Refinishing Our Basement

My only suggestion would be to get the whole family in on a theme ~ is there a team that everyone roots for? Start from there.....

I have a cousin in Tennessee who is a devout Vols fan (much to my dismay) and she decorated her basement, very tastefully, with an orange and white color scheme.

It's wainscotting. :-D

The idea of a sports-themed room is interesting. I recall we (my Dad and I) finished the basement so that I could have my Sweet Sixteen in it (an intimate party several years ago, not like the big extravaganzas you see these days).

You're right, an arcade idea might be a bit too dark (there's always a lot of black in those places). Colors probably should be neutral or at least the paint might be good as a neutral as you're going to have a lot of other interest in the room (the games, etc.). Go too dark with the colors and the whole area will look too gloomy. Go too light and, if there are any sort of water leaks down there, they'll show up, big time.

We went with light blue, as I recall, but of course we weren't looking for something with a team theme. Oakland Raiders colors (a fer-instance) will probably be too dark, IMO. Carolina color (light blue) or Celtics (kelly green) or Dolphins (orange and light blue) will be in the middle of the range and whites and beiges might end up being a bit too light.

What's the lighting going to be like? I saw you mentioned you were thinking of track, but will it be incandescent (warmer tones) or fluorescent (usually cooler tones, but you can get tinted fluorescents these days)? This might influence your decision - see if you can get paint chips and look at them under the lighting conditions as they will be in the basement.

Thanks so much! We're going to Sherwin Williams today to find some color palettes. I didn't mention that we're definitly buying a new lighing system down there, probably incandescent track lighing. Also we are going to purchse slip-covers (or maybe just have them re-upholstered) for all the chairs and couch and such, and I thought that maybe if we paint the walls a more muted color, then we can have bolder color slipcovers. As for decorating the room for a favorite sports team, well the Indians are horrible, the Brown's colors are not my favorite, and the Cavs....well, let's just see if they make the playoffs!

Oooh, what fun!

What kind of a budget do you have?

Do you watch Trading Spaces? If so, can you tell me who your favorite designers are?

I'm having some Gen sort of ideas, might be too girly.

(And if you've never watched Trading Spaces, sorry for the references!)

Hmm, I LOVE the show, but I haven't watched it in a while. I like Geneveive and Vern. Frank's designs were cool sometimes, but sometimes a little too strictly themed (if that makes any sense). I also liked Laurie's designs usually. The budget is going to be around $5000. We're re-doing the basement instead of going on a summer vacation. Wahoo!

Wow, what fun parents! :-)

How many siblings do you have, and what ages/ genders/ general preferences do they have?

$5,000, that seems like a lot! Can certainly do plenty with that.

I haven't watched the show for a while either. Did you see any of the shows (there were about 3 I think, different designers, Gen was one) that had a sort of Moroccan theme? Arch-type dividers?

That could be cool (though kinda complicated if you don't have Ty and Amy Wynn to help out), then also have like floor cushions and lounging areas. I'm thinking a lot of colors and interesting fabrics.

Like, set off one area that has the couch, chairs, TV, and a bunch of cushions with a divider and like curtains that can open and close (be tied to one side or hang down and close off the space). That could probably be done without archways, the curtains themselves would provide the curve when they're tied to the side.

I personally love silk sari fabric, you could make some gorgeous billowy curtains out of that.

But I need to know more about your taste before I get into those kinds of tangents. That you like Gen and Vern and sometime Laurie helps!! (Similar to my preferences.)

56" widescreen HD TV included?

Re: silk saris, they are usually 6 yards long and more than a yard wide, so you could probably just buy one and cut it in half for curtains (that would make a pair that are 9 feet long and 45" wide.) But buying two saris (4 curtains) would have a more lush effect.

(I have a bunch of vintage silk saris that are fun to work with but I wish I could afford some brand-new ones to play around with...)

Well I'm the oldest. I'm a 14 year old girl. I think I already said that. I have two younger brothers, ages 10 and 12. My brothers are really into football and wrestling/basketball. I am more into artsy type things, like I really like to paint and draw and things, though I do play soccerand track.
Yes, it would be easier with Ty and AmyWinn to help out. Have you seen Ty on "Extreme Makeover Home Edition?" Also, I was thinking of some type of curtained thing to divide the room into two sides. One with couch/tv/chairs and whatnot, and the other side with table, bar, slot machine, and foosball. I like the idea of being able to tie the curtains back and either have two seperate areas, or just one big one.
Basically right now, I really need to more look at the room's theme holistically, such as what color carpet/walls/accents. I kind pof want to find a color palette in order to coordinate it all. Thanks for everything!

You say this is a basement. You you describe it a bit more? Is it a walk-out basement? (i.e. you can walk directly outside at ground level) What kind of natural sunlight does the room get? Large windows or small? What are the rough dimensions of the room?

Any weird things you have to work around? (Laundry, furnace, water heater, etc..)

And actual dimensions would be good, too.

Hmmm, two younger brothers. (I knew you were a gal, just wasn't sure about the siblings.) The whole Moroccan oasis idea might not fly with them. :-P

What do you plan to use the basement for? Do you want to host parties for your friends? Hang out with your family? All of the above? The more details, the better.

(You've been doing great with details so far!)

