Basement Renovation - The Reveal

Chad and I were so excited about the way our basement renovation turned out.  We've long had the "building bug" and this project just made us even more excited for future house projects. The basement has gone from my least favorite place in our house, to my absolute favorite... I LOVE to go down there now to do laundry (except for the carrying clothes up and down the stairs part which still drives me crazy!!) and we spend the vast majority of our "down" time downstairs now (pun!).  Hope you enjoy this little tour of our hard, fun work!

Coming down the steps, this is the view... 

I took out the clutter for a few pictures to show how the finished wall turned out... You'll probably notice how the paint color that we chose for here - Wedgewood Grey by Benjamin Moore - looks very different depending on the lighting... sometimes it's a light blue and sometimes it's a dusty bluish-grey: 

We keep Asher's crazy massive "cat condo" in the corner (not pictured) and a keyboard that we have no other good place to put :)

I designed this pretty dandelion out of vinyl and I hope one day to set up an etsy store and start selling this design and some of the others that I've made...

And Chad and I made this bench for the entryway space (more on how we made this in another post to come!!):

Now to the actual relaxing space!! 

Chad and I had a local furniture maker make us this cabinet (we don't have any knobs on it yet because we couldn't decide what we wanted...).  We searched high and low, near and far for a TV console that would work in our space and hold ALL our 400+ DVDs and Blurays.  I cannot speak highly enough about his work! We were so pleased that we decided to go with a local business.  It turned out to be cheaper than almost anything that we could find anywhere else, and it's the exact specifications/color that we wanted.  So pleased with it! (Also very pleased with the cool big screen TV we got to go along with it!) ;)

 

Chad also built some speakers into the ceiling along with the pot lights for a great surround sound system :)

I love having soft throws around this room... there is always one nearby to grab.  Just in the basement alone I have 7 right now! And I'm addicted to them... they always catch my eye in stores.  Chad makes fun of me because I can't keep myself from buying them!!

Plus I think fabrics are so important in a room like this to soften it and make it feel comfortable.  The sectional sofa and the pillows it came with (which Chad brought with him when he left home) is very comfortable and the color wasn't horrible with our other choices, so we decided to keep it and save some money.  We did get some new drapery, though, in a soft white color, almost burlap/linen texture. Plus how cute is the curtain rod we found??

 

I closed the blinds to help with some lighting issues but check out the gorgeous view we've got today due to snow a few days ago and an ice storm last night:

 
 
I love looking out the widow at that!  Speaking of looking out of windows, remember how we switched out the door to the patio to one that had a window in it... here's how that corner of the room looks now:

We made it into another little "entryway" space since we do use this door quite often to get in and out!  The bookcase and rug were also brought with Chad from his parent's house.  The bookcase fits so perfect in this spot!  Getting it "staged" is still a work in progress though... :)  Also, check out the view from this door... dreamy, icy, lovely winter. (I know most people don't like it because it causes a lot of problems, but you have to admit, it's beautiful!) ;)

We finished off the basement with some decor in a variety of grays/metals paired with wood grains/warmer tones.  Threw in some pretty clear glass pieces, and a bit of black and white to anchor it all together.

 
This space will be a work in progress, I'm sure, until the day we move... I'm always very slow to actually buy things (Chad makes fun of me because I oohh and aahh over things like crazy, but I can never bring myself to actually spend the money...) but over time I will slowly buy and incorporate new things! :)

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this "new" space and sharing in my excitement of it!  Just as a reminded of how far this space has come I'll leave you with a few pictures of what it used to look like.  In case you missed it, you can read about how it all got started and see all the progress pictures HERE.

I think we've definitely made an improvement! :)