Jordan Peterson: Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.

Me: How about the garage?

A thread, with ideas that might be useful to anybody who has a garage and wants to make it both beautiful and functional.

I'm 65, have been a writer my whole life, but also a very active builder - I designed and built a whole house, also do extensive home renovation, make furniture, paint with oils, maintain a large garden, etc. Spend much time in the garage here in Arizona. A wider shot:

This garage has to accommodate two cars, but also hold tools, materials and the stuff of hands-on home ownership - electrical, plumbing, cleaning stuff, bikes, etc. The only way this can work is by absolutely maximizing vertical storage. The three walls do this in different ways.

The east wall uses the Kobalt wall system from Lowe's (not getting a nickel from anybody for any product mentioned in this thread, just telling you what I used). It can hold either shelves or a system of padded hooks. On the shelves, I have miscellaneous materials.

Including some mitered boxes with tansu hardware I finished about 10 minutes before taking this shot. Never used tansu before; I like the look. You can get it at Amazon.

On the south end of the east wall, I've hung power tools. These used to be on shelves, but I like being able to see and grab them more easily. Next to that is a small-parts rack I've had for 25 years. The black trash bag hangs on two brackets. I clamp it into place with 4 clamps.

This metal board on the south wall is my favorite thing in the garage. It is called Locboard, available from Amazon. It's not cheap, but it's crazy strong and so much more beautiful than typical pegboard. I understand it's even used in surgical clean rooms.

This installation consists of 5 locboards, each 24 inches by 42.5 inches. I thought it was so beautiful, I framed it - used poplar with Minwax "Gunstock" stain and a varnish topcoat. I like how the frame sets it off from the walls.

There are never enough outlets in the shop, so I found this crazy 20-outlet strip on Amazon. Should be enough! I hate extra, coiled wire - so I chopped its 12-foot cord to roughly 3 feet and put on a new plug, then covered it with cord-channel. Neater that way.

Used cord channel on the lights above, too. The lights are from Ikea.

The odd object in the middle of the wall is a folding Bosch table saw. Takes just a second to move it onto the driveway. I use it out there rather than in the garage to keep the garage cleaner. Weather is AZ is nice. In a worse climate, I'd put in a garage sawdust system.

On the west wall, I have Locboaard with reels of tape, wire, weedwacker-string - anything on a reel. .

Here's how Locboard works. You snap on one of the proprietary hooks, and lock it in place with one or two little 3/8" screws. It's cleverly designed so the screw grabs the edge of the squares in the board, so you can move things around without marring the board. Super cool.

Here's the rest of the west wall. Just stuff we use on a regular basis, such as bikes.

In the center of the ceiling, I have this retractible cord reel. Insanely handy. Stretches out to the driveway easily when I am using the tablesaw or some other tool out there. A ceiling hook to hold the loose end keeps it out of the way. I have another of these in the backyard.

Used to be just a bare bulb in the ceiling. I liked this retro fixture with an Edison bulb.

You may be thinking that for a woodworker, I don't have many bench tools. I actually keep them in a different place - this steel shed I built a couple of months ago.

Here's the inside of the shed. More Locboard, heavy-duty DeWalt shelves. We keep woodworking tools and gardening stuff here. I just carry whatever benchtop tool I need out to a portable workbench I set up on the lawn or in the driveway when I need it.

More shed detail. I'd never built anything with steel studs and siding before, but YouTube videos explained it all. I've gotten many compliments on this shed, and so many people would like me to build one it could be a business. But I'm too slow to make a profit, I fear.

Shed detail:

Shed ceiling:

Shed "trim" - it's just galvanized drip edge, but gives it all a finished look.

I like the fact that my garage and shed are new and shiny, but hold some really ancient tools, like this brace-and-bit from my father that's likely 100 years old. I still use it.

Or this 30-plus year old hammer I used to build our first house.

Last detail. I like having this chin-up bar over the back door. Makes it easy to do a few several times a day as you go in and out of the garage. All in all, this garage is finally just where I want it to be. Hope you got an idea or two. Thanks for coming by!