Zen Garage

This is one Michael calls the “Zen” garage, and is a significant departure from previous work. This was a truly excellent design opportunity for Michael to show more depth and breadth of design talent. This luxury garage home in Paradise Valley, AZ is a custom design using an Asian theme with some elements of Frank Lloyd Wright styling. Normally, Michael does not design the garage around the style of the home, but this case was an exception. After careful study of the existing home, Michael knew he could use some elements to produce a stunning and tranquil garage space of organic colors, natural metallics, sounds of falling water and blend them with high tech lighting, surfaces, and audio visual enhancements.

For example, sparkling rain glass complements the water walls and is also used in the home interior. The GarageMahals metallic Bronze epoxy flooring produces a fascinating liquid metal appearance, and the deep crystal clear finish makes the color coats look as though they are under glass. The green-gold metallic tone of the Valspar Brilliant Metallics paint is a perfect blend with the gold and bronze wainscoting, another GarageMahals exclusive product. This material is a shimmering metallic rubber product over a geometric pattern of truncated pyramids. This durable surface prevents damage to the wall and the car door. Colors, textures, and patterns, again, are limitless.

The old garage doors were hand painted in a copper/bronze patina that incorporated some of the wall color. Surrounding the doors is another invention of Michael’s, the GarageMahals column and cover system. The benefits of this system are many. Most importantly is the conformance to rule #3 of Michael’s three simple rules for garage design; “Nothing is seen, but what is meant to be seen”. This means that unless the garage door mechanicals are part of the design, they have to disappear. GarageMahals does this with the door column and cover system. Vertical door tracks, lift motors, power outlets, etc., are concealed behind decorative columns. When the door is in the up position, it is hidden behind a decorative cover that suspends from the ceiling. An added benefit is that when the door is in the up position it does not block the lighting. In this system, the lighting is placed on the bottom side of the cover. These are a few of the many innovations by Michael over the last six years that makes his garages so unique.