EDIT: New updates and photos at the end, 2 December 2018
With a limited budget and other limitations, I've spend the past several years trying to set up my garage to be as useful as possible, all while doing it on the lowest possible budget (since spending on the garage means less spending on the cars).
This pretty much started from scratch as previous houses were all townhomes with no garage. I had a good selection of hand tools, but very little else.
Another limitation: half of the 2-bay garage had to stay available for my wife to park her vehicle in at all times (currently a Toyota 4Runner), so essentially I had a single bay to work with, which had to both hold all of my tools, cabinets, and workbenches and still have room to pull one of my smaller cars into for long-term work (Triumph GT6 and BMW e30). Also needed to still have room to (barely) fit my daily driver in a pinch (e.g. major hail storm or something)...Plus some space has to be left for kids toys, bikes, etc.
Another limitation: the garage is under two bedrooms, so the ceiling is not terribly high (9-foot or so).
A bonus: in my backyard I have a "shed" that is a single and a 1/4 bay on its own, but it is wood-floor on stilts and not good for use as a "shop" as only my smallest car (the triumph) can actually get to it due to choke point between the house, trees, and fence at the property line. But it's useful to stash the GT6 in the winter, and to store large parts (spare car panels, engines, etc), and hold all the lawn/garden stuff to keep it out of the main garage.
The main garage is a constant project....usually little things to accomodate a new tool or machine, or shelves, or found some old kitchen cabinets, or whatever. I can weld, but I like to build out of wood since it can be reconfigured or taken down easily if need be, and its frankly just easier to do things with wood for me, as a former carpenter's assistant many years ago
Anyhow, just some pics. I've lurked here for a while, usually drooling, but figured I might as well actually join and post up....
A few years ago I did get a quick blurb in Classic Motorsports magazine in their "garage" issue, though it was across the page from a very nice custom setup and a bit embarrassing in comparison
here's the house and early iteration just after moving in
here's the backyard "shed"
some early work
first attempt at organization
several years later, a pretty recent view of how it looks now....
front area. There is a loft at 6'3" over the left side, which I store roof racks and other "low" stuff on
other side of the front left bay
the tool corner
workbench, etc. My main bench is an old music studio sound table. very heavy, very stout. I build a rollout bench underneath it that now has a big stainless sheet on it (formerly in an industrial kitchen and acquired for free...)
anyhow, that's my intro. Someday I'll hopefully talk the wife into giving me the whole garage (yeah, not likely).......the other plan is to pour a slab under the "shed" out back and run power/insulation/etc to it and turn it into a full workshop - but that's going to be a while down the road if it happens.
With a limited budget and other limitations, I've spend the past several years trying to set up my garage to be as useful as possible, all while doing it on the lowest possible budget (since spending on the garage means less spending on the cars).
This pretty much started from scratch as previous houses were all townhomes with no garage. I had a good selection of hand tools, but very little else.
Another limitation: half of the 2-bay garage had to stay available for my wife to park her vehicle in at all times (currently a Toyota 4Runner), so essentially I had a single bay to work with, which had to both hold all of my tools, cabinets, and workbenches and still have room to pull one of my smaller cars into for long-term work (Triumph GT6 and BMW e30). Also needed to still have room to (barely) fit my daily driver in a pinch (e.g. major hail storm or something)...Plus some space has to be left for kids toys, bikes, etc.
Another limitation: the garage is under two bedrooms, so the ceiling is not terribly high (9-foot or so).
A bonus: in my backyard I have a "shed" that is a single and a 1/4 bay on its own, but it is wood-floor on stilts and not good for use as a "shop" as only my smallest car (the triumph) can actually get to it due to choke point between the house, trees, and fence at the property line. But it's useful to stash the GT6 in the winter, and to store large parts (spare car panels, engines, etc), and hold all the lawn/garden stuff to keep it out of the main garage.
The main garage is a constant project....usually little things to accomodate a new tool or machine, or shelves, or found some old kitchen cabinets, or whatever. I can weld, but I like to build out of wood since it can be reconfigured or taken down easily if need be, and its frankly just easier to do things with wood for me, as a former carpenter's assistant many years ago
Anyhow, just some pics. I've lurked here for a while, usually drooling, but figured I might as well actually join and post up....
A few years ago I did get a quick blurb in Classic Motorsports magazine in their "garage" issue, though it was across the page from a very nice custom setup and a bit embarrassing in comparison
here's the house and early iteration just after moving in
here's the backyard "shed"
some early work
first attempt at organization
several years later, a pretty recent view of how it looks now....
front area. There is a loft at 6'3" over the left side, which I store roof racks and other "low" stuff on
other side of the front left bay
the tool corner
workbench, etc. My main bench is an old music studio sound table. very heavy, very stout. I build a rollout bench underneath it that now has a big stainless sheet on it (formerly in an industrial kitchen and acquired for free...)
anyhow, that's my intro. Someday I'll hopefully talk the wife into giving me the whole garage (yeah, not likely).......the other plan is to pour a slab under the "shed" out back and run power/insulation/etc to it and turn it into a full workshop - but that's going to be a while down the road if it happens.
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....which I would love to do if I had much open ceiling space 
