A garage is the largest room most people never finish. It has the floor area of a family room, and it is usually the one space in the house doing three jobs at once. The ten ideas below are the ones St. Louis homeowners ask for most often, from a workshop to a home gym. The floor-only versions take one to two days and start around $2,500. The ones that need the walls finished run a week or more and sit at the top of the range, from $5,000 up.
The short version
Almost every idea below starts with the same two things: a floor that can be cleaned, and walls that can carry weight. Get those right and the rest is decoration.
If you want the floor handled properly, see our epoxy garage floor installation in St. Louis, or the wider garage remodeling service.
Ten cool garage ideas, and what each one needs
1. Workshop
The most common use, and the one that gains most from vertical storage. Wall storage is what keeps the bench clear enough to work on.
On the Leitner garage in Fenton, in the Tapawingo neighborhood, that meant cabinetry, a workbench, Slatwall and two overhead racks, over four days.
2. Study or office
Cheaper than most people expect. It needs finishes rather than structure, so insulation, drywall, paint and decent lighting do almost all of the work.
Heating decides whether it still gets used past October. A ductless mini split is the usual answer inside a wider remodel, and it cools in summer off the same unit.
3. Man cave
The theme is up to you. What sits underneath it is the same every time.
An unheated garage here drops below freezing in January, so insulation, drywall and a heat source come before any furniture. A ductless mini split covers both directions, heating and cooling, off one unit.
Then there is power. Most garages run a single circuit shared with the door opener, which a television, a refrigerator and a sound system will trip between them. Adding a second circuit costs very little during a remodel and means opening the walls again afterwards.
4. Storage room
Three systems carry the load: wall-mounted Slatwall, cabinets, and overhead racks for anything seasonal.
The Skurtu family in Des Peres combined flooring, Slatwall and storage across 800 sq ft in two days.
5. Playroom
Works when the floor is sealed and the storage has doors. A sealed floor takes spills and wipes clean, which matters more here than in any other use.
6. Home gym
Traction matters more than looks here. A standard coating goes glossy, and gloss plus sweat is a problem.
For the Reich family gym in Ballwin we added an extra non-slip additive to the top coat for exactly that reason. Two days on site.
7. Guest space
Realistic as a spare room with a bed, a heat source and proper lighting. Not realistic as a second home without the trades to match, so treat plumbing and any change to the structure as a separate project with a separate contractor.
8. Extra living room
The workable version keeps the garage door and treats the space as a room you can open to the yard in summer. Insulation and heating are what make it usable, not furniture.
9. Entertainment zone
The one idea where the electrical plan matters most. Screens, sound and a refrigerator on the same old circuit is how a remodel ends with a tripped breaker every evening.
10. A better ordinary garage
Still parking in it is a legitimate answer. A sealed floor, a wall system and some overhead racks change how the space feels without changing what it does.
How long each of these takes
Every number below comes from one of our own jobs rather than an industry average. What drives it is not the idea you pick, it is whether the walls have to be finished.
| Ideas | What the time depends on | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Home gym, better ordinary garage | The floor only | 1 to 2 days |
| Storage room | Wall system, cabinets and overhead racks | 2 to 3 days |
| Workshop, playroom | Floor plus a full storage build | 3 to 4 days |
| Office, man cave, guest space, extra living room, entertainment zone | Insulation, drywall, paint, lighting and a heat source | A week or more |
Eleven of the thirteen jobs in our case studies were floor installs, and every one finished inside two days. That runs from the Reiff floor in Clayton, a single day at 200 sq ft, up to the Hanson floor in Lake St. Louis at 800 sq ft.
Adding storage is what pushes it out. The Leitner build in Fenton took four days for the floor plus cabinetry, workbench, Slatwall and two overhead racks.
Finishing the walls is the real jump. The Randall remodel in Ladue ran five days including drywall and painting, and drywall on its own usually needs at least a week.
Garage wall and decor ideas
Walls are where a space stops looking like storage and starts looking finished. Three choices do most of it.
- A wall system. Slatwall runs floor to ceiling and takes hooks, baskets and brackets anywhere along it. It is the only one of the three you can reconfigure without tools.
- Cabinets. Closed fronts hide what open shelving puts on display. Base units take the heavy items and wall units keep the floor beneath them clear.
- Paint and light. Drywall, paint and brighter fixtures change a room more per dollar than anything else, and we install them two to three times a month inside remodels.
Pick the floor color last. It is the largest surface and the easiest to match to everything else, rather than the other way around.
The car focused garage
If the car is the point, the floor is the whole job. Bare concrete stains, dusts, and absorbs whatever runs off the tires through a St. Louis winter.
