision maneuver with only a few inches of error, and the Tundra's camera superimposes a line that I align with that stripe as I back up. Yea, I know, my dad could do it at 30mph using only the rear view mirror.
The paint cans will go in the overhead racks as soon as the painter returns to patch up the ceiling marks left by the previous door supports.
There were no electrical outlets along the back wall, so I hired an electrician to put me in a bunch and move the light switches around. He also replaced every existing electrical fixture with black ones and replaced the cheap ugly ceiling lights with nice LED strips.
I replaced the back door with one that's impenetrable and has blinds inside the glass.
I installed an Omniwall steel peg wall along the back wall. It holds most of my hand tools and comes with a power strip and charging/hanging station for my drills and impact tools.
My dad was an auto mechanic, and the "Cash Only" sign was painted in 1966 and hung in his shop for over forty years. The painter matched his signature, so that's the way my dad signed his name. And that "Dino" thing? Well, that's my name. "Great news, Dino is now available in all 48 states".
I replaced both doors and all their rails and hardware. I had the inside of the doors custom painted blue to match the peg wall, including powder coating the rails and hinges in black. The old motors hung down from the center of the ceiling with a big dirty belt drive. The new motors are wall mounted and sit at the top between the doors and are very quiet, both in the garage and the bonus room above.
I had the door rails mounted in a high-wall configuration so that they hug the front garage wall and then the ceiling. This lets me mount two kayaks and two 3x6 ceiling racks with lots of room for more. You can see how the doors go up and around the boats so that I can raise and lower them with the doors up or down. With those high, short rails and no ceiling mounted motors, it really opens up the overhead space. The Hobie with all the stuff on it weighs about 120 pounds, so I installed an electric hoist. There's no button on the wall for it, it uses an app on my phone and connects via Bluetooth.
I needed a wide, flat surface to store my yard bags and shooting targets, so I suspended a sheet of plywood underneath one of the two ceiling racks and painted it the same color as the walls.
So like any project, it took longer and cost more than I had expected, but I'm pretty happy with it.