Ever added any artistic flair to your garage or tools?

[Bennylava]

First let me say that I'm not talking about coating your toolbox or door in stickers from companies. I mean something real, like painting a mural of an old 60's ford truck (or something) on a blank wall. Just to make the place look cooler, and less basic. For me, it makes me want to spend more time out there if it's a nice place.

For example right now I'm making my own rattle can shaker and I'm going to use this stencil on a blank section. Haven't figured out what words to put in the black oval at the top yet.

What else is out there? And what have you done? I'm no painter so stencils are kinda my thing. But they go a long way towards improving the looks of things.

 

[racecougar]

My wife bought a cover for my lathe that says "You spin me right round baby..." on it. Otherwise, I have plenty of "wall hangers" like the M38A2 practice bomb, the cudgels, etc., but no murals.

 

[zkdiesel]

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Lots of things for sure. The first one was right after I built the shop in 2006. I emailed this design to the local sign shop:



A couple of weeks later I picked up my sign, which is roughly 4' X 4' and hung it centered on the 13' wall along the back of the 3 car garage. I mounted a spot light on top of my middle bay overhead door operator that comes on with the operator's normal light. Basically anytime you open the middle bay or hit the light switch on the middle bay overhead door control, the spotlight kicks on and lights up the sign. The sign is 3 d with the car cut out sitting out away from the background. He made the antenna out of a piece of chrome wire, as it would have been too thin to cut on his router otherwise.

The shadows here aren't painted. They are being made by the parts of the sign that are separate pieces sitting on standoffs in front of the background "Highway" sign shape.

 

[Stuart in MN]

There's a fellow on the Breaktime 3 home building forum who's a retired Lithonia Lighting engineer, he's done some pretty cool stuff with accent lighting in his garage. He's also a big fan of 1960s McLaren race cars, and painted one wall in their signature orange color along with a McLaren logo. As for Garage Journal members, it's hard to beat Jack Olson's garage for attractive design and use of colors.

 

[Hohn]

You guys are all much cooler than me. I have lots of old license plates on the shelf (a collection of my vehicle life, basically) and been meaning to make a project from them. Sort of a "my vehicle history" thing.

 

[driftpin]

Geez who has room on his walls? Not me! About the only place not covered by shelving, cabinets, or tools, is the garage door.

Here's a little fellah I got from my DIL, I have been keeping it as a keyboard companion. I might try to come-up w/sculptures of my own, but I don't have a big metal scraps pile. We'll see.

 

[aquinob]

Nothing on the walls, they are mostly taken up by storage or just blocked. But when I redid a Delta 30C RAS many moons ago, I decided to be a bit more expressive. I painted it in Navy blue and gold and made some small bits out of rosewood for missing handles and knobs.

 

[rmack898]

I made this sign. It’s a mix of plasma cut and machined elements. It’s 3x5’ and hang 10’ above the floor.

 

[Bennylava]

There's a fellow on the Breaktime 3 home building forum who's a retired Lithonia Lighting engineer, he's done some pretty cool stuff with accent lighting in his garage. He's also a big fan of 1960s McLaren race cars, and painted one wall in their signature orange color along with a McLaren logo. As for Garage Journal members, it's hard to beat Jack Olson's garage for attractive design and use of colors.

Do you happen to have a link to the thread you're referring to? Man I love it when lighting is done right. You can totally change the look of the place, especially at night. But even during the day.

A good lighting designer could make even a bare basic shop look like something special.

 

[PapaBuilds]

I just grapped some shots of a few things in my garage. I threaded some pool balls and replaced the handles on my rotary drill press with them. I rescued this hammer from a furnace and hung it with a new wood burned handle. Also, does my giant zip tie on the wall count as an artistic flair for a tool?

 

[PapaBuilds]

My wife bought a cover for my lathe that says "You spin me right round baby..." on it. Otherwise, I have plenty of "wall hangers" like the M38A2 practice bomb, the cudgels, etc., but no murals.

We you an Ordie by chance?

 

[Stuart in MN]

Do you happen to have a link to the thread you're referring to? Man I love it when lighting is done right. You can totally change the look of the place, especially at night. But even during the day.

