GARAGE MAKEOVER UNDER $1,000

A special thanks to my friends at Sherwin-Williams for sponsoring today's post with the paint needed to complete this gorgeous DIY project! All opinions are mine alone.

You know that I couldn't live with an ugly, disorganized garage for long...and four months was far too long for me! I'm so excited to share another project with my friends at Sherwin-Williams. I have been so impressed with the quality of their paints, and I am so honored to be able to partner with them to bring you gorgeous DIY inspiration with the best products out there!

Redoing your garage from start to finish definitely takes a lot of time & energy, so make sure you have a full 3-4 days to dedicate to it in order to get it all done. I'll go over what I did each day so that you can have a realistic view of how long things actually take to complete. I actually had a few vacation days left that I had to use, so yes, this crazy girl used her vacay days to paint and decorate her garage, and I'm so glad I did.

Day One //

Just for perspective, here is the before picture of our garage...

The sad thing about this "before" picture is this is after I already started organizing it. haha! I forgot to take a true before picture, because I was just so excited to get started, so this was probably after 3-4 hours of organizing already. Either way, it was still a disorganized mess that had to be taken care of ASAP.

After I got everything organized, I went through every container, purged like I've never purged before, and put everything back in storage containers, I moved almost everything out of the garage and put it in the family room so that I would have space to get everything done. I kept the bigger pieces towards the front of the garage, but it was practically empty when I started my DIY project, and that's the key. Start fresh, my friends.

Later that night, my husband and Father-in-Law went to Lowe's for me and picked up cabinets and got them set up in the garage to make sure I would like the way it would look, and I'm obsessed...finally my vision was coming to life.

Here are the cabinets we used:

Pantry Cabinet

Base Stock Cabinet with Drawer

That night, I also went through the garage and spackled huge dents, so that when I painted the next day, I'd have a smooth surface.

Day Two //

Yay--it's painting day!! Let me tell you--this is the most brutal day of the project. Mentally prepare yourself to be priming and painting your garage walls and ceiling for the next ten hours.

Since our builder didn't prime or paint our garage, it was all up to me to get it done. I used my tried & true Sherwin-Williams Premium Wall & Wood Primer and it worked wonders. Since this primer was going straight onto drywall on both the walls and ceiling, I did do the first coat and then a touch up second coat on some areas. When drywall doesn't have anything on it initially, it does soak up the primer a bit more.

The first coat of primer on the walls and ceiling took me about four hours, about two hours for the touch-up second coat, and then it was time for paint! P.S. It took about a gallon and a half to prime our one-car garage.

Pin Me For Later!

For paint, I used the same paint we used in our family room, which is Sherwin-Williams Ceiling Bright White SW 7007 in a Satin Finish. It's the perfect bright white for trims, moldings, and I love it in our garage. It does dry a slightly blueish-white, so I love to pair it with the shade that's on our garage cabinets and on the walls in the family room.

After the painting was done on the walls, it was time for a break. Ten hours of painting means this girl deserved a late-night dinner and a huge glass of wine.

I should also let you know that I only used two coats of primer on the ceiling. I never went back to paint it, because #1 painting a ceiling sucks, and #2 I didn't think it needed it. In the end, the primer and paint color blended together perfectly, and it looked perfectly fine--especially for the garage.

Day Three //

It's cabinet day! Today is another long painting day, but it's more satisfying because its the day that the DIY vision comes to life! I started by removing the cabinet doors and laying them on cardboard so they would be easier to paint. I left the hinge hardware attached to the doors.

First things first with any project, be sure to take the time to wipe down the doors and cabinets with a cloth to be sure to remove any dust and dirt. I then primed my cabinet bases and doors with the trusty Sherwin-Williams Premium Wall & Wood Primer. I only did one coat of primer and it worked fabulously!

I finished this all before lunchtime, and took a break to eat and let the primer dry! That afternoon, I painted the cabinet doors and cabinet bases with Sherwin-Williams Cyberspace SW 7076 in a Satin Finish. After my first coat, I did a second touch-up coat on a few of the doors and on the cabinet bases to perfect the paint. Sometimes with the wood grain, I didn't get the paint in certain areas, so I went back and fixed that!

*I used an angled 2" paintbrush to paint the cabinets.

Something fun that Chris and I thought about doing was to paint the inner section of the cabinet door with chalkboard paint so that we could write what was in each cabinet or keep lists of things like when our last oil changes were or when we last changed our home's filters. We just used basic chalkboard paint that I picked up at Lowe's.

After all of that was finished, it was time to call it a night and relax before the last day of the project!

Day Four //

Luckily for me, the final day I worked on the project was a Saturday, so I had Chris home with me to help with the final details! We reassembled the cabinets, put them into place, and I was able to put the finishing touches on the cabinets.

I added a toe kick to the base to make them look cleaner and finished. I also planned on adding the laminate siding panels that cabinet manufacturers offer, however, they were not working for the project--liquid nails and actual nail gun nails, so we scrapped the idea. I ended up sanding the unfinished sides, priming them, and then painting them, and they looked better than the painted laminate siding piece would have looked had it worked as it should. So, I suggest not wasting the $50 we did and skip purchasing it--especially for a garage project.

Once the cabinets were in place, we assembled the pegboard. We used trim to give it a gorgeous border and painted it with Sherwin-Williams Ceiling Bright White SW 7007 in a Satin Finish. I used a small roller, and that helped the paint from seeping into the holes. I wish I had a picture of what it looked like behind the pegboard, but across the top, bottom, and sides, we used the nail gun to put up thin strips of wood to allow the pegboard to sit out from the wall. We then secured the pegboard to the wall going through that wood with 2" drywall screws--that pegboard isn't going anywhere.

P.S. Lowe's will cut your pegboard to the exact size you need for free!!

Chris helped me measure and install the cabinet hardware, and then it was time to organize & decorate! Remember all of those containers that were in the before photo?! I was able to fit pretty much all of my Christmas decor in the tall pantry cabinet except the main portion of our new Christmas tree, so we still have that stored elsewhere.

In the other first base cabinets, I stored our Christmas ornaments and holiday decor. The second base cabinet is full of paint, painting supplies, and tools!

Are you ready for the big reveal?!

The Reveal //

Pin Me For Later!

Pin Me For Later!

Pin Me For Later!

Pin Me For Later!

Supplies Used:

Sherwin-Williams Premium Wall & Wood Primer

Sherwin-Williams Ceiling Bright White SW 7007 in a Satin finish

Sherwin-Williams Cyberspace SW 7076 in a Satin finish

Pantry Cabinet
Cabinet Toe Kick

Base Stock Cabinet with Drawer

Butcher Block Countertop
Pegboard
Pegboard Accessories
Gold Cabinet Hardware
Chalkboard Paint

Total Project Cost: $900

What do you think?! I'm so proud of this DIY project--it might just be one of my favorites.
Stay tuned for more DIY projects as we go from house to home at #homesweetjonestead.