A sealed floor holds road salt and brake dust on the surface instead. Flake finishes are named systems rather than shades mixed on site: the Masksumic garage in Oakville is Tuxedo across 500 sq ft, the Heubbe garage in Kirkwood is polyaspartic in Tidal Wave across 550 sq ft. Both took two days.
Install time and cure time are two different numbers, and the floor takes foot traffic days before it takes a car. The guide to epoxy floor curing and drying sets out how long you wait before each step.
Cool things actually worth putting in a garage
Six things that get used daily and cost little to include during a remodel.
- Overhead racks. The only storage that uses space you were never going to use anyway.
- A real workbench. Fixed, not folding. A folding bench becomes a shelf.
- A wall system. Hooks move. Holes in drywall do not.
- Task lighting over the bench. Separate from the ceiling light, which your head blocks.
- A sealed floor. It is the difference between sweeping and mopping.
- A second outlet run. Cheapest thing to add during a remodel and the most annoying to add after.
Working with a small garage
A single-car garage is not a reason to skip any of this. It is a reason to go vertical early and keep the floor clear.
The Reiff garage in Clayton was 200 sq ft with concrete that was breaking up, repaired and coated in a single day before the house went on the market.
What order should the work happen in?
Order is what separates a smooth job from an expensive one, and I sequence it differently depending on what else is changing in the room. Two of our own jobs ran in opposite directions on purpose.
On the Leitner job in Fenton the floor went in first and cured fully before cabinetry, workbench, Slatwall and overhead racks were installed. Setting cabinets and racks on a floor that has not finished curing is how the damage happens before the car ever comes back in.
On the Randall job in Ladue it ran the other way. Drywall and painting were finished first, across five days, so sanding dust and overspray could not contaminate the coating.
The rule I have worked to since 2014: anything that makes dust goes before the floor, and anything heavy goes after it.
“Brandon and team made our old jumbled garage feel like new. He redid floor, repainted + filled everything, put up shelves and installed slat-wall. Looks great and is highly functional now.”
Common garage makeover mistakes
- Coating over unprepared concrete. It lifts in sheets rather than wearing evenly, and putting it right means grinding back to bare slab.
- Buying storage before measuring the door swing. Cabinets that block a car door are a common and expensive discovery.
- Leaving electrical to the end. Adding circuits after the walls are closed costs more than doing it during.
- Finishing the floor first when drywall is still coming. See what order the work should happen in.
- Forgetting the slab moves. St. Louis County garages freeze and thaw all winter, and a cracked slab keeps moving under whatever you put on it.
What not to store in your garage
An unconditioned garage swings from below freezing to well over a hundred degrees in the same year. Some things do not survive that.
- Paint. Freezing ruins latex paint permanently.
- Propane cylinders. Outdoors only, never in an attached space.
- Paper, photographs and documents. Humidity and pests, in that order.
- Canned and pet food. Heat spoils it, and the smell draws mice and raccoons.
- Electronics and batteries. Temperature swings shorten their life sharply.
Insulating and conditioning the space removes most of this list.
When I tell people to wait
Not every garage is ready for this. When I walk one I measure it and check the slab for cracks that are still opening. I would rather tell you at the estimate than halfway through the job. Three cases where you fix something else first:
- A slab that is still moving. A coating will not fix concrete that is cracked and still opening up. On the Reiff garage in Clayton we found the concrete breaking up, so the repair came first and the coating went on after it.
- Water getting in. A leaking roof or wall finds its way under a finished floor and behind new drywall. Sort that out first, or you pay for the room twice.
- A garage you are about to leave. You do not need cabinets, Slatwall or drywall if the house is going on the market. A sealed floor changes how the house shows, and it is the part that is worth it there.
Two of the ideas above have honest limits as well. A guest space is a spare room, not a legal bedroom. Making it one means permits, egress and ceiling heights, which is a separate job with a different contractor. A home gym in an uninsulated garage goes unused from December to March here, so insulation and a heat source come before the equipment.
Frequently asked questions
What to do next
Call 314-308-7780 Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, or request a free in-home estimate. We look at the space, tell you what the floor and walls will carry, and give you a price before any work starts.
Garage Designs of St. Louis has been remodeling garages since 2002 and works out of 772 Merus Ct., Fenton, MO 63026, accredited by the Better Business Bureau, or BBB, since 2008. I am Brandon Coleman. I started here installing epoxy floors in 2014, moved into full remodels in 2021, and bought the company in May 2023. The jobs above are in Fenton, Ladue, Clayton, Ballwin, Des Peres, Kirkwood, Oakville and Lake St. Louis.
Free download
A Guide to Garage Optimization
Planning the whole space rather than one corner of it? This is our own planning guide covering flooring, cabinets, Slatwall and overhead storage, and the order to tackle them in.
