The majority of the work is completed from our basement renovation – so I’m excited to show some photos of the progress. I’ll also be sharing what we have left to do, but it will mostly look the same from here on out. Ready to see the before and after pictures of the space (and yes, the mister makes an appearance too!).
Just a hint: I’ll keep the “before” photos smaller in size so hopefully it’s not too confusing! You can always check out the full original country basement tour here.
As we enter the basement from upstairs (near the main entrance to our house) we’re greeted with the new board and batten staircase. Notice how the mister couldn’t stay out of the photo?
This area used to be much darker, and I’m happy that we decided to update the entire space.
While I did share more photos of the “office” side of our basement after we painted the panelling, we finally have our desks properly setup. Normally there’s a big mess in front of mine (aka all the stuff that the mister like to take out of my desk and play with).
Ignore the random side table for now, I’m not sure where it will go (see lower in this post for more details).
Before we painted all the panelling white, everything down here used to be dark and dated. If you are planning a similar update, make sure to read up on the proper type of primer needed.
Our desks aren’t the “prettiest” but that’s the cleanest the Husband’s has ever been. Although that is because when I “cleaned” it, I just threw all his junk in a pile in our bedroom… We still have to hang the light (seen on the ledge) and get some blinds (notice how I use lovely foam core boards?).
Way back when, we used to have our desks in a designated office upstairs. But once baby came, we transformed that room into a guest room, and turned the original guest room into the nursery.
One of the more functional/space saving changes we made in the basement was creating a custom game shelf inset in the fireplace. The mister really likes playing here, and you’ll often find a game box or two on the ground.
One of the biggest transformations to the basement was definitely painting the fireplace bricks. It was SUPER easy (just a bit time-consuming) but the entire space looks better and more modern. I still want to finish/add a cover to hide the electrical panel (it’s in the top hole, above the games).
We kept the brass surround as-is, and will probably leave it like that for a while (although the Husband mentioned it looks outdated ha!).
Moving to the “living room” side of the basement, another super simple change was adding some slipcovers to the sofas. I’m actually not done painting, so that’s why the outlet doesn’t have a cover yet! (And the covers are just sitting on the chair rail).
Another big change was removing the bricks in the corner and filling in the area with tongue and groove panelling.
Having the same chair rail and ledge go across the room makes everything match much better. You may also notice that I changed the layout a bit; I’m not sold… so maybe you can help?
(This is also why the other side table is near my desk). I like having the chair in the corner near the TV, but not sure where to put the table and couches. I think we can go down to one table, but I don’t really like the angle couch in front of the fireplace.
Technically, you’re not “supposed” to have your furniture directly against the wall, but with a baby it’s best to have less hidden areas haha! I was also thinking of getting rid of the bean bag chair, but the Husband insists we keep it for when we have guests over (I do actually sit in it a lot when we don’t have guests too).
Anyways, for now it’s kind of just chilling next to the chair (hiding an outlet without a cover actually). Fun fact, I also ran out of caulking (we used 12 tubes in the basement so far) and the area behind the chair and TV still need to be filled in.
The TV shelf got its own makeover, and it was one of the first basement projects I completed.
The toys are in bins #2 and #3 but normally half are on the floor. The mister started to play with the basket with the remotes, so we normally have it up on our desks so it doesn’t fall on him. In this area I still have to frame the hole where the consoles are, and I’d like to secure the shelf to the wall too.
The pole needs to be fixed (top moulding) and painted, and all the panelling in this area needs another coat of paint. I’d also like to build a baby gate or two for the staircase, because our tension one is not cutting it anymore.
This area probably when through the most drastic change, considering we tore the wall down and added a bathroom under the staircase. And, like I mentioned on the weekend, our laundry room is the last indoor space that we haven’t touched yet! (Behind the white door).
I hope you guys liked all the before and after pictures (and hopefully followed along with the basement renovation with me). Like I said, we have all the major stuff out of the way, now I just need to finish everything 100% and I’ll be happy! Other than getting blinds, and updating the carpets, there probably won’t be a real difference in how everything looks as I finish the updates.
Which means that I’ll be switching to a whole new room/renovation next week… and it won’t even be at my house :)
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