A light living room with a grey sofa, wooden side tables and plants.

Garage living room conversion

A second living room, so nobody fights over the TV again. Turn the garage into a family room, a quiet snug or a cinema room.

A single garage living room typically costs £14,500 to £23,000, VAT included. See prices

Get a quote See prices

Garage living room ideas

The room everyone ends up in, or the one you escape to.

A family room with space for everyone, a snug with a good chair and a lamp, or a cinema room with the curtains drawn. A garage can be any of them.

Tell us how you would use it

A reading corner
Film night
Projector screen
An armchair by the window
Lounge with a log burner
Family room
Doors to the garden
Film night on the sofa
A snug with a blue sofa
TV and games room
Sofa and TV wall
Lounge with bookshelves

How do you turn a garage into a living room?

A living room has to feel as warm and finished as the rest of the house, with no trace it was ever a garage. Here is what people ask.

Will it feel like part of the house?

The garage door comes out and a new wall goes in, brick to match the house where possible. A room you sit in needs a window that opens, with trickle vents in the frame, so it gets fresh air without a draught.

Will there be a step down?

The bare concrete gets a damp-proof layer, insulation and a new floor raised to the level of the house. No step, no cold feet, and carpet or wood on top.

A builder fitting insulation into a ceiling.

Will it be warm in winter?

Walls and ceiling are insulated to building regulations and a radiator runs off your heating. A garage that was the coldest place in the house becomes one of the cosiest.

A wide new opening between two rooms during building work.

Can it open into the lounge?

Want one big room? The wall to your existing lounge or kitchen can come out on a steel beam. Prefer a separate snug? It keeps its own door, so you can shut out the noise.

Where do the TV and lamps go?

Sockets go either side of the sofa and behind the TV, with lights on a dimmer if you like. For a cinema room, speaker cables go in before the walls are plastered, so nothing shows.

An inspector checking the inside of a house.

What will I need when I sell?

Building control checks the work as it goes and issues a completion certificate at the end. That is the paper a buyer's solicitor asks for when you sell.

A snug, or a family room?

A smaller single garage is about 2.2 by 4.7 metres once the walls are lined. That fits a sofa facing the TV, an armchair by the window and bookshelves: a real snug.

A double garage makes a family room of about 5.4 by 5.6 metres, with a corner sofa and a dining table. Both plans are drawn to scale.

Book a visit to measure up

A single garage as a living room: sofa, TV, armchair and bookshelves.

How much would it cost to convert a garage to a living room?

Most single garage living rooms cost £14,500 to £23,000, VAT included. Where yours falls depends on the state of the garage, the floor and how you want it finished. Opening it into the house is extra.

Work out the cost of yours

Your living room	Typical cost
Single garage living room	£14,500 to £23,000
Room at the back, storage kept at the front	Usually from around £9,000
Double garage family room	£25,000 to £42,000
Knocking through (steel beam)	£4,000 to £9,000 more
Bi-fold doors instead of a window	£2,500 to £5,000 more

Prices include VAT, last checked 14 October 2026. Something different in mind? We will price it.

Do I need planning permission to convert a garage to living space?

Planning permission: usually not needed

236 of 256approved when people applied

Living rooms are the second most common choice in local applications, after offices. Where people did apply, councils said yes to 236 of the 256 decided applications that named a living room or living space, across eight West Midlands councils from 2016 to October 2026.

Building regulations: almost always needed

£570

A living room is lived in every day, so building control checks the new wall, the insulation, the window, the wiring and the way out in a fire, then signs it off. Solihull Council's fee for a single garage is £570, and it is already in our prices.

Planning figures from council records collected by PlanIt for Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry, Bromsgrove, Redditch, Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon and North Warwickshire. Most conversions need no application, and many of these applications came with an extension, so treat them as a sample. Fee from Solihull Council's 2026 to 2027 fee list.

Ready for a second living room? Tell us how you would use it, and we will cost it up.

Get a quote

Questions about garage living rooms

Thinking of a cinema room, or opening into the kitchen? Say so in your enquiry and we will plan the visit around it.

Ask us a question

Is it legal to convert a garage into a room?

Yes. Most garage conversions need no planning application, as long as the outside of the house stays much the same. Building regulations always apply, so the work is inspected and signed off. Some newer estates removed the right to convert when they were built, so it is worth checking the house's planning history first.

Can I knock through into my living room?

Usually, yes. The wall often holds up the floor above, so a structural engineer works out a steel beam to replace it. The beam typically adds £4,000 to £9,000, plus £500 to £1,200 for the engineer.

Can it be a cinema room?

Yes. A garage is often the easiest room in the house to black out. Speaker cables and a screen or projector point go in before plastering, and extra sound insulation can be added to the walls and ceiling.

Can I convert half of my garage into living space?

Yes. An insulated, fire-resisting wall goes across the garage, with the room at the back and storage at the front behind the garage door. It usually starts from around £9,000. Half garage conversions.

Can I turn a double garage into a family room?

Yes, and it makes a big one: room for a corner sofa, a dining table and space for the children to play. A double garage conversion typically costs £25,000 to £42,000. Double garage conversions.

How long does it take to convert a garage into a living room?

Usually two to four weeks on site for a single garage. Knocking through into the house adds time. The visit is the time to ask how long yours will take.

Other rooms

All prices

Get a price for your garage living room

We turn garages into living rooms, family rooms and snugs across Solihull, Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield, Coventry and Warwickshire. Tell us how you would use the room and we will price it.

A visit first, to measure up and look at the wall to the house.
Your price in writing before anything starts.
Typical prices are above, so you know where you stand.