This post is sponsored by LiftMaster but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Back when Jay and I were shopping for our first house, I had a few things that were non-negotiable on my list of “must haves”. One of them was an attached garage. We had been living in an apartment building with an outdoor lot and I had gotten really sick of clearing off my car every morning, shovelling out a parking spot and coming home to find someone else parked in it.
When we first moved into our house, we marveled at the size of our attached, two and a half car garage and figured we had more than enough space. We were sure we would never fill it up. Yes, we laugh at that now! In fact, by this summer, we had not only filled it up but had such a pile of stuff that we were only parking one car in the garage.
We knew we needed to go through everything and get rid of what we weren’t using. We also needed to create a better storage system to organize what we were keeping. Then Jay decided that, if we were taking everything out of the garage to organize it, this would be a great time to put up some nicer walls as well as insulate the garage walls. He had started dry walling one of the walls years ago but never finished and had been wanting to put up some nice bead board as well.
I started thinking about how my house can be kind of dark, especially in the winter and how the garage actually gets really good light. And then I started dreaming a bit about having a space out there to take pictures for my blog. With a clean white bead board as a backdrop and great light, I figured this might be the solution to my dark winter photo issues!
But before I brought any of my photography props or lights out into the garage, we wanted to make sure they would be safe. And the first step to securing our garage was putting in a better garage door opener. Luckily, LiftMaster partnered with us and provided a LiftMaster 8550W garage door opener. This opener is unbelievably quiet and smooth. It has some amazing security features and will be sure to keep all of my photography goodies safe and secure in our garage. (Plus, with having an attached garage, we like the added security to keep our home safe as well.)
The LiftMaster 8550W comes with two remotes and also connects to our home WiFi via the MyQ app so that we can control the door from our phones. My favorite part is that we can see if the door is open or closed (and how long it has been that way) just from the app. This is a great feature for peace of mind when you are halfway to the airport and start asking yourself “did we put the door down?”. Now I just need an app like this for my curling iron!
Be sure to stop back and check out the finished garage project – you won’t believe the transformation!!
Stacie @ Divine Lifestyle says
That sounds like a great garage door opener. We’ve had a Liftmaster for years, and we finally need to replace it. This looks like just the thing.
Maureen Fitzgerald says
The brands we had before this one was constantly having issues. So glad to have a reliable one now!
Vera says
That opener sounds awesome. We’ve dealing with a busted garage door opener for years, and I think it’s time we stopped!
Maureen Fitzgerald says
Having a working opener is a MUST, especially when the cold weather hits.
Shell says
We have a liftmaster as well. Can’t wait to see your garage transformation. Ours is an absolute mess, no room to even park a car!
Maureen Fitzgerald says
It can’t be much worse than ours – I had to take a deep breath before publishing those pictures!
Theresa says
I love the idea of being able to tell if your garage is up or down when you aren’t home. I don’t know how many times I’ve panicked wondering about that. Such a great feature!
Maureen Fitzgerald says
That might be my favorite feature for just that reason!!
Rachel Ferrucci says
My husband keeps our garage so organized, it’s ridiculous. He would love the LiftMaster. It is a pain to need to manually lift the door and I can’t tell you how many times we have asked…. Did we close the garage
Liz Mays says
The liftmaster sounded like a good choice. The security of the door is going to be super handy in keeping your photography equipment safe.
Catherine Sargent says
This looks like a great garage door opener. I love that it has WiFi and you can use a app on your phone.
Kelly || Food, Fun & Faraway Places says
Can’t wait to see the finished project! If we had a garage I’d want this, because it’s perfect for those… did we do that moment? I need an app to make sure I turned off my straightener! LOL
Pam says
We have a Liftmaster garage door opener. It really gets really the job done.
Sara Welch says
It connects to your home wifi?! Now that’s handy and I could definitely use that feature.
Shannon Gurnee says
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the LiftMaster, but it looks like an awesome garage door opener! We should definitely check out one of these bad boys for our house.
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
That is so awesome! I can’t wait to see how your garage turned out!
Annemarie LeBlanc says
This looks like a really dependable garage door opener.I love the security and convenience of being able to remotely control it through a smartphone. I will ask my husband if we would be needing to have a Liftmaster too. Thanks for letting me know.
Carol Cassara says
That’s really amazing! I’m sure it’s a reliable garage door opener and it would be nice to have this at home! It makes life convenient.
AnnMarie John says
Our garage needs a makeover as well, I feel your pain on this one. It would be nice to turn it into a room that’s more functional. That Liftmaster sounds amazing!
Kiwi says
Wow this is the garage of the future. I know everything is going smart and tech but I didnt even think about a garage.