Every time Debbie Gliksman’s daughter, Lianna, returned home from school, Gliksman’s two younger boys at home would need to bunk together to free up a space. She knew the family had an excess space but did not need to proceed. “My family feels an attachment to our house. We really love the property,” she states. So before Lianna moved back after school, Gliksman, a designer, thought beyond the box of her home and looked round the way into the family’s detached garage, which she converted into a stylish and comfy studio.
at a Glance
Who lives here: Lianna Gliksman
Location: Los Angeles
Size: 400 square feet
Budget: $23,000, such as furniture, TV and outfitting the kitchen
Urban Oasis
The stucco exterior fits in well with the stone components of the pool along with its hardscape. Gliksman converted the garage’s walkout area into an organic place with potted plants and stone. Across from the garage and pool is the main house’s backyard. “I desired the 2 websites to speak to each other throughout the linking elements of stone and greenery,” she states.
The corrugated aluminum outside adjacent to the studio marks the laundry and storage room.
Urban Oasis
Gliksman scoured Craigslist for good deals on appliances, finishes and decor. The KitchenAid microwave is an overstock item from Habitat for Humanity, which had hundreds of them for sale. A classic parson’s table, a 1970s hand-me-down from Gliksman’s mother, pairs nicely with Ikea’s Gilbert dining seats.
Gliksman offers the following tips for shopping on Craigslist:
1. Play around with all the key words. “Sometimes I would appear an actual item, such as ‘cupboard’ or ‘dining seat.’ But sometimes I would appear distinct phrases, such as ‘left out of a remodel’ That’s the way I found some really good things,” she states.
2. Give yourself plenty of lead time. She began sourcing items little by little prior to the onset of the conversion.
3. Gauge the seller’s trustworthiness through correspondence. You can usually get a sense for vendors’ reliability through emails and telephone calls. How instantaneous are they in responding to your requests? How much detail do they provide? Can they provide information voluntarily?
More secrets to shopping Craiglist
Urban Oasis
Even though there are pops of color in the decor and accessories and a couple of splashes of pattern, Gliksman proceeded with white walls and cabinetry and stuck with a mostly neutral base. “There aren’t a great deal of windows in the area, so the white walls and cabinetry assist visually enlarge and lighten up the place,” she states.
Urban Oasis
Lianna was not home for its transformation, but Gliksman consistently kept her daughter’s design aesthetic in your mind throughout the redesign.
“I knew she desired a more contemporary area, one that would be different from our conventional property. She also needed an elegant, self-contained area to entertain friends, and that I think I managed to give her,” states Gliksman.
Urban Oasis
Urban Oasis
Gliksman bought all those bedroom furnishings, bathroom fixtures and mosaic tiles from a contractor in West Hollywood who’d recorded the items on the internet.
For a consistent look, she selected faux wood ceramic tiles for the flooring throughout. “It is remarkable just how much like wood that they look. The tiles are wonderful for the bathroom, since they’re waterproof,” she states.
Urban Oasis
She purchased the shower doorway — also through Craigslist — until starting the garage conversion, and also based the shower area’s width around the door’s size.
Urban Oasis
“I like the distance can be employed by my mother from the future or perhaps by a renter. It is flexible enough to change with our demands over time,” she states.
Before Photo
Urban Oasis
BEFORE: The garage housed unused closets and miscellaneous boxes and castaways from the main property. “It was a chilly, unused area. We still can not believe how light filled it’s today,” states Gliksman.
More:
More Living Room: Converting a Toilet
Behind a Garage Door, a Family Fun Room