Basement Tour

Almost a year ago I shared a basement inspiration post and it has taken me this long to finally get around to sharing the finished space.  I did a little update post last summer when we were under construction, but then the project was completed just about the time school started and life got crazy busy.  I had a few free minutes earlier this week and decided to run down there and snap a few photos to share! Nothing is every really done because I have ideas of things I would like to add down here, but for now I'll share what I have! 

We decided to do the same off-white cabinets we have in our upstairs kitchen just to keep it constant. Because this house was originally a 1960's ranch and the basement was original that meant we had low ceilings down there. I knew I wanted everything to be pretty neutral to make it feel more open than it really is.  

Because of the low ceilings we also decided to not put any upper cabinets in and instead do a shiplap type paneling instead of a backsplash.  I might just love this kitchen more than my main kitchen. Shh! 

I also knew I wanted to have an X detail on the ends of the island, and just love how it turned out. It's a simple little thing, but I love the detail it adds.   

I searched for bar stools for quite some time. I knew I wanted them to swivel so that anyone sitting there could sit and eat at the island and also be able to turn around to watch the TV or the pool game behind them. I ultimately went with these and LOVE them.  They were SO affordable compared to others I had found and I love them so much I've thought about getting the same ones for upstairs. The linen upholstery and brass nail heads had me at first sight and the color is just perfect for the space.  

Also in the kitchen space is this built in wine rack that I love, because...wine!  My cousin makes and sells personalized signs, wooden pieces and other fun goodies.  She made this GA wall hanging that my mom gave it to me for Christmas and it matches great in the basement. 

Because we don't have upper cabinets, we decided to add an extra set of drawers on the other side of the refrigerator so we could have more storage.  I keep some treats for the kids there and also this fun set up with snacks for when their friends are over they can easily grab something. 

Opposite the kitchen is where the fun happens. 

The pool table was left in the basement from the previous owners and we had it re-felted, refinished with rough cut cedar and then the Mr. stained it.  I wish I had a before picture, because the difference  is like night and day! 

Behind the sliding barn doors is a small workout room the Mr. uses on pretty much a daily bases. I haven't used it once because I have to leave the house to exercise and prefer group fitness classes like Barre. Some might think that is crazy, but if I'm at home I am doing a million other things so I say, to each his own. I do love the barn doors though.  They were a kit from Home Depot that could be painted or stained. 

In the corner we have this papasan chair and it is probably the thing that gets used in the basement the most.  It is SO comfy and I wish we had room to put two of them because everyone always fights over sitting in it.  I LOVED the fuzzy snow leopard cushion that I ordered to go with it and found the sign at HomeGoods which was so very appropriate. We have such busy schedules with the kids so when we have a chance to just be home together and hangout in the basement, it feels so wonderful. 

Also in this space we have a small bar height table I bought at a moving sale that we use for games and also a foosball table that Santa brought this Christmas. 

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Right around the corner is this living area. We got a great deal on the furniture and already had the coffee table and end tables.  

I love these buffalo check pillows and the map project that I shared a while back is still one of my favorites. 

The couch faces a brick fireplace that we painted the same off-white and is original to the house. 

There is also a bedroom and bathroom for guests that might stay over. We love sleepovers! 

I kept everything really neutral and we did the same wall color and painted doors like we have throughout the rest of the house to keep it all consistent.  

Now a few things to note... 

We finished the basement thinking it would be a great space for entertaining. We love having friends and family over and wanted a place where we could have our friends and their kids without being in our normal everyday living space.  We also had thoughts of a pool at one time (that has kind of gone by the wayside for now) so we also finished this space with that in mind. 

While we had entertaining in mind when we did the basement, we also love using it as a family of 5.  It feels like a little escape from our regular routines and gives us a place to just spend time together.  If we are upstairs in the main area of the house everyone is spaced out and doing their own thing.  Down in the basement we all hang out together, which I love. 

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Framing Large Maps

Some of you may remember a project I shared on the blog a few years ago involving framed maps that I have hanging in my family room.  When I ordered all of those maps I also ordered a Georgia state map, because we love to show our state pride around here.

