How To Turn Your Gloomy Garage Into A Bright and Dry Space –A Real Case Story
Yoga mats, dumbbells, unused exercise bikes. My girlfriend’s sudden interest in physical fitness had transformed our house into a gymnasium. And my polite suggestions would constantly be met by the same predicted response of “I’m not working out or storing my equipment in that gloomy, dark and damp garage!” So, I found myself at a crossroads, either enjoy my morning newspaper read on the toilet or in any other room other than the living room, or create a non-gloomy, brighter and more welcoming garage space. So, seeing as though I got kicked out of the bathroom when my wife needed to shower and do her makeup, I got to work.
Most of our garage was fully furnished and occupied by old used storage. I decided that my first move would be to clean up, organise and partition off a section of the storage room and convert it into a workout wonderland. It was either that or throw the entire “gym” out the window, which of course the girlfriend resisted on that front. I didn’t really have the time or money to fully furnish the walls and ceilings of the garage so instead, I decided to brighten up the space with some lighting and fresh paint on the walls.
The block wall I chose to paint would occasionally become damp if there was heavy rain, so I decided to use Drylok Extreme Masonry Waterproofer. This product was great as it’s specifically designed to stop water seepage and keep the interior of the wall dry. Without this product, regular paint would have begun to peel off after the first couple of days of pure rain. I decided to paint in the dryer days just to make sure the product had time to really kick in on a wall with low moisture content.
From what I remembered of painting a block wall, the only colours available back then were black and white. Neither sounded appealing, I could’ve either gone for black just to aggravate the girlfriend and make it look even “gloomier” or go for white and create an “insane asylum” effect, again which would aggravate the girlfriend (whether it was fitting or not). So I was happy to find out that in fact Drylok Extreme can be tinted to any of a number of different colours. I decided to choose a two tone look with the colours cream on top and lemon at the bottom half.
After giving the wall a good sweep, I snapped a chalk line into 32 in. up and ran masking tape along the bottom of the line. Alternatively, you could run the paint on the first section a little long and then snap a line, but sometimes the chalk can make a bit of a mess on the finished look. I made sure to start on the top half first so that any drips on the lower half would not matter so much. Once completed and dry, I pulled off the tape and used the painted line as a guide.
I then laid down a thick first coat with a roller and then went over it again with a brush and pushed the wet paint into all the nuts and crannies. It’s important that the texture is smoothened out so I then went over it once more with the roller. If the holes are not completely covered then moisture can seep right the way through.
Once the rigorous job of waiting was done and dusted, I moved the “gymnasium equipment” into the garage which was now big and bright enough to hold a car and an entire gymnasium! The girlfriend was pleased with her bright new space and I was too because it was a cheap and easy solution of how to get some peace and quiet…
