Change Your Garage into a DIY Workshop
Were you always a crafty person, but never had an appropriate nook in the house to fully develop your creativity? If so, transforming your garage into a DIY workshop is the perfect solution to all your problems. You’ll create a space for yourself where you can show your full creative potential. It’s an excellent place for storing numerous tools, equipment and machines that you need and it provides you with enough room to build anything you want. With a few adjustments, your garage will become the ultimate DIY workshop in no time.
Clean up The Garage
In order to create a safe environment for your work, you should clean the garage first. If there’s any clutter, be sure to sweep it away and remove all the furniture as well. Only a safe workshop is the good workshop. Therefore, if you see any screwdrivers, nails, and cables laying around on the floor pick them up, store them in a safe place and prevent any possible injuries. Leaving the tools around the garage is reckless, and it can cause serious injuries if you or someone else trips over them.
Light up The Room
Garages tend to be dark, due to a small number of windows – if they even have any. Since the door can’t provide enough light even when they’re open, the next step in creating the workshop is to add good lighting fixtures. A couple of recessed ceiling lights will require an upgrade, since they’re hardly enough to provide the sufficient lighting. It’s essential that you can work without any shadows, in order to stay safe while operating with sharp tools. Compact fluorescent lamps are an excellent choice because they offer diffuse, even light. What’s more, they produce five times as much light as incandescent light and last even ten times longer, which makes them a great alternative to incandescent lighting.
Tools Storage
As with any craftsman, your tool collection is probably large and unique. A full spectrum of tools is always stored in the garage ready to be used when another inspiration comes out. However, you’ll need adequate storage solutions for all the saws, screwdrivers, drills, hammers and other equipment in order to always know where a certain tool is. Shelves and cupboards can be an excellent storage solution for large and heavy objects as drills, saws, and hammers.
Electricity
Every workshop requires many electric outlets, since a lot of equipment runs on electricity. Therefore, if you don’t have a large number of outlets, be sure to install them. It’ll be easier to have an outlet in every couple of meters that to spread cables on the floor and risk injuring yourself by tripping over them. What’s more, be sure to have at least two circuits so that you don’t end up tripping the circuit breaker during the work. Additionally, electric outlets will also be helpful for plugging in chargers, heaters, lighting, or even a radio, so it’ll be useful to have more than two installed in a garage.
Heating
It’s essential that a temperature in the garage is comfortable for you to work. Wearing extra layers of clothes in the winter will limit your body movement and you won’t be able to work easy. Summer months can be just as unbearable, because you’ll have to work in high temperature while sweating excessively. Therefore, invest in space heaters, or install an AC unit so that you can always work in a comfortable environment setting the temperature you’d like.
Ventilation System
Proper ventilation in the garage is vital. This is especially true for those who frequently use varnishes and other furnishing supplies, because they release fumes and unhealthy smells that can put anyone’s health in danger if they work in a space without a proper ventilation system. Additionally, if you use saws and are always surrounded with sawdust, an adequate ventilation system will help you breathe without jeopardizing your health. Therefore, consider investing in portable fans, or an extra window. A dust collector would be a great investment as well.
With a little effort and creativity, you could make a real DIY workshop heaven out of the old garage. Follow the previous steps, and you’ll the workshop of your dreams will no longer be just a dream. What once was a storage filled with clutter, can now become a beautiful workshop.