Take your garage from grime to glam

Finish the floor

An easy way to add style to your garage is by covering the dingy, oil-stained concrete floor. One option is to give that floor an epoxy coating with a product such as Valspar's Quikrete, which is designed to create a clear or colorful surface that is smooth, tough and easy to clean.

Garage designer Dave Angers of Tailored Living says garage-floor tiles are another way to go. Many are designed to provide drainage for tracked-in snow or rain and to prevent slips and falls. These tiles are available in a variety of colors and patterns, as well as eco-friendly versions made from recycled plastic or rubber.

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Install a fancy door

Boring garage doors used to be the norm, but more homeowners are opting for auto entries with more style. That's because garage doors represent a big part of many houses' street-facing exteriors and are key to their curb appeal.

You can upgrade your home's look by buying and installing new a garage door. Popular upgrade options include wooden doors that mimic the look of old-fashioned carriage house doors or modern-looking aluminum and glass doors.

If you want to let fresh air and light into your garage while keeping out bugs and debris, you can even get a screen door for your garage from companies such as Stoett Industries or Southern California's Garage Envy.

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Add a grid wall

Storing things neatly and efficiently in your garage is largely a matter of taking advantage of your wall space, Angers says. He says that a typical two-car garage has only 400 square feet of floor space but more than 3,000 cubic feet of storage space.

Adding a grid wall with specialized hooks and other fixtures can be a great way to organize everything from tools to athletic equipment. Most can be reconfigured, so they can change as your needs change. Angers also suggests conserving floor space wherever possible by hanging lawn tools and other equipment on the wall, ideally on the right side of the garage. The left side should be kept as clear as possible to make things easy for the driver.

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Make room for stowage and storage

Traditional garage-organizing systems are pegboards or even just nails driven into the walls to hold rakes and brooms. But modern products are more durable and versatile, says Rob White, brand manager of Gladiator GarageWorks, which makes appliances, wall fixtures, cabinets, workbenches and other products for garages.

Garages are subject to drastic temperature changes, and shelves and cabinets installed there also must withstand the effects of moisture, dirt and even accidental bumps from inexpertly parked cars.

Steel cabinets attached to the wall, off the floor, make it easy to clean the garage with a push broom or hose, and wheeled lockers offer protected storage that is easy to move and reconfigure.

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Charge your car

President Barack Obama has said he'd like to see 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015. If you buy a battery-powered vehicle, you'll want to be able to recharge it by plugging it in at night.

The good news is that residential charging stations are already available from companies such as Siemens and Eaton.

Home chargers come in two varieties, and your choice matters. Level 1 chargers run on standard, 120-volt household current, which means you can recharge your car using a standard outlet. But it will be a slow process, taking as long as 12 or 14 hours. A Level 2 charger requires a 220-volt current — and possibly an electrician to install it — but will recharge your car up to five times faster.

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Get brighter

Many garages rely on a single, bare incandescent bulb for illumination. That's perfectly adequate if you only need to see well enough to find your car when you leave for work in the morning and locate the door when you get home.

If you want to use your garage for storage or as a workshop or garden shed, though, you'll probably want to upgrade your lighting. Installing fixtures for fluorescent tubes can be practical and energy-efficient. Choices are available at a wide range of prices, starting at less than $20, but spending a bit more can be prudent. Less expensive fluorescent fixtures with magnetic ballasts may not work in cold temperatures. Large T12 tubes, at 40 watts, may not be as energy-efficient or show colors as accurately as smaller T8 tubes, at 32 watts, which are more expensive.

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Give your car a lift

If you're serious about working on your car, just getting under the hood may not be enough. At times, you may need to get under the whole vehicle.

That doesn't have to mean using jacks and jack stands to raise it a foot or so, then crawling or rolling under. Instead, you can install a hydraulic lift that will raise your car more than 6 feet high.

The kind of lift you need depends on the work you want to do, as well as on your budget, the size of your cars and your garage. You can get an idea of the options at SuperLifts.com, whose lifts start at $1,695. The safety issues associated with raising a multi-ton vehicle over your head mean you'll want to get a lift certified by the Automotive Lift Institute.

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Let the sunshine in

Garages can be dark and dusty, but you can bring extra light and ventilation to the space by installing a skylight.

It's not a project for absolute beginners — after all, the job will require cutting through the roof with power tools. On the plus side, skylights themselves are available from retailers such as Lowe's and Home Depot for around $200.

Another factor that moves the project into the do-it-yourself category is that most garages' roofs are accessible from below as well as above. This simplifies skylight installation by eliminating the need to cut through drywall ceilings and by removing the need to deal with rafters and trusses.

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Warm it up

If your area gets cold in the winter, your garage likely does, too. That's not a problem if you just park your ride and head right into the house. But if you want to work on your car or pursue other garage-bound hobbies, a chilly environment can be a drawback.

Luckily, you have options besides watching your breath turn to steam or postponing your projects until spring. Space heaters designed specifically for the garage are available from a number of manufacturers.

Lennox Industries says its natural-gas or propane heaters can make your garage more comfortable. Online appliance retailers such as Air & Water offer electric garage heaters that can be mounted on walls or ceilings to provide warmth while staying out of the way.

Make sure to follow the manufacturer's installation directions for proper ventilation and air circulation.

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Let a laser be your guide

Having a glamorous garage is no good if your parking skills are not up to snuff; you'll just wreck all those nice storage fixtures by banging into them with your car.

Fortunately, there's a cheap and easy-to-install solution. Laser parking guides are available for less than $25. Installed on the ceiling, devices such as the Chamberlain LiftMaster Laser Park Assist — which requires a compatible garage-door opener — or the Instapark laser parking system are activated when your car enters the garage. Simply pull forward until the laser beam's red dot hits a designated spot on your dashboard, and you'll know you're parked in the right place. Of course, you'll need to park perfectly on your own one more time to calibrate the gadget.

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