We gave our garage a new lease of life...

The garage. One big, cold room, attached to our house, but very unloved. Having only been here since the start of September, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've been in the garage and don't anticipate experiencing any regret at converting the garage into something new.

When we bought the house, the idea was to use one of the bedrooms as music studio, as Harvey and I are (sort of) in a band, and want to be able to have a space where we can all get together and play on a more regular basis, with a view to actually seriously making some music and finally finishing a song that we're happy with. However, I then became fixated on the idea of a home office, and wanted the other bedroom kept as a guest bedroom.

As we are both only in our early twenties, we haven't yet accrued the normal amount of junk you'd be likely to find in the average garage; the only things we really need to put in the garage are the lawnmower (yawn) and the BBQ. And so the idea was born to turn the garage into a music studio.

There were several major issues with using the garage as a studio:

• It was cold as the garage door did not keep out the draft. 
• The room as not watertight, thanks to the same garage door. (Water + electricity = unhappy homeowners)
• NOISE POLLUTION; we live in a small, quiet cul de sac, and I'm 100% certain our new neighbours would not have appreciated suddenly being able to hear such loud music every evening/weekend/afternoons (I work 9-5 but Harvey works shifts!). 

So the way we saw it, there were two choices: either replace the garage door with something more 'door-like' to turn the garage into a room and buy a shed for the garden to house the above mentioned items (the expensive option) OR separate the garage into two rooms by building a stud wall (not as expensive, and probably more useful). Not a difficult decision, it turns out... 

BEFORE: I failed to take a photo of the room before we did any DIY, so don't actually have a photo... However, it was very much your standard garage, I'm sure you can imagine. Here's how we turned it around: 

L XXXX