If you’ve ever dreamed of converting your dusty old garage into something more useful, then just take a look at these jaw-dropping transformations.
Entrepreneur Simon Evans has become one of the world’s most in-demand interior designers - in no small part thanks to his 'man cave' garage conversions here in Manchester.
Simon was first tasked with transforming a garage seven years ago - and the results were unreal.
He was asked to transform the 'concrete shell' basement garage of his client David Giovanni’s £5m home in Hale into something more stylish.
And what he came up with was a £500,000 underground party pad with games room, £40,000 wine cellar and revolving turntable for David’s supercars to impressively go on show.
The design, likened to something Iron Man or Batman would be proud of, was so impressive it has ended up featuring in countless TV shows, including Netflix’s Amazing Interiors and most recently Channel 5’s Million Pound Garage Conversions.
Simon says: “People are spending over £150,000 on cars now, for many people it is their most prized possession - and yet you then put them in a concrete box where you open the door and hit a breeze block wall? That just doesn’t work.
“It would be like putting your most precious handbag on a concrete floor. You want it somewhere lined and protected and you want the garage to be part of the whole journey of the house.”
In before and after pictures from the Hale conversion, Simon says you can see that it really was just a 'concrete shell' that he had to cleverly rework to create the jaw-dropping man cave - complete with fully lined walls, a games room with pool table, wine cellar and bar area, all looking out to the central revolving table where David’s impressive Ferraris and McLarens could go on show.
Since the Hale project Simon, boss of Design By Uber near Knutsford, has gone on to be sought after by celebrities, footballers, millionaires and billionaires to work on their fantasy home projects too.
Current projects include the interiors on an entire row of houses for the billionaire Euro Garages’ Issa brothers in Lancashire, a private skyscraper home for a billionaire in Mumbai, as well as man cave transformations in Urmston, Alderley Edge and Hale.
Clients have included footballers Raheem Sterling, Phil Neville and Marcus Rashford, TV stars Paddy and Christine McGuinness and Mark Wright and Michelle Keegan.
The sky is the limit for many of his clients - with requests ranging from flotation tanks to home spas, hydraulic swimming pools, Call of Duty themed gaming rooms, two storey valeting bays for cars and entire champagne bars installed in private homes.
But Simon, 48, believes good design can transform any home and he works with a wide variety of budgets.
“With all of my clients I want to know 'what would enhance your life?'
“People come to us as specialists in the field of man caves from a design perspective so we’ve got a number of those on the go at the moment - but they’ve become the next level of what I’m doing now," he says.
"It’s more lifestyle driven than just a garage.
“I’ve just done one where you have this kind of procession of glam elements to the home all in one space.
"You might have your ordinary kitchen for day-to-day living, but then you go to another wing where there’s the gym, pool, the cinema and then down to the man cave and they all flow as one.
“You could be sat in your own bar, while looking at your prized possession through a glazed bronze framed window, with your pool over one way and your dining table over the other.
"It’s creating your own private club and wellness facility all in your own home.
“The balancing factor always is how do you make that space comfortable for you as just a family, not only when you’ve got all your mates round.”
Man cave garage conversions start in price from £50,000 for a single car turntable with mirrored ceiling and resin floors, but can go up to 'off the scale' figures for a private skyscraper conversion.
Simon’s business all came from his personal flair for interior design. He started out with his own interiors shop in Alderley Edge, called Home to Roost, which he opened at the age of 25 in 1999.
Through the shop, people would ask for Simon’s advice on improving their homes, which ultimately lead to bigger and bigger projects.
Simon went on to launch his own furniture importing business after buying a huge empty warehouse on Chelford Road, Ollerton, near Knutsford.
But realising the barn, and he, had so much more potential, he set about transforming it into the luxurious HQ of Design by Uber and Uber Interiors, which were launched in 2009.
Now, with a team of 18, which includes designers and architectural designers, the business has completed 400 house design projects across the world.
Simon smiles: “We have people come to us now and say they want the most glamorous home in Cheshire or Manchester.
"It’s our challenge to keep going above and beyond that.
“With homes, you’re the guardian of something so personal - you work so hard for it, it’s where your family are, it’s where you de-stress, and it’s not something you can change easily if you don’t like it, which is why you have to get it right.”
Simon, a dad of two, lives in a barn conversion in the Cheshire countryside but doesn’t have a man cave himself.
And he’s keen to stress that he loves working on home projects whatever the budget - as improving people’s lives is his motivation
“One of the best projects I’ve ever done was an ex-council house in Knutsford, because I could see what it meant to that couple.
“My key principle in life is that I’m doing this for enjoyment, for reward, not financially but emotionally.
“And if you can get a client who really understands the value you offer but gets so much out of it themselves, if you transform a house and they’re in tears of happiness, that’s worth thousands to me.”
