Design

I had absolutely no design vision in the beginning. I started by painting the entire space with a white drywall primer. I planned to follow up with actual paint, but life had other plans. Eventually, I was able to find the time to paint one entire wall in a neutral grey color. At that point, I was pretty sure I was done. I nailed a few pictures to the wall, set up a wooden bar we had purchased in Japan, laid some carpet on the stairs, and walked away. Then I discovered the Gallery forum over at garagejournal.com, and it was all downhill from there. Once I began to see what other Garage Journal members had achieved with their garages, decals magically appeared and I began binge painting stripes that complimented the colour of the flooring scheme. From there, things just continued to snowball.

Over time, I decided to 'ease back' on the design which resulted in the removal of numerous decals and the repainting of some of the accent stripes. I incorporated my "RAD Garage" logo into the design of the Swisstrax floor as well as the paint scheme. The design is always in a state of evolution, but I am at a point where I feel the design is finally where I want it. Below, you will see some recent photos of my garage that showcase many of the current design elements.

CURRENT DESIGN

PAINT SCHEME

Like all things in my garage, the paint scheme continues to evolve. Originally the entire space was white with the exception of the large wall which was coated with a light grey. Currently, I have three tones of grey on various walls. The wall with the TV has a medium grey, and the space above my infrared wall heater has been finished in a dark tone. The paint was purchased at a Canadian big box store called "Rona". I have painted the ceiling with the darkest shade of grey called "Film Noir". The almost black ceiling gives the garage a very unique look. I have painted the concrete stem wall with a black concrete paint from the same store. The baseboard around the perimeter is painted to match each of the walls. The garage door rails have been painted medium grey and the back of the car door was painted white.

DECOR

I have experimented with many different stripes, signs and decals in the garage. Early on, I was eager to plaster every decal I could find to the walls, but I eventually toned things down. I added a blue stripe above my bank of Craftsman upper cabinets with a "SQ5" decal. On the big wall, I had a long red stripe that served as a backdrop for a raised aluminum "Audi" sign. On the bump out wall, I added a smaller blue stripe that continues to serve as the backdrop for my wall clock. I added a "Quattro" decal to that one. The back of the car door has a red stripe with "Vorsprung durch technik" and "Adam's Polishes" decals. I replaced the SQ5 decal with a RAD Garage decal and painted the red and blue wall stripes dark grey. I am pleased with the new design direction and feel it reflects more sophistication.

TILE

In the summer of 2014, I began playing around with the idea of adding subway tile to the space under my bank of upper cabinets. My thinking was the tile would help protect the wall from water damage since I have a number of detailing brushes that I sometimes hang to dry along that wall. So, I rounded up all the tools and supplies a tiler needs and set to work. I used white 3x6 subway tile and charcoal grout. Later on, I applied the same tile to the wall that I was using to store the majority of my detailing spray bottles. Most recently, I used the same tile to finish off the spaces above the car door. Not only does the tile have a practical purpose, but the look is clean and makes a strong design statement. I am by no means a master tiler, but I am happy with the results. Working with charcoal grout is challenging.