Before and After: After a Luxe Yet Cozy Redo, This Basement Doesn’t Even Look Like a Basement
Basements in homes are often multi-use spaces — think: TV-watching zone, game room, guest room, playroom, and exercise space all in one. Sound familiar? If your basement space has to serve more than one purpose, you might want to follow these home-stager approved tips: move furniture off the walls to avoid awkward dead space, create distinct zones with furniture, lighting and art, and try to look for high-end looking pieces to eschew game-room or kid-specific vibes.
Lindsey Sopcak says her basement is now “the nicest area of [her] home” after her eight-week One Room Challenge redo. “I am most proud of how high-end this room feels without the major price tag. It feels luxe and rich, and yet we did so many DIYs and mini makeovers to what we already owned that we spent very little money!”
Here’s how she and her husband, Tim, took the room from “disjointed,” as Lindsey puts it — it’s intended to be a family lounge area and a play/art space for their son — to cohesive and “luxe and rich.”
The couple started by adding trim around the room (including to a pre-existing built-out bookcase) to make everything look built-in. They planned on painting the walls directly after that, but due to supply chain delays, they had to wait for their paint color to come in. Instead, they got started on other DIYs in the space.
Opposite the built-out bookcase, Lindsey and Tim added three cabinets from Walmart. They removed the legs and added trim to make those look built-in, too. Lindsey made some cool, small end tables from vintage lamp bases (spray painted black), and she also sanded down her existing table with an orbital sander to give it a natural wood top.
Lindsey and Tim also installed striped peel-and-stick wallpaper on the back wall to make the walls feel more elongated and placed new rugs throughout the space to set up distinct zones. “One of the easiest things you can do to separate and ground the areas you want to establish is with rugs,” Lindsey writes on her blog, and she advises choosing different styles and patterns for each. One of the biggest mistakes she made in the “before,” she recalls, was using two of the exact same rug.
Lindsey cleaned her old sofa and armchairs plus added new legs and plump, king-sized pillows to give the once-slouched seating a new lease on life. “I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner!” she writes on her blog.
The finishing touches, like the new artwork and the inky blue paint that finally arrived (Lick’s Blue 07), help to tie the whole space together. “If you’re on the fence about a bold, moody color, just go for it!” Lindsey says. ” It’s only paint, and you can actually make your room feel larger and more grand when you take a risk with bold paint colors, especially when you paint everything — doors, walls, trim, etc. — the same color.”
Lindsey says she loves her moody and glam (but still practical and cozy) space. “This room makes me catch my breath every time I reach the bottom of the staircase,” she says.
This post was originally published on Apartment Therapy. Read it there: Before and After: After a Glam Yet Cozy Redo, This Basement Doesn’t Even Look Like a Basement
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