Any creative minds around?

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We are buying a link detached house this summer - have attached the floor plan. We ideally need a small home-office for me. Something smallish 2.5 by 2.5 would possibly do quite well. The intention is to use the conservatory as small ones’ playroom so a dedicated office for me would be excellent.

So with this in mind we have thought about a garage conversion. However we are also mindful that when time comes to sell it, some folk may want the garage. For reference - the house has its own driveway for a single car and just next to it - another space (house is in a residential cul de sac in a private no through road).

Currently considering if a part conversion is possible whereby the front of the garage stays as a garage but quite tiny 2.5 by 2.5 and the back end of it is connected to house as office space. That retains some space to store odds and ends and when time comes to sell if people really want the garage they could knock the internal wall down?

Or does that not achieve anything and May as well just convert the garage as is without thinking about sales etc and perhaps either leaving it alone or going full conversion is best for sale instead of halfway house which could be seen as neither here nor there?

If the house was on busy public road, didn’t have a driveway, didn’t have additional parking space for another car then garage would have been fairly lucrative commodity as a car parking space. But on a private nonthorugh road on a cul de sac with driveway and additional space.... not sure!

Any thoughts ?

Floor plan

We’ve renovated and done exactly that split the garage in two. The front looks like a garage and has ample space to store tools/bikes etc but you would never park a car. Then back is office linked to house. My thoughts were if someone wanted to change it back it’s pretty simple to do so. Another option could be a summer house in garden?

I was just walking through a neighbourhood built in the 1970s with side garages on every house and by now I’d say 95% have renovated the garage to use as an extra room.

With two potential parking spaces I’d convert. I’d put a home office to the front and a small laundry room/utility at the back off the kitchen.

This kind of part-conversion of a garage has never put us off a house. On the contrary: it seems an effective use of space, as you can rarely fit a large family car in a modern garage.

I see a different problem. Because it's link detached, you would have no window or natural ventilation in the study. That would put me off. In this case I would do a full conversion of the garage, replacing the door with a window.

Have you considered moving the utility room into the back of the garage? It would be much nicer not to have to go through the utility room to get to the conservatory/playroom. Safer, when the children are little, and more pleasant when they are older and you use the conservatory as adult/general family/entertainment/relaxation space.

Agree that you can't have an office with no window in the back half of the garage so better to convert the whole thing.

I agree with above. Walking through your utility room to get to thr conservatory is not ideal by any stretch. And neither is a windowless home office. I'd move thr utility to back of garage and then have a home office in summer house out back if you don't want to lose all your garage.

I think I'd just convert the full garage, with a window out front. Yes, it will put some future buyers off not having a garage (me included), but will probably attract just as many buyers if this house has a genuine 3bed + office space over the identical ones in the street.

If you look at showhomes/developers marketing suites on many modern estates they use the garage made into a room as their base. Usually with patio sliding doors. When they sell it, the buyer has an extra room or they can have it made into a garage very easily. I agree with all the suggestions to put the utility at the back of the garage.

Wow thanks ever so much!! All excellent ideas and points.

One of the things at the moment right now is money as we are just buying this house - and it’s in a pricey South-East county so not exactly cheap. Which means that a larger project moving utility etc may not be feasible just yet. Yet I do need a home office ASAP really and we don’t want to use the spare bedroom or the conservatory for that.

So one thought is to leave the garage conversion project aside just for the moment and perhaps get a garden office put into the back of the generous ish garden. Have seen quite a few nice Scandinavian style ones with full installation etc that feels affordable and doable ASAP, and then perhaps park the garage conversion project to another year when we’ve had a bit more time to think etc... and to gather funds for something a bit more significant than a part conversion.

We would be looking to upsize in about 7-8 years time so want to make sure we do something that doesn’t set us back later. Thanks so much for super ideas!

I'm with the others who said
Just convert garage, front half, fancy window and office conversion. Back half utility, loo, wet room, boot room then make the entrance to the conservatory better
Good luck

I'd be interested to see how you want to kit out your office? I have roughly the same dimensions for my office and am considering a built in unit top instead of a desk. It'll be longer.