A good lighting designer could make even a bare basic shop look like something special.

He's had a number of different discussions over the years, these are the two latest (it seems the search function over there only lets me search back 3 months.)
https://forums.delphiforums.com/breaktime_3/messages/15903/1
https://forums.delphiforums.com/breaktime_3/messages/16021/1

 

[DocsMachine]

Doc.

 

[DocsMachine]

Doc.

 

[DocsMachine]

Doc.

 

[MushCreek]

Hmmm- The upper 4' of my shop is blank white hardboard. Lots of 'canvas' to work with! Too bad I have no artistic ability.

 

[Two Speed]

Not mine, a local garage mural, bit faded now;



at least 10 years ago, before fade;

 

[PapaBuilds]

Hmmm- The upper 4' of my shop is blank white hardboard. Lots of 'canvas' to work with! Too bad I have no artistic ability.

You can do it! If you don't want to paint anything yourself you can always decorate it with novelty stuff

 

[ssjones]

Just a few racing/vehicle/sport items hung around.

 

[racecougar]

We you an Ordie by chance?

Huh?

 

[PapaBuilds]

Huh?

That's a no haha, I was asking if you were ever in Ordnance in the military.

 

[Lassen Forge]

 

[Lassen Forge]

 

[MushCreek]

The good thing about my upper wall panels is that they are screwed in place, so I could take one down and work on it comfortably instead of 10' in the air.

 

[senlow]

I'm hoping that there is no other door, or that the other door has the same sign pointing to the pictured door.

 

[Lassen Forge]

I'm hoping that there is no other door, or that the other door has the same sign pointing to the pictured door.

That was actually my "office" door on the shop. The sign came from the original door to the truck shop on the SFO Bay Bridge building.
The sign went on the door in about '57, but the arrow pointed the other way. There was a crew room there back in the 30-s-40's, which then became a "jack rebuild shop", and then an office for a couple supervisors.
All gone now - they tore it down to change everything when they put the new bridge in. Lot of history gone, but it was fun while it lasted.

 

[senlow]

That was actually my "office" door on the shop. The sign came from the original door to the truck shop on the SFO Bay Bridge building.
The sign went on the door in about '57, but the arrow pointed the other way. There was a crew room there back in the 30-s-40's, which then became a "jack rebuild shop", and then an office for a couple supervisors.
All gone now - they tore it down to change everything when they put the new bridge in. Lot of history gone, but it was fun while it lasted.

Sweet! That sign has a great history.

 

[Shiftless]

Inspired by the color scheme of a ‘57 Chevy BelAire, I copied the colors onto one of my vises.

 

[Jgaz]

Does this count?

 

[PapaBuilds]

Does this count?

Got the Mcabinets over here

 

[zkdiesel]

Today I also added a plane on the roof

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

I'm not sure if it's art or just overflow parking but a lot of artifacts do help make the shop an interesting and enjoyable place to work....

 

[niget2002]

We have a painting we bought with our first set of furniture we picked out as a married couple. It doesn't fit on any walls of the new house, so I hung it in the garage. It's the first thing we see when we get home.

I told the wife that it's our proof that we can occasionally agree on something.

 

[rmack898]

I got a good deal on a used Aloris CA for my Pacemaker lathe because it didn't have a handle, so I made one.

 

[Sumboodie]

No. Function is all I care about.

 

[steve308]

Birthday gift from my son..

 

[four.cycle]

found these three. can't find the one I made with the ivy garland.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

Does this jar count? I sometimes drop the stuff I find in my pockets after a project into it, or something that I got ahold of and somehow relates to my/our stuff. - I think it makes a great ”still life”.



Kind regards,
Olli

 

[strength_and_power]

Been kicking around some ideas for my mezzanine floor. I am thinking this is the direction I’ll be going. This test piece has started me thinking about other items I could incorporate.

My shop walls from 8’-14’ have hog panel hung giving me spots to hang, flags, signs, lights etc.

I have a roll of stickers of my logo, those usually get put on larger items I bring into the shop