Ellie Ediger Interiors has reimagined a three-car garage in a midtown Tulsa home from the studs out. One bay's sliding glass door provides easy access from the pool to the pool bath. Behind the next, a serene gym complete with a sauna and cold plunge. The third was originally designed for quiet storage space, though the homeowners have since repurposed it for a golf simulator.
Ellie, the designer for this project and owner of Ellie Ediger Interiors, has always had a love for interior design. Growing up in Enid, she spent many hours sifting through interior design magazines, illustrating spaces from the inspiration she found within them. In high school, she worked at a coffee shop owned by an interior designer, and the proximity made the career path tangible for her. After earning her interior design degree from Oklahoma State in 2011, she spent eight years at Tulsa textile house Fabricut, designing rooms for ads, building showrooms, and flying to Paris for trade shows, all of which helped shape her eye and her ambition. In 2019, she joined Bailey Austin Design, where her boss and mentor Bailey Austin, a designer and trained architect, taught her the nuances of high-end residential design.
In October 2024, Bailey decided to scale back, and encouraged Ellie to launch her own studio and carry her current book of business forward. "Sometimes you don't see what others see within yourself," Ellie says. A year and change in, her name is on the door, and the focus has shifted from working within someone else's vision to defining her own.
When asked about her style, Ellie quoted Charles Faudree, the renowned late Tulsa designer she interned for in college, who influenced her approach to design. "It's about the mix, not the match." Some homes, she says, try to match too much. Every metal finish. Every paint color. "It's about finding balance between scale and texture, but ultimately it's about what you want to look at every day."
Ellie’s style is evident through her design of the garage. The clients are a Tulsa couple with two young boys and a love for hosting. The garage space is one of two on the property, disconnected from the main residence and topped with a mother-in-law suite.
Ellie cut a sliding door into the first bay to connect to the pool, then built out a pool bath with green-and-white striped tile in the shower, tropical parrot wallpaper, and a burl wood vanity. The rest of that bay became a kids' zone, anchored by a navy cabinet faced in the same striped tile, fit to accommodate a ping pong table in the future.
The second bay became the gym complete with a cold plunge and sauna. The homeowners wanted something neutral and serene on a contractor's budget that wasn't going to stretch. Ellie answered with unfinished wood slats running floor to ceiling on two walls, neutral rugs underfoot, and three off-the-shelf mirrors lifted by LED lighting set behind them. A new window pulled in daylight and a mini-split made the space usable even in a Tulsa August.
The third bay remained as closed storage. Vinyl wood plank flooring runs throughout, with baseboards along every drywall section to finish the look. "I was surprised how elevated the garage could look without an extreme budget," Ellie says.
That elevation was created through attention to every detail. "It was an incredibly rewarding project; totally unique," Ellie reflects. When asked what advice she would give to homeowners looking to reimagine a space in their home, Ellie focused on finding the inspiration. “Look through social media and interior design magazines. Find spaces that draw your eye and ask yourself ‘what specifically do I love about this space?’” The garage perfectly captures one of Ellie's strengths: the ability to unify distinct pieces into one thoughtful, intentional space.