A garage to guest room conversion in Tugun, Gold Coast

This thoughtful conversion took an underutilised garage and transformed it into a smart and stylish guest space.

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With a stretching mile of prime Gold Coast beach, nature parks and walks a-plenty, it’s easy to see why Tugun is a buyer's delight.
Tucked down a private drive and off a sleepy cul-de-sac sits a gracious and secluded home, set amongst native plants and manicured gardens.
Having firmly established themselves in Australia, owners Cheryl and David Fox wanted to create a stylish yet comfortable guest space for their wide circle of family and friends visiting from the UK.

The initial consultation

With plans to convert their underutilised garage space into a guest room, The Fox’s consulted with a number of builders before approaching Refresh Renovations Australia with a budget in mind.
“When I first met The Foxes, they came to me with a pretty good idea of what they wanted to happen. But no one had walked them through the approval and consent process needed to make their garage a legitimate conversion,” said Renovation Specialist Martin Peirone.

A sound conversion job

What seemed like an easy enough job required a sound understanding of building codes and legal requirements. In Australia, a garage is not built to the same specifications as a room within a house. Not converting it legally can cause plenty of issues down the road, especially when selling.
Following their free initial consultation with Martin, the couple were presented with several options and plans. From the working drawings, they finally decided on a layout that ensured plenty of room left for a garage and space to tuck away home appliances, all while creating a comfortable guest bedroom and vanity room - a must.
And after discussing the many aspects of preparing the site - concrete treatment, waterproofing and termite proofing, supplying the correct energy efficient requirements to the council for approval - the couple were happy in their decision to remove themselves from the stress of project management.

Stylistic and thoughtful touches

Now that Martin was handling the stress of managing multiple suppliers and tradespeople, Cheryl and David could get started choosing the interior details of their new renovation.
Feature elements of the room, such as the sliding barn door, were exciting, providing a contemporary rustic feel to the space. With good lighting essential due to the limits of accessible natural light, the team settled on warm feature lights that created a comfortable ambience.
Topped off with a soft neutral colour palette carried throughout the project, light wood panelled flooring and interior touches such as indoor plants and new furnishings; the result was a thoughtfully practical yet thoroughly contemporary fit-out.

Delivering on the job

The couple had outlined to Martin that they wanted to create a home away from home for visitors to stay. While electrical plans are often straightforward, Martin wanted to ensure that there would be enough conveniently located electrical sockets to use when guests arrived.
With other tricker elements of the conversion to consider, such as installing insulation and rehanging the plasterboard, the renovation team worked diligently to ensure the perfect finish the homeowners envisioned.
And after six weeks, the conversion was complete.

The final product

The existing large garage was transformed into a guest space, accommodating and spacious with plenty of room.
The corridor cleverly connected the newly installed bedroom with the remaining garage, all while creating a tucked away and convenient space for household appliances.
Even though the project’s costs were slightly higher than they’d initially expected, the Foxes saw the benefit of assured quality, professional expertise, and knowledge that the team at Refresh Renovations could provide.
“We tell all our clients that by partnering with us, they’ll save money in the long run. We provide a clear budget and manage expectations around the build so that there aren’t any leaky costs later on down the project track,” said Martin.