No Small Plans: 10 Floor Plans That Transform Garages into Livable Spaces
This is No Small Plans, a series where we highlight some of Dwell’s best floor plans for real, practical inspiration.
The number of people working from home has doubled since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020. When where we live becomes where we work, no space can go to waste—not even the dark and dank garage-turned-storage shed in the backyard. We’ve combed through our archive of renovations to collect some of our favorite floor plans that show how these dimly lit, bare-bones spaces can be turned into bright, functional areas. Varying in size, cost, and location, these projects illustrate the scope and potential of renovating unused parking.
When Bart van Seggelen and Valérie Boerma, cofounders of the interior design firm Barde + vanVoltt, stumbled upon a 1930s hardware store-turned-car park in Amsterdam, they looked past the industrial residue of stained concrete floors, thick pillars, and fluorescent lighting to see the potential for a sprawling, one-level home—practically unheard of in the city. The couple outfitted the once garage with new framing, replaced swathes of the roof with skylights, and upgraded the finishes.
To bring more light into the converted garage, the roof at the rear of the space was swapped out for skylights. Over nine feet tall, the Meranti wood and glass doors let light permeate into the home from either end: the new glass entryway on the facade and the skylight in the back.
The new framing installed in the garage helped to raise the ceiling height and divided the space into a suite of rooms that skirt the central common area.
Dark Matter by HyperSpace
Wayne Euston-Moore had only used the detached garage of his family’s Hertfordshire, England, house for storage. But when he started working from home, he wondered what his garage would look like as a backyard office that worked with the existing garden. Skylights flood the interior with daylight, large openings frame the surrounding trees, and the gaps between the charred wood shingles used for the new cladding house critters (and encourage biodiversity) along the envelope.
The large windows, oversize revolving door, and jagged cladding are all meant to build a connection between the converted garage and the surrounding greenery. Perforated light wells extrude down from skylights in the new roof, bringing dimmed sunlight into the office.
As the renovation aimed to create a comfortable workspace that felt a part of the encircling garden, the floor plan focused on opening up the envelope by introducing windows and a large revolving door into the office.
Ladera Heights ADU by DNA Architecture + Design
Shortly after buying a 1940s bungalow in Los Angeles, architect Valery Augustin of DNA Architecture + Design and his wife, Kim, transformed the existing detached garage into a bright ADU outfitted with a complete kitchen and durable surfaces. "Stylistically, I always look at open space, natural light—the simple things," Valery says. "Daylight makes any space feel larger than it is, so I try to emphasize that in the design."
After gutting the garage down to the studs, the couple began installing all of their favorite features: vaulted ceilings with skylights, polished concrete floors, and a kitchen equipped with custom cabinetry and high-end appliances.
The new framing required for the vaulted ceiling presented the opportunity to close of part of the floorplan for a bathroom. One half of the garage door was replaced with a glass entryway, and the other was covered with wood slats. The glazed sliders installed into the rear wall let out onto a private patio.
San Diego ADU by Modern Granny Flat
Ross and Shannon Lohr brought only one car with them when they moved into their craftsman-style home in Carlsbad, California—not enough to fill the three-car garage attached to the house. After meeting architect Ramiro Losada-Amor, founder of Modern Granny Flat, they decided to transform the two unused bays into an ADU for guests or long-term renters.
A large chunk of the $140,000 budget went into a custom millwork wall system that not only divides the ADU from the remaining parking space, but hides all sorts of storage and stowable furniture.
Photo by Rachel Pangi
Apart from the millwork partition separating the remaining parking space from the dwelling unit, other space-saving strategies include lofting a bedroom above the kitchen and hanging cabinetry beneath it.
Offset ADU by Byben
When the pandemic forced Courtney Wilk-Mandel and Danny Mandel to start working from home, their late 1940s L.A. home started to feel small. Ben Warwas, founder of the architectural design firm Byben, steered the couple away from expanding upon the main house and convinced them to renovate the unused garage in the backyard. The first level was enclosed, a second story was added, and a curving ipe rainscreen was wrapped around new and old alike, making the hybrid structure look like a cohesive whole.
The open sides of the former carport were enclosed, and a second level level was added. The ipe rain screen curving around two sides of the build improves air circulation. A new deck leads from the ADU to the main house.
The two floors were staggered to make room for power lines running through the property. The staircase between the two levels provides for just enough space to house a laundry room on the first floor. A diagonal slider was installed beneath the second floor overhang to keep the ADU from having too many hard edges.
