You Won’t Believe This Bold Entertaining Space Was Once a Dilapidated Garage

These days a garage isn’t just a place to park your car – it can also be a cool hang-out space to watch the game with friends, jam with neighbours, or just have some quiet time.

Mike Holmes Sr. bought this five-acre property, located about a 30-minute drive from downtown Toronto, because he saw that it had huge resale potential.

One of the main selling features for Mike was that it already had an existing two-car garage – it was just waiting for him and Mike Jr. to put their signature Holmes stamp on it.

Even though Mike paid $929,000 for the property, which also included a 3-bedroom 2.5 bathroom house and large barn, he decided to invest $25,000 into the garage renovation to help entice the right buyer.

New wood siding, asphalt shingles on the roof, and two remote-controlled garage doors update the exterior of the garage, elevating the building to the high standards Mike and his son are known for.

Cars can easily turn into the garage thanks to an extra-wide driveway, while a new paving-stone patio makes a direct path from the house to the garage’s side entrance.

While the interior of the garage was rough and in need of a lot of TLC, there was a lot of usable square footage to play with – and play they did.

For this garage renovation, Mike decided to hand over the reins to his son Mike Jr. and let him flex his design muscle to create a space that would wow potential buyers.

After adding studs, insulation, drywall and new windows to make the space super energy efficient, Mike Jr. turned on his creative side, pulling together a slick palette of cherry red and slate grey for the garage interior.

Since the original windows faced a noisy road, Mike Jr. decided to move them to the other side of the garage, and then also added a special treatment to the walls for extra soundproofing.

In a big open space such as this one, it’s important to define different areas with visual cues – the rolling counter and back of the reclining black-leather couch work as a de facto wall between the entertaining and car-tinkering sides.

Including a single-car lift as part of the design lets buyers know that this is a space custom-built for taking care of your car. Just drive it in, lift it up and have at it.

Mike Jr. made sure all the tools and storage units were of the highest quality – the drawers in the tool cabinets are rated to hold 180 kg of weight.

“We’ve taken a tired and dated garage and turned it into an updated and appealing man cave or woman cave,” says Mike Jr., proving that when done right, a rundown garage transformation is worth the investment.