Well the only problem with that map was that it was rather large and sort of an odd size so I couldn't buy a stock frame for it. It had been rolled up and sitting in a closet for a few years.  Fast forward to our basement project that is now complete (still need to take and share pics of that soon), but I knew I wanted to hang the Georgia map in our basement.  I had hoped the Mr. could maybe build a frame, but you know how that goes so I took it to several framing shops and was shocked at the price it would cost to have it professionally framed. It would have been around $300 and that is with my 50-60% off coupon.  Needless to say I didn't think that would be worth it so back it went into the closet.

Then I happened to be scrolling Instagram and saw a friend of mine that had just hung a state map of Georgia that she'd bought from a seller on Etsy and the map was in 6 different pieces and all hung in individual frames.  I had one of those light bulb moments knew that was going to be my solution.

However, because the map was an odd size I'm embarrassed to say how much time I spent trying to figure out just how to cut it and what size frames to purchase.  Nothing would fit exactly and then I finally came across these float frames where it wouldn't matter if it fit exactly or not.

I hoped my math was correct and I bought 6 of the 16 x 20 sized frames.  They were each $15 so WAY less expensive than the custom framing option. Using a yardstick I drew lines where I should cut and got busy with my scissors.

Finally I had all of the pieces in the frames and laid it out to admire how great it was going to look and while be baffled that it took me so long to finally figure out a way to frame this thing!

The Mr. and I measured, remeasured and made double sure it was going to line up correctly before he started drilling holes in the wall.  As soon as it was all up I stepped back and LOVED it!

I love that it is so big and fills the empty wall that I had over there. I'm still debating getting some sort of shelves to go on either side of the map, but for now I'm so happy with how it turned out and definitely will be using this method again when I have other large prints or maps to frame.  It's so much cheaper and honestly I think it make it look more interesting and unique!

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Basement Update

Hello from the noisy place that is my home.  For the past 6-8 weeks I feel like I've been living in a construction zone.  We're in the process of finishing our basement and it's coming along nicely!  Some of you may remember that a little over a month ago I shared our basement inspiration  so today I thought I'd share a little update with the four areas I really had hoped to achieve in the basement. It feels like the hammering, sawing and noise will never stop, but in reality we are so close to being done!

Shiplap
Right now the shiplap is ready to be installed. I can't wait to see it go up.  We didn't do any upper cabinets except a wine rack so the whole upper wall in the kitchen area will be shiplap and also a few of the walls leading down the stairs.

Interesting Island
When we were building our house I really wanted to put X's on the side of our island, but we weren't able to get it quite wide enough because of spacing so when we decided to do the basement I knew I wanted some sort of X on the side.  The gentleman that did our install had to do the island on-site. I showed him a picture, he showed me a picture and he knew just want I had hoped for.

I love it and am so excited to see it completed with the granite in a few weeks. I'm also really excited for these pendants to be hung over the island.  We have mostly can lights throughout the basement, but we'll have a few other light fixtures and these are one of them!

I haven't bought any furniture yet, but I'm about a day away from pulling the trigger on ordering these beauties because there is an additional 15% off sale right now.  I'm obsessed with the grommets.

Barn Doors
Barn doors is another thing I really wanted in our house and am finally getting in the basement.  We did a little research and could have them made, but Home Depot actually sells a barn door kit that can be painted or stained.  Ours were stained and should be hung this week! (They are currently begin staged in another room.)

Neutral Tones
Besides the bar stools I'm about to order I haven't bought any other furniture.  However, I keep looking at this picture and loving everything about it.

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The neutral colors and the different textures is exactly what I'm wanting to recreate in our basement.  I bought these pillows as a starting place because I love buffalo check.

The quality is really great and they look way nicer than the stock picture.  They also come in navy and red which I think would look so cute on a porch for July 4th!

It's been really fun to see the transformation from a dungeon of a basement to a space that is going to be so usable for our family and friends.  For example, there was an old rickety garage door that we changed to french doors, but because the sizing was different the Mr. came up with this design to camouflage the extra space.  Just little things like that that you would never have known were original to the 1960's house that this used to be.

We've kept the kids away from the basement more because there are a lot of contractors there constantly and we don't want them in the way.  The kids take down drinks and snacks to the people working several days a week, but usually greet them outside instead of inside.  Earlier yesterday Little Mama mentioned that she wants to see the basement because she hasn't seen any of the work yet. I mentioned cabinets and she was like, "What?!  We have cabinets in our basement."  I took them down last night after everyone had left and they were amazed by the transformation. It's been fun to watch it come along and we can't wait to use the space when it is totally complete.  I'll be sure to share pictures when it is all done!