Well I'm not at home right now, but I'll measure the dimensions later today when I do go home. It's not a walk out basment. There are three rooms, one is the main room (the one I have only been talking about so far, the second room is mainsly storage, and the third room is my dad's work room. Room 2 is through a doorway at the bottom of the stairs on the left, and it leads to room 3. The main room is on the left of the stairs. There are two windows on opposite sides of the room, and they are small, so it is quite dark down there.
Right now, we just use the basment for "kids entertaining" when we have parties, and I don't hang out down there a lot because its just not in very nice condition right now. Once we have it redone, my parents want to be able to have people down there my brothers and I want to be able to hang out down there with friends, etc.
As for weird thingsto work around, the only thing is the bar in the corner. Its about 3-4 feet tall, maybe 7-8 feet long, and 2 or so feet wide. We want to leave it there and probably just repaint the counter. Thats all for now, I'll go home and measure later!

:-D Sounds like the ideas are rolling in!

Do you have any sound issues, e. g. the boiler's down there and it's loud, and you want to be able to hear the TV? That might influence some of what you do.

Okay, Vern (if I recall correctly; I've been watching Clean Sweep instead of Trading Spaces these days) is into mainly clean lines and uncluttered spaces. Laurie seems also somewhat like that but more into color. And Gen is also into a lot of color and really they all like interesting fabrics.

Slipcovers are good. If the furniture is comfortable and in decent shape that saves a lot of money and can transform a room with very little work. What are the windows like? Are they the little high up windows you see in rooms that are mainly underground, or are they regular-type windows? That'll help determine how you do the treatments.

Also, for wherever you live, do you have any issues with extreme weather or temperature changes? E. g. lots of heat (so you need a ceiling fan), lots of cold (so you need space heaters or baseboard heating), flooding (so the foundation had better be sealed or you'll need floor treatments you can pull up quickly [rugs vs. permanent-type carpeting]), tornadoes (e. g. do you need the room or basement to double as a shelter [if so, it probably shouldn't be too cluttered]), etc.? For example, here in Mass., I couldn't possibly spend more than minimal time in the cellar unless it was heated.

I recall someone on TV - it might have been Christopher Lowell - talked about the main areas of room decorating, e. g.
* lighting and power
* wall treatment (paint, paper or paneling)
* ceiling (fixture, fan)
* windows and window treatments
* HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning)
* furniture
* floors
* wall art (if any)
* storage
* function
* style/overall theme
... and in some rooms you also have to deal with plumbing.

Obviously you're not going to be dealing with all of the above. But, we all know that if one or two of these are off, it can mean the difference between a fun room and one that's problematic. E. g. what if the furniture is too fussy and hard to keep clean in a game room? Or a room is cold all the time because the window treatments are flimsy and sheer and don't offer any insulating?

You may also want to prioritize while you budget, so that if you run out of money, everyone still has a place to sit. There may be some areas wherein you can add on later (storage might be one, as you already have a storage area elsewhere in the basement, although if it's hard to get at VHS tapes and DVDs, you may need to think of that for the room, too).

Okay. I have the measurements, and I'll try to make it as least complicated as possible. Also, there are no sound issues or anything, the windows are small and high up, and you can only really see the ground from outside through them (just grass). As for the temperature, there is a heater down there (in the workroom) so its a comfortable temperature. We don't have any flood/tornado issues either.

On to measurements:

The wall directly in front of the bottom of the stairs is 30 ft. 6 in.

If you are facing that wall, the wall to the right of it is 25 ft. 9 in.

Facing that wall, the wall to the right is 24 ft. 6 in.

The next wall to the right is 15ft 7 in., and the bar is off of this wall. The bar is 8ft 6in long, 3ft 4in tall, and 2 ft wide.

The 15'7" wall (that the bar is off of), goes in towards the stairs 2ft 5in, and then from there it is 7ft 1in to the bottom of the stairs.

I hope that made sense, if not, I'll try to explain it later. Thanks for all your ideas!

Wow. Sounds like the main room is a pretty healthy size. Since there is little natural light coming into the room you might reconsider something you mentioned earlier:

"Also we are going to purchse slip-covers (or maybe just have them re-upholstered) for all the chairs and couch and such, and I thought that maybe if we paint the walls a more muted color, then we can have bolder color slipcovers. "

Consider switching that around and using bright/vibrant/bold colors on the walls (and floor) and more muted colors for the furniture slipcovers.

Definitely you're gonna need something light in there (in color, I mean). Not a lotta light is coming in and the room can end up looking gloomy if it's too dark. I like fishin''s idea of going with bright walls and light furniture. Trim can also be light.

One effect I saw recently, I think it was on Trading Spaces, was a fairly wide stripe was painted at the top of a wall, going horizontally all the way across it. The stripe was white or off-white, whereas the wall was painted a darker color (a medium blue, I think). The idea was to give the illusion of molding without having any molding. The ceiling was painted the same color as the stripe, which I think went all the way around.

Another option is a stripe a bit father down, so that it doesn't meld into the ceiling. This can also draw attention. Since you only have small, high-up windows, I wonder how a stripe would look just below them? If you had, say (I'm just tossing out colors here), a periwinkle wall with a bright yellow stripe and then yellow or cream-colored slip covers? Or is that too Easter-y?

Wow so many ideas! I like to idea of painting a stripe around the room, I think it really would help make the room appear taller because the ceilings aren't that high. I also like the idea of having more neutral colors as fabric and bolder colors on the wall. All I know is that I want the room to have some spice.

All color ideas aside, after I took my measurements today, I sketched out how I want the room to look. I drew it all up on graph paper to scale (each little block equals a foot) and put all furniture and stuff where I want it. My mom was impressed hahaha.

I wish I could scan it and show you guys and see if you like the rooms general layout. But since I'm new to the site I don't really know how/if I can do all that. Thanks for all the ideas though. I think since now we have an idea of where everythings going to go, its time to find some colors!

Ah, my husband would LOVE to see that. He does computer-aided drafting (lighting and power) for an engineering company. And way back when I met him (eek, it was around the time you were born), he was still doing hand-drafting. :-D