We don’t have a very sexy headline for today’s post, but out basement is far from sexy. Before we moved into our townhouse, it underwent a four-month remodel from the very top to the very bottom. I referred to the pre-remodeled basement as the dungeon for a very good reason. It was dark, dank, musty, and pathetic. It was a huge space with leaky walls, and the previous homeowners had only added some rough shelves for storage and hooked up their washer and dryer. (We built a laundry room on the second floor so it wouldn’t be in the basement.) I don’t have a before to share with you, but just think of the worst 20-year-old pit you can imagine, and that would probably be our basement.
The first thing we did was have the window removed and bricked over the opening. Then we called in the dry basement people and had them work their magic so that the basement wouldn’t leak.
There was an existing wall running down the middle of the space. We kept it and turned one side of the wall into a huge and shelved storage area (that’s the door on the left in the photo), and we turned the other side into a living space you see above. The door on the right hides our luggage storage under the stairs, which we also replaced.
In the perfect world, this would have become a man cave, but we just used furniture left over from other spaces to fill this one. In fact, those chairs, which will be recovered in a neutral fabric, were in our great room until this past November.
We also have an old table in here for games, snacks, and computers. The door on the left goes into my craft room.
The longest wall without a door was a perfect space to put our custom-made Murphy bed, which has been one of the smartest purchases we every made. It opens into a queen-size bed with tons of shelves and drawers so that when both of our children are here with their families, this room becomes the second guest room.
We also added a very basic full bath. You can see what I did to one of the walls here and read about the painting here.
We were able to reserve a few square feet for a designated craft room for me. It is not a magazine worthy space at all, but it is so practical and useful.
We used the old kitchen cabinets, that we didn’t repurpose for the pantry, in here. I applied chalkboard paint to the upper cabinets and labeled them with stick-on decals. There is room for all of my craft supplies.
It also has a corner for my sewing machine and a peg board so I can use some wasted vertical wall space. Behind the camera and out of your view is a large cedar closet where we hang out-of-season clothing.
The basement flooring gets the most attention from everyone who comes down here. You can’t kill this stuff. We have the same flooring in our designer garage, and it stands up to grease, mud, water stains, and more. To clean it, (the garage floor), we just rinse, pour some ammonia on it, and swish it around, and spray again with water. It always looks brand new. Now, I know we aren’t ever going to have grease, mud, etc in our basement, but we wanted something durable, easy on the eyes and feet, and practical. This floor rocks!!! We aren’t getting any money for mentioning them, but if you or your significant male want to check it out, go here.
So, there you have it. It’s not a sexy space by any means, but it is a great room to have when we have company or when I am working on my DIY projects I hope you enjoyed seeing it.
I would kill for a craft/sewing room. The murphy bed is a great addition too!