Spellman/Larsdotter Residence by Sean W. Spellman
Musicians Sean W. Spellman and My Larsdotter had been living on the road touring with their bands when they found themselves buying property in Westerly, Rhode Island. Rather than move into the 1930s cottage, the couple decided to rent it out and live in the two-bedroom unit above the detached garage nearby. They later converted an unused parking bay on the ground floor into a recording studio as a way of keeping up with their work during the winter.
Inspired by a Swedish sauna—a nod to where My is from—unfinished pine shiplap was used for the interior cladding and the shelving system that stretches across one of the walls.
A shingle-clad partition was installed on the first floor to separate the parking from the music studio. Budget-friendly glass doors from Home Depot were used to replace the roll-up door.
Outer Sunset Garage Renovation by Jack Hotho Architecture + Design and Innen Studio
Rather than use the two-bay garage on the ground floor of their San Francisco row house, Jessica and Stig Olson hired Jack Hotho Architecture + Design and Innen Studio to swap out most of their parking for some extra space. "There was almost no light," Hotho says of the original space. "We knew from the very beginning that diffusing light throughout the garage was going to be our goal." This would be achieved by inserting glazing wherever possible and keeping the interior free of any opaque partitions.
The garage's exposed joists and wood support columns were retained in the renovation. The footings are now partially visible because the floor was excavated to raise the ceiling height.
In the living room, a bifold glass door lets out onto the rear garden. "On beautiful days, it becomes this indoor/outdoor room that can host twice as many people," says Hotho. Clerestory windows installed above the kitchen bar and in the office bring more sunlight into the renovated space.
Oak Cliff Casita by Best Practice Architecture
Amanda Pounds and Adam Amparan bought their home in Dallas with the intention of converting the backyard garage into a studio space for their creative pursuits. A few years and many different ideas later, the couple settled on turning the shed into an ADU for family and friends. Their long-time friend Ian Butcher, founder of Best Practice Architecture, partitioned the space to accommodate all the necessities of daily life and added several window openings to brighten up the newly refinished interior.
Apart from the original concrete floors, most of the garage needed to be refurbished. The roof supports were swapped out, insulation was added, and the interior was refinished. A Dutch door and the stoop beneath it help to incorporate the ADU into the replanted yard around it.
Best Practice Architecture built interior walls to partition the sleeping nook and bathroom from the combined kitchen and living area. Glass sliders installed behind the carriage doors and six new windows inserted along the envelope brighten the interior.
Kille Knobel’s ADU by MR Studios
While Kille Knobel’s L.A. home had initially suited all of her family’s needs, 15 years worth of change made the ranch house feel cramped. Killie had initially considered renovating the main home before discovering the potential of her garage. "My goal was to create a space so lovely I would want to live in it," says Kille. While budget constraints prevented the garage from becoming the one-bedroom addition that she had imagined, MR Studio used clever workarounds like building niches into the walls and varying the ceiling height to make the open space feel like it’s made up of distinct zones.
While the budget of $230,000 was limiting considering the scope of the conversion, costs were saved by purchasing simple kitchen appliances and finishings to splurge on things like the addition, a vaulted veneer plywood ceiling, and light fixtures.
To avoid the cost of breaking through the garage’s concrete slab, the new plumbing required for the ADU was installed in a 170-square-foot extension. The kitchen and bathroom were placed in this addition, leaving the rest of the floor plan for the living areas.
Clinton Hill Carriage House by the Brownstone Boys
René and Heather Paula bought their home in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn because a curb cut on the sidewalk in front of it meant they could have their own parking space. The building itself was less inspiring. It was originally a carriage house that was later used as a garage—and later still as a junk shop. Though initially deterred by strict zoning and building codes, the couple found a blog posted by the the Brownstone Boys: a duo who had left their corporate jobs to commit themselves to historic renovation. With their help, the Paulas finally moved into their dream home three years, a new steel structure, and an extra story and a half later.
The conversion of the garage into a residence ended up becoming more of a rebuild than a renovation: the foundation had to be moved, the new structure inserted into the building had to be made from a specific kind of steel, a full second story and a partial third story were added on top of the garage, and the entire home had to be outfitted with fixtures, partitions, and finishes.
The footprint of the site is nearly 20 feet by 80 feet, nearly double the depth of a typical row house in Brooklyn. Inspired by an old site map depicting a courtyard in the original carriage house, the Brownstone Boys restored it during the remodel to improve lighting and ventilation in the home.
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