New Zealand architect Jonathan Smith worked with a cabinetmaker to carefully deconstruct part of this 1890s home in Auckland, then assembled a set of automatic doors as well as a moving fence to conceal a brand new garage space, all expertly retrofit into the historic structure.

The result is a high-level work of camouflage, preserving the exterior look and feel of the house while creating a James Bond-worthy disguise for the reappropriated space. Inside, a lift hoists one car up to make room for a second as well.

“We wanted to retain the character from the street so we cut through the joinery units to create two doors and then lined up the boards so you wouldn’t know,” explains the designer, who is also founder of Matter Architects.

Inside, a similar attention to historical details coupled with Modern refinements can also be found, with preserved brick surfaces complimenting new steel and glass elements. The garage, while central to the redesign, is just one of the tricks this house is now home to.

Out back, fresh treatments and extensions create a modern garden landscape, complete with outdoor fireplace as well as linear, structured wood and concrete space-shaping elements.

If you have ever opened a side door to see the lines of a parking space, or asked a passenger to get out and guide you in, you may be wondering where this simple solution has been for all your years of urban driving.

In some cases, like parallel street parking, it would be hard to implement. But in open lots or interior garages — anywhere with a wall, fence, guardrail or space for posts — it is just too obvious and easy not to do, yet too few places realize the opportunity.

In areas where it snows, these lines do a lot more than just help guide people into their final parking position — buried under fresh powder, they can represent the only way to keep a lot from devolving into a state of anarchy.

A garage door’s main function is keeping what’s inside safe from prying eyes but these creative garage doors keep all eyes focused on the outside.

Sometimes great garage doors aren’t planned, they end up being thrust upon us. Such was the case of a corrugated garage door belonging to Imgur user elusive92. When the door’s owner discovered some unsightly and unskilled graffiti had disgraced his garage door one May morning in 2013, he didn’t get mad, he got even… even better, thank goodness all they did this time was graffiti but not everyones that lucky, if you’re not that fortunate and need your garage door repaired then checkout Garage Door Repair in Glendale Heights, IL. they’ll be able to help.

Taking the old adage “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” to heart, elusive92 hired local graffiti artist Lake13 to not only cover the anonymous scrawling but replace it with a work of graffiti art – with the emphasis on the art part. We think he succeeded rather well, don’t you?

Community Communion

“Every time I drive by this house, I marvel,” admits Flickr user William Keckler., who titles his photo taken in early December of 2012 “The Holy Sacrament of the Garage Door”. No telling what’s parked inside… perhaps the Popemobile.

“To The Broke-Ass Batcave!”

Looking to produce an ultra-low-budget Batman flick? Well look no further than South St. in Philadelphia, where one creatively painted corrugated roll-up garage door says so much with just two colors. Eric from Geekadelphia snapped the bargain-basement Batcave door way back in July of 2008 – let’s hope it hasn’t been painted over by Alfred since then.

Arts Of The West

The above creative composition was included in a portfolio of garage doors by RC Cabinets & Closets as an example of a “garage door decal”. We’ve seen garage door decals and frankly, this ain’t no garage door decal. The above tableau doesn’t appear to be a decal at all – note how the painted portions extend off the garage door itself. Odds are this exquisite door is a unique creation as well.

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Close Calls 12 Breathtakingly Creative Garage Doors

Auto body repair requires extensive training and expensive tooling these days, setting classic independent auto body shops squarely on the road to ruins.

Automotive innovations such as aluminum body panels and self-cleaning paint are cutting-edge today but they’ll be commonplace tomorrow, so if you’re thinking of taking the family ride down to (insert folksy name here) Auto Body next time you dent a door, fuggeddaboutit! End result: hundreds of abandoned auto body shops across the nation, from big cities to tiny towns like Keeler, California (population 66).

Post No Bills

Indeed, neighborhood auto body shops are fading away… and so are their signs. Flickr user suism1 captured the rough and weathered “labelscar” above on January 13th of 2010.

Unclean Sweep

“I doubt the Liberty Broom Works or the Kustom Paint & Body Shop have been at this location for quite a while,” comments Barbara Hullett of Hullett Photography about the gritty abandoned edifice above. Located in Liberty, North Carolina, the curious conjunction of defunct businesses begs the question: which one was abandoned first, the broom works or the body shop?

Them’s The Brakes

Small auto body and car repair shops of a certain age typically share a similar style and structure – cheap, practical, and plenty of garage doors. Though modern quick-lube and oil change shops are often built on this type of plan, it’s rare that one of the chain stores takes over a closed or abandoned body shop. Flickr user Justin Wolfe managed to find two similar-looking abandoned auto body shops within a stone’s throw of each other in Newport News, Virginia, on September 20th of 2013.

Import Expired

Owners of Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin and other exotic foreign makes must be scratching their heads, wiping their monocles and driving veddy cawefuwy since the Cutler Import Body Shop threw in the grimy, oil-stained towel. The Grandview Heights, Ohio establishment was captured in all its letter-shedding glory on February 7th, 2009 by Flickr user brew127.

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Fender Bender Menders 15 Abandoned Auto Body Shops

Boxed in on both sides, this once-homely little garage space is now a cozy high-end condo, its rusted white corrugated metal front replaced with a still-concealing wood facade serving to hide something much more dynamic inside.

Designed by FABRE/deMARIEN, this ‘100% Box’ home features white walls and ceilings, reinforcing lightness and openness toward the front of the space, an area containing a kitchen and dining room as well as a front entry deck.

A wood-paneled box in back serves all kinds of additional functions, housing a series of desk and seating built-ins, enclosing a small bathroom and supporting the elevated bedroom with bed and storage above.

The sloping roof helps provide higher ceilings in the back spaces as well as accommodating the additional needs of the raised bedroom area, with periodic sunlights to help illuminate all of the above. Enclosed on all sides, this urban infill lot reuse manages to feel spacious and open despite the limitations of its site.