When designer Nancy August completed the renovation of her 200-year-old home in Grandview-on-Hudson, where she lives with her husband, their baby daughter, and two dogs, she turned her well-trained eye to the garage she fondly refers to as The French General. According to August, the former owner of the house, jewelry designer Kaari Meng, named the garage after her trendy Manhattan notions shop. Today, the garage still sports the original hand-lettered sign.

August, founder of Nancy August Interiors, began her professional life as an actress. But she attributes her true talent for transforming overlooked, generic spaces into what she calls "jewel box rooms" to the years she lived in cramped Manhattan quarters. "When you share a studio apartment with someone, you utilize whatever space you have. It's a great training ground."

A Room of Her Own Nancy August wanted a place to retreat. She created it with the renovation of her under-utilized garage.

Finding and making good use of existing space is at the heart of August's design philosophy. "You don't have to think in terms of entire rooms, but of eking out spaces," she says. "I go into a house where people are looking for space, and they're thinking about knocking down walls or adding on, but they don't see what's already there. They bypass usable space."

August advises her clients to look at existing spaces such as closets with a fresh eye: "Empty a closet filled with things you don't use. Install some cork board, hang a mirror, add a few shelves, your favorite books, your computer, then pull up a chair. You have a great office."

August launched her eastern-inspired home décor and accessories business, Zen Skye, in 2002 after she and her husband returned from a meditation retreat. "I wanted to incorporate the practice of meditation into mindful home furnishings and design," she explains. 

When the couple contemplated the 190-square-foot detached garage, built in the 1920s to house a Model A, they envisioned a tranquil meditation room. But they also wanted to retain some functional storage space for bicycles, a lawnmower, and garden tools.

Working closely with contractor Dave Sirois of Sirois Construction, who oversaw the entire house renovation, August decided to divide the interior of the garage into two separate spaces. The front of the structure, a 9-by-10-foot space that faces the driveway, is used for storage. A 10-by-10-foot space at the rear became the meditation room, which is flooded with light from a skylight installed in the vaulted ceiling. Sliding glass doors now open onto a pergola overlooking the backyard pool for relaxed outdoor dining.

August might have been thinking of cool water or the turquoise Caribbean when she chose Benjamin Moore's Bahaman Sea Blue paint for the interior walls of the meditation room. The ceiling is painted a lighter Fairytale Blue. Saffron-hued silk sari fabric, imported from a friend in India, was used to create a heavenly canopy suspended from a ring in the ceiling and draped over a vintage iron daybed August bought at a yard sale for $75. A silk bed scarf, also made from orange sari fabric, is layered over with metallic pink silk, hand-beaded by jewelry designer Kim Satin. August's own Zen Skye meditation pillows, covered in rich shades of raw silk, are an invitation to sit back, take a deep breath, and relax.

August designed the meditation room to do double duty as a tranquil guest room or sleeping space in the summer months. In colder weather, the room is warmed with an energy-efficient space heater.

Furnishings are deliberately simple and serene. A small wood bench, a $10 flea-market find, is used as an altar. A bookshelf is made from recycled barn wood. A cherished chest of drawers belonged to August's uncle. And a brightly colored Persian-style rug, composed of recycled plastic for full exposure to the elements, adds a fun but functional focal point to the room.

August wanted to retain the authentic look of the original garage exterior, painted to match the house, and she kept the original wood doors that open to the storage area.

Salvaging architectural building materials is high on her list of design priorities. "When we did the house renovation, we removed the wide-plank pine floor in the attic because the boards were rotted, but we salvaged enough to build our kitchen cabinets. We used every old door. Doors make wonderful tables. We worked with everything we had."