Our Basement Renovation Inspiration
Basements need not be boring! I’m sharing some colourful and fun Basement Renovation Inspiration!
Right before Christmas we completed the biggest project we have ever taken on in our home…our basement. It has been 4 years since we started our basement renovation, and we are SO relieved it is finally done. It has been a long time coming, but we are thrilled with finally having this extra space for our family. And we could not have done it without the help of some amazing friends who dedicated their personal time, their husband’s personal time and their expertise to us. Seriously, this project took a village, and we are SO thankful.
This basement space is something that we have needed for a long time. We have 3 kids and 2 bedrooms for them upstairs, so for a few years our two boys shared a room. But this was never really an ideal arrangement for a couple of reasons; one, they sleep very differently, and two, their age gap. So we knew we had to finish our basement, with the number one goal being to create a bedroom space for our oldest son.
In the initial planning stages our goal was to create a very simple and practical space. We wanted a bedroom and bathroom for our son, a large living space for watching TV and housing guests, a large storage room for all of my stuff (I have a lot home decorations hahahaha), and a closed in furnace room, so that is what we planned for.
Another goal we had was to make sure the basement didn’t feel like a basement, you know what I mean? We wanted it to be bright and cheery, yet cozy.
So to make sure we had a visual goal to work towards, my husband and I brainstormed, pinned a lot of basement and bathroom pictures and spent a lot of time in home improvement stores. Then I pulled together all of our main elements into a visual inspiration board, so we could have something we could look to for our vision.
Here is our basement renovation inspiration:
As you can see, there is quite a bit of white. Even though the is space is going to mainly be used by kids and teenagers, we still wanted it to be bright and airy, and flow well with the rest of our house. The carpet we chose is a durable medium-dark taupe berber, and the walls a light shade of beige (I’ll post pictures of those later). To balance the darker colours, I wanted white elements to pop against the darker shades. So even though it looks like everything is white, it’s actually not. And honestly, I’m not afraid of light colours, even with kids. Our home is liveable…there are no spaces that the kids can’t be themselves in. There’s nothing that can’t be cleaned…I just don’t stress about those types of things. My goal is to have a cheery, homey space for everyone to feel comfortable in.
More about our inspiration:
Doors
I love farmhouse-style doors, and wish my whole home could have them. They’re sleek and modern, yet nostalgic. I chose these Interior Doors by Metrie, for all the rooms in the basement. I also chose a Barn Door by Masonite, which will be hung on the storage room…it’s going to look SO good! Disclosure: We received the doors for our basement from Metrie, so that I could review them and share them with you. I love how they look in our basement, and can’t wait to share pictures!
Bathroom
This bathroom is mainly going to be used by a teenage boy, so I wanted it to be a masculine space, without being too dark. We wanted dark and durable laminate flooring, with white accents to balance the dark. We opted for glass tile for the walls, and a bright cabinet with lots of storage…if kids have proper storage, it’s easier for them to keep things tidy and organized!
Living Space
The living space is wide open, but we wanted to make sure that this large space also felt cozy. We are also going to use this space for guests and sleepovers, so a big priority here was to have a sofa that could also be turned into a bed. In our search for the perfect sofa bed, we soon realized that our options for something pretty and practical were going to be limited. There are loads of sofa beds available, but many of them are extremely expensive, and not that stylish. But then I saw this sofa bed at The Bay, and knew it would be perfect for our basement…it’s colourful, has a pull out bed, and is durable enough for teenage boys. It’s not quite as big as we would have liked, but we’ll add a couple of wingback chairs for extra seating later. Then we’ll accent with throw pillows (because you can’t have enough throw pillows 😉 ), colourful wall art, and maybe even some pretty poufs for extra seating…I love the pink, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to get away with that 😉 I also want to include storage in here, and a cabinet like this grey one would be perfect under the TV to hide cords, controllers and video game consoles.
Storage
Storage was a big part of this renovation as well. We (I) have a lot of stuff that I need to store…bins of seasonal decorations, vacuums, pillows, wreaths, baby clothes…you know, all the stuff you just can’t get rid of, and do need! We also wanted this space to be a finished space with proper flooring, lighting and shelving. And our goal is to keep this space under organizational control through the use of a plastic tub storage system and shelving. And because it is limited by size, we can only keep what we really need. If it doesn’t fit in here, we don’t keep it. This has been great…we’ve purged and donated a tonne of things! I can’t wait to share what it looks like…we’ve been busy with the labeller hahaha!
Everything is coming together so nice, and I can’t wait to share pictures with you! Make sure to come back to see the after pictures!
More about our Basement Renovation Journey:
Have an inspired day!
I can’t wait to see it! I’ve been following your renovation since it started!