It’s been a long journey, but we finally finished our garage to rental studio conversion! After purchasing our home this summer, we decided to turn our detached 2-car garage in the backyard into a fully functioning studio, complete with kitchen, full bath, and in-unit laundry to rent out. We’ve been sharing some progress photos along the way through Chibi’s Construction Updates on Instagram, but today we’re sharing some before and after pictures of the work that was done!

When we bought the house, our backyard was a little bit of a mess. There was a huge concrete slab taking up most of the yard, which is nice for parking a bunch of cars or maybe turning into a basketball court. But we decided to rip it all up and fill it with drought-tolerant sod so that the pups could roam free.

In the photo above on the right, you can see what used to be our two car garage. It looks like a teeny tiny house with a modest front door and window. But this is what it started out as…

A two car garage with a tiny little window. We kept that original window and eventually turned it into the window above the kitchen sink. Everything else was completely repurposed! The garage was gutted and our concrete slab demolished within the first week of the remodeling project.

Fast forward to this week and what used to be a garage now looks like a mini house!

The entire renovation began at the end of August and we just finished this week, so it ended up being just over a 2 month project. Progress pics were super fun to take. If you haven’t already, check out Chibi’s Construction Updates in my Instagram Story Highlights!

Let’s take a look inside at the final product!

We had less than 300 sq ft of space to play with, so we had to be strategic about storage space and how things were placed. We put a small kitchenette on one entire wall and lined it with cabinets. Remember the old garage window? There it is above the sink!

Sliding mirror closet doors were added to make the space feel larger. It sits across from our large window and creates the illusion that the studio is larger and has more windows!

Next to the closet is our full bath. We added a 60″ prefab standing shower, recessed mirror medicine cabinet for extra storage space, and a 24″ vanity cabinet. In the photo to the left below, you can see the solar tube that we installed in the ceiling. It basically is a mini sunroof that lets sunlight in from above to help save on energy costs.

That’s basically it for the tour! It’s crazy to think that it took just a few months for this whole change to happen. Stay tuned for tips on how to find a good contractor for your home renovation project.