Interior finish ideas

[grabeb]

So I've been building a garage for the last year and I'm almost done with the siding, so this winter I plan to move inside to finish it out. Yes, it's been going slow, but that's life.

The plan is to use corrugated tin on the walls up to about the 4' mark. The trim will all be 2x6 baseboard and 2x4 'chair rail'. Both will be rabbited to accept the tin. I'll be using either new shiny tin or weathered if I can find a reasonable source.

It has 12' sidewalls and is a vaulted ceiling to 19' at the peak in the center. 32'deep x 24'wide. 8/12 pitch exterior 6.5/12 pitch interior. I plan on also tinning the ceiling at some point.

Anyway above the chair rail(4') mark I plan on using old cedar fence boards on the walls up to the ceiling. I've already started accumulating those.

My delima is cabinetry. I will likely buy some sort of modular garage cabinets for a few areas. I've been looking at box stores, online, etc. Most likely I'll do black or red as I don't want too many different colors. I have an advantage 4 post lift, which is gray and red.

I'm debating buying some kitchen cabinets for a few areas as I think I can be more creative, if you will. Curious what feedback you guys have? There's a local supply store that sells really nice oak cabinets for a fair price. The problem is I don't want the oak look. Thinking of spraying them with some sort of enamel or similar to get a nice red or black color. I realize oak is a very coarse grain and that will show through. I also thought maybe 'weather' them to match in with the cedar somewhat. I plan on 2x butcher block tops on these.


Anyone have any pics of similar or ideas??

 

[1965gp]

I did something similar but I don’t think as nice as you are planning. Mine basically looks like the inside of a bbq joint. I went to lowes and had the kids pick out whatever ‘oops’ paint the wanted and had them paint random boards

 

[drmarkr]

When we bought our house back in the mid-2000's, it had a buttload of oak knock-down cabinets in the kitchen and laundry room, as well as a room the former owner's wife used as a hair salon. All were replaced in the remodel.

I put a batch of those in our garage, and most of the rest I used in my detached shop. They've worked our great for storage, and the price was pretty damn great. You can pick up used cabinets from kitchen remodel's pretty regularly on CL and probably FB marketplace as well.

First two are the garage....last is one room of the shop, before I installed the benches.

 

[grabeb]

Both look great. Is there a good way to paint the cabinets so they have a more industrial'?' look? I guess I'm thinking so they don't look like kitchen cabinets? Don't know if an auto paint is what I'm after, a wood paint or something like rustolium. Maybe I can get a cedar stain and do that.

I was in a garage recently where he did similar, but he built all his cabinets out of reclaimed lumber, looked great but I don't have the time for that right now.

 

[MushCreek]

I did the rabbeted baseboard, and ended up with hundreds of little pockets to collect sawdust and metal chips.

 

[CraigStu]

2 houses ago I bought unfinished cabinets and painted them grey w/ solid color stain. Since it ends up w/ a flat finish it is a quick and easy paint to use. If you buy cabinets that are already finished I'd check into something like a liquid sandpaper. Otherwise I'd worry that the paint won't adhere well enough long term.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Depending on what you're putting in those kitchen cabinets and what they are made of, you could overload them. Just cabinets of decent quality.

I used simple flat black Rustoleum on some cabinets I got for free.

 

[65Goat]

I had a thread going on heavy duty garage cabinets:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/commercial-building-cabinets.494257/

 

[yeldogt]

You can paint Oak .... painting anything that's been in a kitchen requires proper cleaning prep. I always wipe down any previous painted surface with a no sand prep available at any paint or bog box store --- then the proper primer for the top coat.

Paint type quality choice depends on desired final results.

Typically it's the door design that gives the common Oak cabinets away ... if lucky and the doors are simple they end up looking better. Real deal commercial cabinetry is very expensive -- if you can snag from an office building -- take. The metal kitchen from the 50's is also great -- although most of that is gone by now. Back when I started doing rehabs (80's) those kitchen cabinets were everywhere and I got good at spraying them white and using them for laundry rooms w/ white and black vinyl floors.

The knock down type -- like IKEA is actually nice IMO. Same with lots of the homeowner grade garage stuff ... most guys are not going to be hard on it like a commercial garage. Even those cheap black 3 door upper cabinets that HF sells -- They are not real deep --- great over a bench. When I first bought them and took the parts out of the box I sad .... wow these are cheap. Once you get them built and squared up on the wall they are quite nice.

 

[1965gp]

Don’t forget about lockers. Can add a cool feel and are often sold for cheap.

 

[CraigStu]

I don't know the correct terms, and the pics on the website don't show the difference, but go to Lowes or HD and look at their corrugated steel roofing. There are two types. One is horribly bright and the other is a much nicer silver. I used the bright version once on a roof shed. The shed was at the bottom slope of our back yard so was visible from every other area of the yard or house. From 75 ft away, it was so shiny it was terrible. I can't imagine having that on a wall inside so be sure to see before you buy.

 

[Zeke]

+1 for IKEA. I think they have a cool gray color available. Me, I go for used metal anything. Lockers to tall storage cabinets. I have a lathe on a horizontal filing cabinet with a reinforced top. Drill press on a 2 drawer filing cabinet. All on wheels.

 

[unslow1]

I thought about doing vinyl diamond plate paper on the door. Then either a gray Hammerite or black wrinkle finish for the cabinet body.


Nice collection 1965GP. It looks like cars I would want.

 

[rayra]

If you are considering painting the oak cabinets, easy enough to close up the grain by priming them first. Waste of good oak though.

I bought a few unfinished cabinets to get something up before I could get around to building cabinets in my garage workshop. I covered that whole stretch of wall with two french rails made by ripping 2x4s on a diagonal. I kept the cut halves matched (there's some variation in the cuts). Mounted the top and bottom wall rails, mounted the matching top rail in segments flush with the top of the cabinets and set the bottom matching haves in their groove, hung the cabinet then screwed thru the cabinet into the matching lower cleat. Viola, aligned cabinets on double cleats. Have a lot of weight in a few of them.