When I decided that small house plans were the way to go with my custom built house, I didn’t take into consideration that I am actually someone who likes a lot of space. It wasn’t long before the home felt too cramped which was sad because I did really like the design.

I decided that the thing to do was to look at garage plans that would let me get some added value from the home without impacting the house too much. I discovered that the garage can be used for tons of different things. Some of the garage plans I looked at featured purposes including:

• Parking. Obviously this is the main purpose of any garage but I hadn’t considered that these plans were not just for cars but also for boats, motorcycles, and even bicycles.
• Storage. There are a million different ways to use the garage for storage space. Create a storage loft at the top of the garage. Line the walls of the garage with bookshelves. Hang a board with hooks on one end to store tools. The possibilities are endless.
• Work space. Many garage designs assume that you want space to work on the car or on other projects. Others figure in art studio space. The latter appealed to me and ended up being what I went with.

Once I had changed the garage to give me additional space for doing art, I didn’t feel so claustrophobic in my small home anymore.

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