Cozy Pink Garage Family Room Conversion

Seven years in the making, we finally completed our (no-major renovation) garage family room conversion! We had a shed built to relocate our storage to and now have this cozy pink family room to hang in, work in when we need a quiet space and store all our craft supplies and my design samples!

Let’s get into all the details.

Basics of Turning the Garage into a Room

Had to start with the not (always) pretty and fun basics!

Way back when, we had the electrical brought up to code and adding vinyl plank flooring in a neutral near-white.

Then, a few months back we replaced the garage door to a waterproof and insulated option that opens French door style.

Last, we needed to figure out a way to heat and cool the space. We have central HVAC in the rest of the house but not in the garage so we ended up reaching out to Quilt which is a smart tech heat pump that is much more streamlined and customizable than any other option I’d seen (like a standard mini split). I loved that you could paint the front of it and that it had a sleek, modern look.

We loved working with them, the installers they recommended were great, it’s energy efficient and it’s been incredible at heating the space the last few months we’ve had it. So if you’re looking for something similar, I really would recommend it.

The Color Palette

As we all know, I love pink. But since we went with pink cabinets and our living space is small and open with the arches we love, using pink on the walls in another space is difficult. So, I was pretty determined to use my favorite color in the new family room.

We’ve gotten to work with Farrow & Ball on a few projects now and I ended up doing a color consultation because we had a lot going on (to say the least!) and I wanted a second opinion on a few spaces we’re working on. She brought paint decks and large samples of their current and archive colors. It was so helpful!

I had pulled this photo as an example of the shade of pink I wanted and eventually ended up going with Pink Cup. It’s warm and perfect, we all love it.

But the real point is, a similar vintage sectional in that amazing chartreuse color ended up popping up on Facebook Marketplace. And I bought it! So that’s where the design plan really began.

In addition to the light and bright pinks and chartreuse tones, I wanted to anchor it with some moodier blues, dark greens and burgundies.

The Furniture Plan

We kicked this room back into gear for two reasons. First, Arlo is getting older and we wanted him to be able to have a space to hang out with his friends in where they didn’t feel like we were on top of them. Second, our previous “extra” bedroom that was operating as storage and quiet-space-to-take-a-call no longer exists now that we’ve got two (surreal!) kids in the house so we needed a work and storage space.

We’re only able to fit a small table into our actual dining room, so I decided to take advantage of the garage’s square footage and put a large table there that could double as both a craft/dining/game table and a desk when needed.

Jeff really wanted a big comfy couch for actually lounging so we turned the vintage sofa I bought into more of a banquette (it fit literally perfectly) in the corner by adding legs to raise the height and fringe on the bottom to disguise them.

We went with a comfy “you can wash the whole thing!” couch in a durable fabric for hanging, plus I found a cheap second hand IKEA ottoman on Marketplace to double as a coffee table. I bought a Bemz cover for it and it may be my favorite piece in the room, honestly.

Storage That Hides…. More Storage

While we fit most of our garage storage into our new shed, there a few things we wanted to be able to access more easily (like bikes, strollers, etc) from the garage still. So, we decided to make a room divider that both doubled as storage on the side facing the family room and hid the extra (ugly) storage behind it. Bolted to the wall and ceiling, it’s worked out quite well!

I went with the Billy bookcases with the glass doors and added curtains behind the glass. The only downside to these are they are so narrow in depth but they fit our budget and we made it work!

We used Farrow & Ball’s new Flat Eggshell finish on the bookcase doors as it’s designed to be super durable but still a low sheet. SO happy with it!

We left a gap in one side to act as a pathway to the additional storage and garage door and since the height didn’t work perfectly and I didn’t have the budget (or skill) to build them in, I just cobbled together (and dyed!) curtains and a valance to fill the gap around and above them! I think it softens the space a lot.

The Finishing Touches

I’ll always love a gallery wall, so we created yet another around a Frame TV above the banquette. We got to incorporate some of the pieces we picked up on our France trip here which was fun and left lots of room to add more.

Since I knew the floors would still be a soft white color, I bought a white Sarah Sherman Samuel pendant light fixture from Lulu and Georgia for the main lighting in the space. I love that it draws your eye up and balances out the moodiness of the space a bit.

We added lots of small ambient lighting options for cozying up with, an extra dresser I had (it came with the nightstands I made over) to act as an end table and a cabinet that was…. supposed to fit a beverage fridge but it doesn’t so we’re still sorting that out.

The vintage rug I bought on major sale and while I don’t normally gravitate towards rugs that have medallions, the colors do work really well in the space. I just know a rug out here is going to get destroyed since it’s right off the backyard so spending a lot of money on this one didn’t make sense!

And there you have it! I think this space looks and feels even better in person but I hope this gives you a little taste of this new space that literally doubles our living space and feels like a real game changer for our family.