Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Basement Update


Hello all! I know I'm a bit late but I hope all the women had a wonderful Mother's Day. My husband and kids were so good to me. I was a bit sad to have it end! Anyway, I recently finished a couple projects in our basement that I wanted to share.


When I spilled the can of primer in our basement bathroom I dented the can badly enough that the lid will no longer stay on tight. As a makeshift solution, I had to place a couple heavier cans of paint on top to try to "seal" it. I was worried if I waited too long to use it, the paint would dry up and be unusable. Since I wanted to eventually paint the trim in the basement, but had been putting it off, I decided this was a good excuse just to get 'er done.
However, as most of you know, a lot of times one project leads to another and my painting-the-trim project turned into a much larger one. I'll explain in a bit.

Lets first look at the room before. It's a fairly large room that we've sectioned into two areas. On the left, when entering the room, (the first photo below) is the family/TV/sitting area.


To the right, in the photos below, is the play area. As I was painting the trim, I realized I hadn't taken a before picture in this area. So that is why the trim is half white, half brown. Also, I'm still working on those toy cubbies. I plan to build a few more sections and paint them with something more than primer.


A couple different angles of the play area.



Positives:
  • fairly large
  • nice lighting (love how much light our sliding doors bring into the room)
Negatives:
  • lack of good toy storage 
  • dreaded shelf along the two walls that serves no function except to collect dust.

Here is how my to-do list of the room evolved:

I was first only going to paint the trim. But I knew I wanted to repaint the walls eventually. Since it's much easier to paint the trim without needing to cut in (also Sherwin Williams was having their 40% off paint sale), I decided we should just paint the walls while we were at it.

I also wanted to try to improve on the odd ledge/shelf thing if possible.

We really don't have a lot of extra money to be pouring into my projects so I really wanted to do this makeover for as little money as possible.

Here is a sneak peak of the "after". Please ignore my beat up coffee table, (I'll be working on that soon too).


Since the basement is still a work in progress, I decided to divide my updates over a few posts. I'll talk more about the board and batten in my next post and show you a couple more pictures of the room. Stay tuned.

13 comments:

  1. Looks really good. Cant wait to see more.

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  2. Already looks like a wonderful transformation!!! Can't wait for more pics!

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    1. Thanks Sandy. You are always so good to comment and leave such nice feedback! I love it. :)

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  3. Hi, Kristi

    I love the color you picked for your basement. It's a lovely color. I know what you mean about storage for the kids toys. I found this great fabric storage chest and it hides all the toys and it serves as extra sitting. Hope you find something. I love looking around your lovely blog and I am a new follower. I would love for you to stop by www.homesweetbutterfly.com. Have a great weekend.

    Vanessa

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    1. Thanks Vanessa! Thanks for stopping by and of course I love new followers. :) I'll be sure to stop by your blog and say hello as well.

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  4. Wow - I would have never thought of that but it really makes the 'knee wall' makes sense and ties it all together. Great job!

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  5. What is that color? I'm in love w/ it too!

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    1. Thanks! The paint color is SW Dovetail (it's in their HGTV line).

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  6. Kristie, I love your paint color as well. Could you share the color name? You already said that it came from Sherwin Williams. What color accents are you thinking of using?

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    1. Thank you! I used SW Dovetail. For now we have yellow accents. You can see a more updated pic here: http://kriskrafting.blogspot.com/2012/05/downstairs-board-and-batten.html. :)

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    2. Oh, I forgot... yellow AND navy. It still needs more to the room but one day at a time right? :)

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