Jay Leno’s garage is a place of utter amazement. For car guys, it’s truly Disneyland. It’s overwhelming and there is something new to see with each visit. The artwork is amazing, a lot of it massively enlarged magazine ads depicting the cars Jay owns – the artists at the studio helped him to enlarge them. But Leno’s place can afford the enlarging. The garage, actually a multitude of buildings strung along the Burbank Airport fence, is absolutely huge. All too often, I hear from people about how their garages are too small to be featured in Garage Style, in fact a very common quote among people is, “I don’t have a Jay Leno garage.” Hogwash, I always tell them. The spirit is there, and that’s what matters.
So, to build the Jay Leno is simple. The art has to be smaller, light it up, finish the floor, and pick it up. If you want original advertising art that reflects your car, cut it out of an old magazine and mount it and frame it and hang it. Much easier than what Jay had to go through. While those of us with regular-sized garages don’t have the tools and equipment Jay has, rejoice – the maintenance and storage is atrocious. Enjoy your hand tools and little power tools. Or, if you’re anything like the owner of one of the garages we featured, you’ll do away with the cabinets and tools and work benches because you don’t do any of the work yourself. This leaves space for more décor and design, which might be more enjoyable.
In the end, no one needs a garage sized like Jay Leno’s. It’d be awesome, for sure – but what we have is spectacular in its own right, if you feed it right. It takes some soul searching to know what you really want – but once you find that answer, you’re golden. If you like the décor like Jay has, go for it – just keep it to scale. And don’t be afraid to rotate some of the art out once in a while to keep it fresh. Enjoy.
Thanks for stopping by!
