I can taste the finish line of our basement mini makeover/refresh project! This week, I’m talking about the underbed storage and art in the guest bedroom, the living room changes and what’s left to do. Pretty much all the basement organization is happening now! It’s like the storm before the calm (I hope!).
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I’m so close to the end of the Fall 2021 One Room Challenge. If you’re joining from the link-up, hello, my name is Nicole! I’m giving my raised ranch basement a refresh, which mostly involves organizing. It started out like this, essentially a storage zone for miscellaneous cottage stuff. In the second week, I removed old vinyl flooring, the third week I painted the entry and the fourth week I removed the carpet in the bedroom. Then I built a wall-mounted headboard and some painted floors, and last week I finished some nightstands.
Let’s start this week with where we left off last time… in the guest bedroom!
Guest Bedroom Art
Last week, I had shared the floors and the rug in place. I finally got the new bed frame built, and put the mattress back in. All the stuff that was in the closet now fits under the extra tall bed. There were just a few bins under the bed before, and I have room for 3x the stuff now. Luckily, I also fit the new christmas tree box under there – so I’m happy about that :)
Anyways, I also had an abundance of art that we had never put up yet. Or, in the case of the kids quote posters, didn’t go back in their room after the makeover.
To hang my art, I first marked all the studs with painters tape. Then I took a laser level and made sure everything was straight across.
For the other wall, everything was more random sized. In order, we have the husband’s family crest, a random print that came with our last house. Then, a car painting we got in Cuba, something from my grandmother’s house (a doily?) AND Mr. Spaghetti Noodles. It was a random photo left at the house we had in university and I LOVE it. All my roommates thought it was so weird, but I like that it’s ridiculous.
Living Room Organization
My big goal for the basement was to get all of the cottage stuff out of the living room. Unfortunately, our cottage is still being built, but that didn’t stop me from shopping, ha. So now I had to try and get as much as possible tucked into our understairs storage.
We had a lot of small/miscellaneous things in the basement, like dishware, blankets, etc. There are a couple of rugs too, but most of the big stuff I’ve been storing in the garage.
A lot of the other mess down here is stuff that should have been organized a while ago. First, our basement served as storage while we built the garage. Then, as our cabinet building zone when we renovated our kitchen.
I even had some leftover materials down here from when we did our rental renovation basement! (Aka those three boxes of recessed lights). We’ll be using some in our cottage, but I’ll still have a few leftover ha.
For that corner, I brought down our Ikea Kallax that was upstairs. I upgraded to a different one, and I’ll probably share that in the new year. It was the perfect size for this area (minus basement removal), and I just moved the board games there. (They were in the top of the guest bedroom closet).
The kids “helped” me clean everything over the weekend. They mostly just tried to play Twister. I also swapped the location of both of the couches.
The red couch has a pull out bed and was given to us by the neighbours. I think this location should be easier for both guests to get in and out. We would have to move the small couch, but it’s good on the wall for now. Although, I think I’ll be putting out Christmas tree there, so I might be it prematurely and test out another layout.
There are a couple more paintings to put up, but I’m still not convinced they should go on that wall. I actually envisioned this print there, but not sure I like that the sofa isn’t centered.
What do you think!?
The Rest of the Basement Organization
For the last few weeks, I’ve just had a pile of garbage sitting near the back door. It was mostly vinyl tile and carpet leftovers. The boxspring was also in the hallway (that goes to the laundry room and workout room).
I took advantage of some nice weather (and outside playtime), and moved everything to the garage. It would have been nice to bring it to the dump right away, but will have to wait.
I’m still waiting on my two custom metal plant shelves. The Husband was given the instructions over a month ago – and we’re getting down to the wire. The idea is that the plants will be on their new wall-mounted shelves, and the wooden storage shelf will move to the guest bedroom closet.
After squeezing through this hallway, I finally gave in and moved the boxspring to the laundry room.
The laundry room is more organized too, since I was able to relocate some of the cottage things to the closet. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit the coffee table there, but can always move it to the garage. For now, it sort of hides the big paint buckets.
And yes, the boxspring does block the door into the workout room. But, considering the Husband still has his big mess on the floor – I’m okay with that :)
Not sure if he’ll clean everything this weekend, and I don’t know if I’ll do it either. The reveal photos will be a surprise, ha!
The last project I’m trying to finish is my mural. It’s on the wall just to the left of the photo above, and I haven’t really shown it. It’s not exactly what I was picturing, but since I was winging it the whole time, it will do.
Oh, and I also installed the blackout blind on this window. It was the one in the guest bedroom, and was just too small there. For some reason, it never rolled up all the way, so I installed it super high here. Now it rolls up all the way, and I don’t know how I fixed that. Installing it was very annoying, and It took me a few tries.
You can see that it’s still too small for this window, but considering it will maybe be closed once a year, I don’t really care. Better than my taped garbage bags :)
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Follow my basement project:
Basement Reset BEFORE (ORC Week 1)
Removing Old Vinyl Flooring (ORC Week 2)
Painted Basement Entry (ORC Week 3)
Removing Carpets & Painting Concrete (ORC Week 4)
Wall Mounted Headboard & Hex Floors (ORC Week 5)
Cloud Floors & Stained Nightstands (ORC Week 6)
Basement Organization (now!)
And my budget breakdown:
2nd Week: – 2.95$
3rd Week: – 7.20$
4th Week: + 29$
5th Week: – 49.48$
6th Week: -48.57$
This week I finally sold the highchair (it was taking up a LOT of room) for 20$. I don’t think I’ll be purchasing anything else, but maybe sell a few more small things? I still have to list stuff… so we’ll see…
Total: 59.20$ spent so far
So what do I have left to do?
- Replace light fixture in basement entry – Husband task
- Finish my mural and move the radio back
- Install and setup the new plant shelves
- Clean and organize workout room and laundry room
- Setup the bed and shelves in guest bedroom
- Rest of the garbage/recycling gone
- Install the doorknob on the laundry door
- Photos of everything
Some of those items will be quicker to do than others, and jury’s still out on the Husband tasks (he is busy with work until the end of the year). Most of my stuff is hinging on those shelves though, so fingers crossed!
Oh, and I have some random footage that I’ll probably make into a video for next week. But I wanted to know if you also wanted to see details of what we have organized and where?! Or maybe something on Instagram Stories instead? Let me know!
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