The Outpost: A Maker's Workshop in Hudson Valley

Before New York, a Brisbane apartment offered a canvas for personal expression. Walls were drilled. Fixtures mounted. A record-player setup anchored into concrete beams. This instinct for modification, for self-sufficiency, began early.

Childhood lessons, a common theme in the Garage Visits on Garage Recess, involved a Holden Gemini. Mechanics were costly. Repair bills often exceeded the car's value. Learning to change a head gasket from forum threads became a necessity. Breakage led to repair. Self-reliance emerged from practical need.

Then he moved to New York City, presented a different reality. Renting again meant living inside someone else’s idea of a space. Brooklyn. Montauk. Back to Brooklyn. Places that were home, but never fully his. No room to build. No room to make. No room to shape the surroundings he relied on for comfort, function, or clarity.

In 2022, he left NYC for Upstate and found an old barn tucked off a private dirt road, paired with a small stone cottage just a short walk away. The barn was a former art studio: good bones though no character. The owner offered it to him, and he bought it immediately. His living space would be 100 meters down the road. This would be something else entirely. A workspace. A workshop. Tools within arms reach. A place “to get shit done," a sentiment shared with the Black Barn, a purpose-built detached workshop in New York designed entirely around use, not excess.

The couch sits in the corner, but he spends less than one percent of his time on it. That tells you everything you need to know about how he operates - time is at the the desk, the workbench, or on the ground fighting with the Range Rover.

The Range Rover is a 1988 two-door turbo-diesel that spent most of its life in Spain. Two doors only, a theme that runs through everything he owns. The Harley Forty-Eight is bombproof, a rock-solid daily ripper he rides into Manhattan multiple times a week in the summer. The F150 single-cab exists purely to keep the Range Rover from daily-driver duty. In Australia he had a two-door Defender, but he sold it and doubled down on the Rover. He knows Land Rovers are a piece of shit (his words) but he loves them anyway. Especially in two-door form. And especially with a turbo-diesel.

The walls are lined with photos he shot himself. And then there’s drums. Vintage kits. Boutique accessories. On the workbench. On the floor. From The Outpost, Jared runs multiple drum companies, including Black Waxx Co, curating and distributing some of the most iconic vintage gear around. Pieces are sourced worldwide, imported, rebuilt, tuned and then shipped back to Australia for the community there.

His day job is in tech, building design teams, hiring the best UX and product minds he can find; a duality also seen in the Analog Antidote, a designer's personal garage workshop where a professional life in tech is balanced by a deeply hands-on, analog environment.

But his real work happens here, where the environment informs the mindset. Too small to waste. Too functional to ignore. Just big enough for his home office, the Harley, a drum kit, and the tools needed to keep everything running.

Why does the garage matter? Because it signals a shift. Because when he walks in, he feels different. Inspired, and ready to go. This space gives him room to build, maintain, and think without dragging everything out of a box or clearing off a dining table, a level of intention also seen in Werkstatt 80, a garage workshop designed so that every tool and every layout decision supports immediate access and use.

Current projects are modest, with three drums on the bench, more photos waiting to be printed and framed, the bike tucked away for winter, and the Range Rover actually running well for once. But that’s the point. It’s not a space defined by spectacle. It’s defined by continuity.

His advice for anyone building a space of their own is simple: start.

“You can look at these spaces and think, how would I ever get there? You just start creating. It comes over time. Don’t look too closely at my cuts and joints though, they’re not perfect. That’s the point though. There’s charm. It’s built for me, not others.”

This place is not about aesthetic worship or curated perfection. It’s about function, identity, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing that everything in the room works for him.

A garage doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be yours.

Explore his Work
Black Waxx Co - Blackwaxx.co
Personal Site - jaredtredley.com