DIY: Chesapeake man goes hog wild in garage makeover

Proceed with caution if you share your home with a motorcycle enthusiast or a guy craving a man cave.

Either is bound to get revved up by Brian Parsons’ Harley-Davidson heaven.

It a word, it’s cool.

From the walls painted blaze orange to the diamond plate-covered cabinets and checkered tile floor like those in cycle showrooms, Parsons’ Chesapeake garage is a custom tribute to all things Hog.

It’s also the overall winner of Home’s 2008 Do-It-Yourself Contest, nabbing honors, too, for Best Low-Budget Room or Project. The tune-up took less than $500 but plenty of elbow grease.

The garage getaway is also a hangout for wife, Betsy, son Connor, 13, daughter Mollie, 8, and dog Buster, too.

Of course, it all started with Parsons’ bike, a 2005 Sportster XL 1200 Custom.

“I used to keep my truck in the garage,” said Parsons, a Salty Dawgs Riding Club member who enjoys doing charity poker runs. “Then I got the bike, so the truck moved out.”

Parsons enjoyed spending time in his Stonegate home’s garage, but it was chilly in the winter, “so I threw up some Sheetrock.”

Eventually, he decorated the space and ran a flame wall border around it. He painted the garage door in a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy his Harley dreams.

The blue bike, which he calls his “custom Custom,” cried for a custom garage.

Down came the wall decorations as Parsons, project manager for Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center, launched a full-scale, themed DIY makeover on a budget.

A trained electrician, Parsons rewired the space to suit his power needs and added cable and telephone connections. After insulating and drywalling walls not already completed, he added light fixtures.

Parsons sought inspiration at the Web site garagejournal.com. Using what he had at hand, he repurposed old cabinets from the family’s kitchen renovation for his workbench and storage. He painted them black, adding gray tops and an orange stripe for flair.

To lend an industrial look, Parsons purchased diamond plate, cutting it to fit the cabinet door panels and drawer fronts. The Harley-Davidson bar-and-shield symbol, also cut from diamond plate, adorns an overhead cabinet.

After coating the walls in orange paint on top and black on the bottom, the DIY enthusiast affixed a border resembling diamond plate around the garage. Carrying on the industrial feel, Parsons crafted switch plate and receptacle covers – and even a pegboard for his tools – from diamond plate, too.

Continuing the theme befitting his bike, Parsons laid a special tiled floor to achieve the checkerboard effect he sought. That was the most challenging of the garage’s projects. The floor project, completed in 12 tiring hours, took about half of the garage’s $500 budget and gives great impact.

“It’s the same tile used in grocery stores and Harley showrooms,” the 49-year-old said.

Going for function as well as eye appeal, the do-it-yourselfer came up with a clever recycling feature. After cutting a hole in the garage wall, Parsons used PVC and a dryer vent to create a fun recycling door that resembles a car’s gas cap.

Now, the family needn’t truck outside to place recyclables in the bins.

Finding fun in the details, Parson recovered three PepBoys stools in orange and black upholstery leather, rehung his favorite motorcycling memorabilia – posters, a clock, signs, flags, old license plates and a neon sign – and turned to making the space more livable. A fridge holds beverages, a TV’s on the wall, and he put everything on casters to move items around more easily.

The final touches were strands of Harley-Davidson party lights – a gift from Parsons’ sister – and a ceiling fan he transformed from boring and basic to true Harley. With black and orange blades, decals, a pull chain ending in a skull charm and a light that resembles a motorcycle headlight, it’s his custom creation.

Today, the garage is more than a place to tinker on the bike. It’s the family’s favorite place to be.

Son Connor loves to chill in the space with his friends, taking in Patriots games on the tube, and daughter Mollie has a craft corner to work on art projects. Her dad designated several drawers of his workbench for her supplies. And Mollie often does her homework in the garage, her father said.

“We just like to hang out here,” Connor said. “All my friends are like, 'Your dad has such a nice garage.’”

Added Betsy, a nurse: “It’s a multipurpose room. We have big potlucks out here, bring in a portable heater and have some rockin’ parties.”

She acknowledged that the space attracts admirers. During garage sales, people are fascinated, and women even bring their husbands back for a gander. Ladies like the floor in particular, she said.

The space has online admirers, too. In August, it won Best Garage bragging rights during a garagefreaks.com monthly contest.

The garage has one more function besides family den and party place. It’s also a makeshift therapy office when friends and neighbors have a bad day, Betsy mused.

The space garnered a $1,000 prize – $500 for Best Low-Budget Room or Project and $500 for overall winner – in Home’s Do-It-Yourself Contest. The money won’t go for a black leather couch that the family craves for the space (“We’ll probably get a used one,” Brian said), but most likely Christmas presents.

But maybe they’ll sock away a little for Brian Parsons’ 50th birthday party next year.

It’ll be a blowout, they said, with the festivities – where else? – in the garage and cul-de-sac.

Victoria Hecht, (757) 446-2614,

victoria.hecht@pilotonline.com