Budget Breakdown: A Neglected Garage Becomes a Library Loft for $69K

It was mutual friends that introduced Everald Colas of Storyn Studio for Architecture to a new set of clients. Colas—a Haitian-American architect, educator, and storyteller—returned to Florida to start his own firm spending eight years in New York City as a senior architect at Bjarke Ingels Group. Colas was used to working on much larger scale commercial projects but loves the unique opportunity that residential work brings. "Residential projects are always interesting because we have the opportunity to tell a client’s full story at all scales—from the rug, to the bookcase, to the overall space," he says. 

The clients are a couple who had purchased a home on a small lot in St. Petersburg, Florida; after living there for a year, they were ready to make some improvements. Avid readers, they requested a quiet library space that could double as a guest room. With limited space available, constructing an addition was out of the question—but they did have a 400-square-foot garage that wasn’t being used to its fullest potential. 

Armed with a budget of $75,000, Colas set out to reimagine the underutilized space. Working within the tight footprint, he came up with a concept involving "the design of a single piece of furniture configured to the spaces around it with minimal disruption to the existing shell." The result is a serene space with a bespoke bookshelf that serves as a structural element to support a sleeping loft above. A sliding library ladder leads up to the loft. Below, there is a quiet study, an eat-in kitchenette, and a full bathroom. 

The biggest challenge that Colas faced was customizing the store-bought library ladder to fit the space and make smooth turns. "The radius of the library ladder was very difficult," he shares. "We had to get a millworker to reverse engineer the wheels at the bottom to make it a bit smoother."