Interior design for garage conversion

Interior design for domestic internal garage conversion
2026

This project is a personal project in my own home, converting our internal garage into an open kitchen-diner on the ground floor of our 1970s townhouse. 

We worked with brilliant architect Harry Casey at Faculty Architecture Studio to formulate our plans and create drawings ready for the wonderful builders, brothers Jake and Jack Matthews of Matthews Carpentry and Build.

This project has been 5 years in the making, dreaming up different formations of this space and how best to utilise it. One option was to keep the garage as it's own unit, to create a separate room and keep the internal corridor to the back door. However we eventually decided we wanted the whole area completely open, to make most use of the space as a dining room and play area for our son with hidden utilities and the existing downstairs toilet under the stairs and along the old corridor area. 

Jake and Jack of Matthews Carpentry and Build removed the internal garage walls and added a large back window to replace the old garage door. They removed our old flat ceiling, pushing up the space into a small lean-to roof which they beautifully rebuilt with an added Velux to bring more natural light in. In just 5 weeks the space was completely transformed: the floor levelled and new screed setting; new electrics; new doors and windows; the old kitchen removed; boarded and plastered throughout; and new internal door frames added for the utilities among many other tasks and additional details. 

Design wise, I wanted this space to feel like a burrow - a cosy, earthy escape from the urban world around us. I found myself remembering a Beatrix Potter illustration of Peter Rabbit in his sandy burrow being made camomile tea by his mother. It's such a warm and comforting image, and I thought it would make an interesting beginning of a mood board for the space. 

I used a terracotta lime wash to colour drench the whole space, covering the walls and ceiling with a brushy texture throughout and adding terracotta-style vinyl floor tiles to continue the colour and mottled texture. White furniture - a modular sofa, textured organic-shaped lampshades and white kitchen cabinets - lifted the space and bounced light around. I rescued a set of original 1970s sapele wooden doors from another building project via Facebook Marketplace and my friend and wonderful fabricator Jack Stiling cut them to size for our toilet and utility cupboards, also adding a low window ledge around the sofa area.

We chose rounded edges for the new dining table, curved back mid century dining chairs (recently upholstered in a lime green velvet), and a curved oblong shape for the kitchen and corridor light fixtures. We added walnut handles on these doors and on the white kitchen cabinets to add a beautiful natural texture as well as a sensory and ergonomic experience.

Alongside the project I painted a large acrylic painting for the space, again thinking about the burrow and what a view out of it might see in a British forest. I drew from my own photos of Hart's Tongue Ferns and mossy branches and boulders from walks in lush woodlands in Bristol, Wales and Cornwall, adding layers of purples, pinks and oranges to make a vivid scene for the eye to move around. 

The kitchen and downstairs toilet are still in progress, with tiling still to be done and final finishing touches coming soon. 

With huge thanks to the wonderful team who made this dream project possible - Harry Casey; Jake and Jack of Matthews Carpentry and Build; Jack Stiling and the behind-the-scenes decision making and endless support of my lovely husband Alex.