It’s been exactly 6 years since we completely overhauled our main garage with the fabulous MonkeyBars storage system and epoxy garage floor coating… and as you can see by the pictures below, this renovation has definitely held up after lots and lots of use and abuse!
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It was a dream of ours to eventually renovate our garage with an off-the-floor organizational system and the epoxy floor coating, but we didn’t think we would be able to do it so soon — especially with all the other projects we had going on at the time (we had just finished our kitchen renovation the year before and an upstairs bedroom renovation that winter).
However, I can say with utmost certainty that Dave and I are both SOOOOOO glad we moved forward with this project when we did.
We have enjoyed our renovated garage immensely over the past 6 years — not only for our own family’s needs (parking our cars, storing bikes and scooters, another place to play when it’s raining outside, etc.) but also for entertaining purposes when we have lots of people over and the weather doesn’t cooperate (which has happened several times).
Our garage is now SUPER functional for OUR family’s needs…
It’s so easy to find what we need, it’s easy for the kids to reach the things they need (we keep a step stool under the cabinet), and it’s easy to re-clean and re-organize whenever toys start to pile up or whenever the floors start looking grungy again.
We simply take 10 minutes to put everything back in its proper place, or 30 minutes to sweep and spray down the floors… and just like that, our garage is back to ‘beautiful’ again!
I get so many questions about our garage (especially this time of year) that I thought it might be time for another update — seriously, I cannot believe it’s been SIX years already!
Wow — time flies! 🙂
The picture below is NORA on her bike right after we finished the garage!
Since I’ve already blogged extensively about the organizational system and the floor coating, and even some Q & A posts, I figured it might just be easiest to link back to all my previous posts.
More Posts About Our Garage Makeover:
The Original Before / After Pictures of the Garage
How We Organized Everything In Our Garage
Q & A About Epoxy Floor Coating
The MonkeyBars website (this is NOT a sponsored post, but we highly recommend the MonkeyBars system!)
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A Few More Thoughts:
As you may have guessed, this type of organizational system and floor coating is not inexpensive, which is why we weren’t planning to tackle this project so soon after our big kitchen renovation!
We were EXTREMELY fortunate that MonkeyBars wanted to sponsor this renovation for our family — making it a no-brainer project for us!
That said, there are lots of do-it-yourself kits out there to achieve similar results (sold at many home stores).
If you are looking for some sort of garage organizational system, I would high recommend find something that is “off-the-floor”. We just love that nothing is touching the garage floor because it’s so much easier to sweep (which we do at least once a week).
If you are brave enough to attempt the floor coating yourself, just make sure you sand the current floor surface REALLY well so the paint has something strong to adhere to.
Also, you’ll most likely want to buy extra “sprinkles” as we call them! Most of the DIY kits don’t come with nearly enough colorful “sprinkles” to spread over the painted floor, and the more you have the better the end results will be.
Summary = we are absolutely thrilled with how well our garage has held up over the years and would highly recommend this system to anyone!
If you still have more questions, leave them in the comments or shoot me an email. I’ll do my best to answer them (or point you in the right direction).
Happy Garage Organizing!
Eli Richardson says
I liked how organized your garage look by using hanging recks and adding a drain to it. My wife and I have been thinking of expanding our garage to buy a second vehicle. I will look forward to contacting a remodeling company to have more space for our stuff.
Chris says
Garage looks amazing. But where is the stuff the rest of us have to keep: Hammers, pliers, vice grips, wrenches, saws, tree limbers, ladders in several heights, nails and screws, not to mention the lawn mower, string trimmer, snow thrower, garden cart, flower pots, mulch, potting soil, garbage cans (they will freeze to the ground where I live), snow shovels, ice breakers, chain saw, electric trimmers, foods for various plant varieties, tomato cages, peony supports, misc other electric power tools (like drills, jig saws), the fishing equipment, gasoline for the power equipment,fluids you need to keep filled in your vehicles, Christmas and other holiday decorations, shovels d-thatchers. hoses, sprinkling heads, bulk supplies of dog food, etc, etc. Now if I could afford to hire someone to do all the work, maybe I could have a garage that could be used for entertaining! PS: How what do you use that so beautifully removes grease, oil, salt, etc, that come with a car??
Lori says
Ha ha…. I was wondering the same thing. It does look great but we keep all those extras you mentioned mostly in our garage as well.
Jenny says
Not sure but I think they have a garden shed??
I love that floor, etc. My garage is a disaster compared to this!
Andrea says
yes, you’re exactly right Jenny — most of the things Lori mentioned are in our shed, far away from little hands who would be so interested in all our tools and equipment!
Andrea says
Many of our tools are stored in the drawers and cabinets (as pictured in the post) — as are all our car wash supplies and anything else we need for our cars (fluids, extra wipers, etc.)
We don’t have pets so no need to store any of that — although I doubt we’d keep pet supplies in our garage, probably in our laundry room or basement — which is where we store our 2 bins of Christmas decorations.
As for the long list of yard tools and equipment you mentioned, what we have is stored in our shed — away from little people who might be too curious for their own good. However, we truly don’t even have many of the items you listed — no garden cart, mulch, potting soil, ice breaker, chain saw, electric trimmer, peony support, fishing gear, de-thatchers, etc.
Less stuff = less to store and more space in our garage I guess!
And finally, in regards to the flooring, as I mentioned in the post, we literally just use water and a little elbow grease to clean the floors. The beauty of this epoxy coating is that it is SOOOOOOOO easy to clean. We can have it looking brand new again in 15 minutes!
Trina says
I remember reading the post when you first did the garage. Super impressive! My question is sort of off topic. In the photo where you have the table for a party, do you rent all those or re they yours? Love the high tops and would be interested in where yo7 got those. If they’re yours, where the heck do you store all those tables and chairs.
Love that your garage organization system is holding even after six years. Clearly, it’s working!
Andrea says
Thanks Trina!
As for the tables — they were all rented. We definitely do NOT store those year-round!!