By: Daniel Bortz
Need some home staging ideas for you garage? Yup, this grease-covered dumping ground that serves as a “home” for your car (at least we hope your car fits in there) is not overlooked by home buyers. A good-looking garage is worth its weight in gold, and can be a strong selling point. In fact, a recent realtor.com® survey found that 32% of home buyers say the garage is one of the most important rooms in a house!
As such, in the same way you might try a little home staging to make your kitchen and living room look their best, it’ll pay to learn how to stage your garage.
Here are some garage staging ideas that’ll wow buyers even before they’ve entered the more civilized parts of your home.
Gather all the items in your garage, and divide them into three piles: keep, donate, and toss. Once you’ve purged, it’s time to restore what you need in a better way.
“Resist the urge to stack bins on top of one another,” says Jennifer Snyder, a professional home organizer and owner of Neat as a Pin in Waco, TX. Instead, hang tools on a pegboard ($50), store boxes on a ceiling storage rack ($160), and mount a Spoga Wall Organizer ($8) for your mop, broom, and other cleaning equipment.
Clean up
When’s the last time you cleaned your garage? Never?! Well, you’d better take time now to dust the walls and corners and sweep the floor. Find an oil stain on the ground? Pour paint thinner on the stain, and then apply an absorbent material (e.g., cat litter, baking soda, cornmeal, or sawdust) over the saturated spot. Let the mixture set overnight, and sweep it up in the morning with a heavy push broom with sturdy bristles.
Check garage safety
Make sure all flammable products and poisonous chemicals are stored out of reach of children and pets. (You don’t want potential buyers to wonder what else you may have handled irresponsibly.) And if you don’t already have one in your garage, install a smoke detector.
Let there be light
Now is the time to replace burned-out light bulbs. If your garage still looks dim and bleak, consider adding a motion-activated ceiling light ($148).
Go vertical with bicycles
Instead of hanging bicycles from the ceiling, mount them on the wall using this stylish Monkey Bars 4-Bike Storage Rack ($80).
Add a fresh coat of paint
Treat your garage walls to a new paint job to make the space look larger and more inviting.
Experiment with flooring
Your garage floor doesn’t have to be plain old boring concrete. Punch it up by adding colorful Diamond Grid-Loc Tiles ($2.51 per square foot) or a shiny concrete stain ($27 per gallon).
Hang artwork
Make your garage more inviting by hanging cool prints or paintings. Stick with a theme, like photos of antique cars.
Add extra outlets
There’s no such thing as having too many outlets—and that includes your garage. If you don’t feel comfortable tackling this job yourself, either hire an electrician or simply plug in a grounded 6-outlet tap ($6) to an existing outlet.