We’ve started a fun new project! We’re fixing up our little old garage to make it look a little more presentable and a little more functional for the cooler months ahead. Here’s a look at where we’re at with that so far!
This is not a big, ground-breaking project by any means, but it’s a fun one! Our little old garage has been in pretty rough shape for the past few years and while we’re hoping to build a new, much larger, garage one day soon, we need the one we have to function well right away, so we’re giving it a quick fix-up. The plan is to re-shingle the roof, paint the doors a fresh new color, fix up the siding, add a new light, and maybe some planters for a little bit of curb appeal. The inside might still be a disaster because we really need a much larger space, but the roof won’t leak and it will look great from the outside! 🙂
Starting on the Old Garage Fix-Up
I was away on a little mini weekend trip with my neighbours about a month ago and I came home to find that Chris had re-shingled about half of the roof. I took this as my cue to start planning a few fun things for the rest of the garage as well. I actually didn’t hate the classic farmhouse green on the garage door and the sliding barn-style door on the side, but I really wanted the garage to match the house.
The old dusk-to-dawn light was definitely an issue as well. It had stopped working a few years ago and it just wasn’t anything special to look at. It turns out that nice dusk-to-dawn lights don’t exist, but I did end up finding a huuuuge outdoor light at my local Home Hardware store that I absolutely love. So we’ll just wire up a switch for it inside the garage and I’ll just turn it on whenever I need it.
Here’s how the garage looked right after I started painting the door.
What We’ve Done so Far on the Old Garage Fix-Up
Chris is about 95% through re-shingling the roof. Since this isn’t our “forever garage”, we just went with regular shingles in black to match the dark metal roof on the house. We’ll definitely do metal roofing again when we build the big garage one day, just like we have on the house. That stuff is great. 🙂
I painted the garage door and the sliding door on the side the same blue-grey color as the front door of the house, Keystone Grey by Behr. It’s definitely an unusual garage door colour, but I love it.
They key to making a white garage with a blue door “work” is to ground the whole scheme with plenty of black accents to keep it from looking too sweet. We’ll have plenty of black on the roof, with the light, and I’ll add some black planters to either side of the garage door as well if I can find some I like.
Can you believe how filthy that siding is? Horrifying.
One thing we’ve learned from having an old white house, is that, at least with this type of siding, you’re pretty much better off just replacing the siding rather than trying to keep it clean. Newer siding has a finish on it that resists things like dirt and moss and all that fun stuff that builds up and that finish seems to wear away over time. In the places where we’ve replaced the siding, our house stays almost completely clean all year round, but we almost need to power wash it every few weeks in the places where the old siding is if we want it to stay clean.
Overall, I think the garage coming along nicely! Trust me, it’s going to be cute. Eventually. 🙂 I know it still looks kind of scary now. Hopefully we’ll be able to show you the results of all our efforts before the snow flies!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.