How to Remodel Your Garage to Look Like an Automotive Showroom

For those who don't know, Jay Leno has one of the world's finest motorcycle and car collections. His impressive medley of classic and exotic autos is housed in Jay's Big Dog Garage, a 17,000 square foot private garage. It is complete with a gourmet kitchen and all the equipment found in a nicely outfitted custom car shop.

Your garage may only be 400 to 500 square feet, but the plan is to take cues from the interior design details of a preeminent collector and apply them to your own space. Make your garage a show piece to compliment your mean machines.

The floor of any great car collector's garage is a beautifully finished concrete surface; Jay's garage is no exception.  An epoxy floor coating is a must when transforming your garage into a collector's edition space. Light colors such as cream, light gray and tan provide the best showroom look.

There are also custom garage flooring systems. These are interlocking tile systems that provide a great variety of unique finish looks. If the concrete of your garage floor is cracked so bad that an epoxy coating will not be worth the money and effort, this is a great solution. Look down below at the resources to find where you can purchase this kind of product.

Finish the walls and ceiling with sheetrock. Add insulation to your walls and ceiling before you drywall them. This will make a much more comfortable place to work and hang out during the winter months and keep the heat down in the summer.

Paint the walls and ceiling. If you plan to have a lot of artwork and memorabilia on the walls, then choose an off white or light cream color to create a mellow backdrop for your wall displays. These colors also provide an overall clean, bright looking space.

Custom painting your walls is also an option. Depending on the kind of car(s) or motorcycle(s) you have and your personal taste, the options are really infinite. For example, if you're a custom rod fanatic, why not ask the best spray paint artist in your area to paint murals on your garage walls - totally custom, trendy and pretty damn cheap.

Install track lighting. All great stage settings have lighting arranged on tracks. This allows spot lighting to highlight and show off certain aspects of the garage. Use lighting accents to best display the cars, floor and wall art.

Add some custom cabinets and organize all your tools and storage items. The clutter needs to disappear. Easy enough for Jay to do within 17,000 square feet, but you're likely working with 400 - 500. Storage has be optimized and creative. There are many affordable laminate cabinet options.

Add a microwave, kegerator and flatscreen TV - if you have the budget. The concept is to make the garage a showroom which functions as finished living space; a place to spend time, relax and gather with friends.