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Basement Inspiration

Some of you may remember that when I shared my goals for 2017 one of them was to complete some BIG house projects including finishing our basement and a big yard project.  We're currently in the middle of both and it's been going on in parts and pieces for almost a month now, including lots of trucks at my house on a daily basis and a lovely construction dumpster in front of the house.

I'm trying to be patient because these things take time, but there is still a lot to be done.  Today I thought I'd share my inspiration for the basement project and I hope to share yard inspiration soon and then updates for both along the way!

First though...a little background.  When we bought our home several years ago it was a 1966 ranch that we pretty much took down to the basement foundation and rebuilt.  We wanted to be in a certain school district and in a certain area, but finding a house we loved was tough so instead we took on a major project.  We loved the property.  It felt like we were in the middle of no where, but we are literally minutes away from everything.  There is a small creek running through the property, right beside the house, so we had to keep the existing foundation during the rebuild. If you walked in our front door you'd think everything was new and for the most part it is.

However, the basement still looks like 1966.  It's like a deep, dark dungeon that we didn't use except for storage.  And when I say storage, I mean all of the stuff we never needed, but held onto just because we had the space to store it.  Before we could get started on the basement we had to tackle cleaning it out.  We moved a bunch of shelves to the garage so I could store all of my holiday decorations and other things we were keeping.  The rest of it we either donated or tossed at the dump.  We had SO much stuff down there.  Teaching supplies I hadn't used in 10 years, old furniture, a pressure washer that had NEVER worked in the time we owned it...just so much stuff.

I'm lucky that the Mr. is really handy and he also is very knowledgeable about construction and design so he drew out our plans for the basement and with a little feedback from me he finalized the layout.

When we were first getting started I did what I always do when I have a home project to make decisions about.  I consult my favorite design source...Pinterest!  When we were building our house a few years ago I had so many people ask me if I had a designer to help me, but I didn't.  I always tell people who are building or remodeling to use my method. I pinned a bunch of things I liked or that caught my eye and then looked for a trend in what I had pinned.  For example, when we were picking out things for the kitchen I looked at my Kitchen Pinterest board and saw that I loved a certain type of cabinet, a certain style of tile back splash, a wooden counter top, etc.  I printed off pictures, took them with me to the design appointments with those vendors and tried to recreate what I saw in the pictures I had pinned.

For this basement project I'm basically doing the same thing.  We're planning to have a kitchen/bar area, a tv space, a workout room, bathroom and bedroom so I've been pinning things for those spaces.  Here's some of the trends that I've narrowed down in all of my pins that I just love and plan to incorporate in one way or another!

Shiplap 
I blame Chip and Joanna for my love of shiplap, but it adds such interesting detail and I just love the look of it.  I really love any unique paneling, woodwork, trim and shiplap falls into that category for me.  Anything besides just plain ole drywall gives me big heart eyes!

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Interesting Island 
While I'd love to do a fun color on the cabinets in the basement, I'm leaning towards an off-white like we have in our kitchen just because I feel like it is pretty classic and will last with the times.  However, we plan on having a very large island in the basement so I'm hoping to do something fun with it.  Maybe a different color or some interesting details on it?!  I really wanted an X on the end of our island in the kitchen, but it just didn't work out so I'm hoping to do that for the basement.  Love all of these details!

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Barn Doors 
Another thing I really wanted in our house that we couldn't work in anywhere were barn doors.  I'm literally obsessed and love them so much.  I think we have the perfect space for them in the basement so I can't wait!

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Neutral Tones 
One of the main reasons we ended up rebuilding our house instead of our original plan to renovate was the low ceiling heights in the original home.  Tall ceilings just make everything seem so much more open, but we won't have that option in the basement.  The ceilings are 1966 low so I'm going to be doing everything I can to trick the eye into thinking they are higher than they are.  One of the big things is to keep everything neutral.  I plan to paint the walls and ceilings the same light color, keep the furniture and accessories pretty neutral.

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These are obviously just some of the many ideas floating around in my head and there is no telling if we'll be able to do them all, but I'm really hopeful! I want this space to be inviting and comfortable for our family and our guests because I see it as the place where we will do a lot of entertaining.  I'm excited to share the progress with anyone who is interested in following along!

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