I don't think I've ever posted good pictures of our basement. Above is a picture of what it looked like when we first looked at the house. The sellers had just finished the basement, so it was pretty much a blank slate.
Our usage has evolved over the years: it started out as a dumping ground for boxes and bins when we moved in and I was trying to decide where to put everything. As everything found homes I set up a craft area and a toy area, both of which have changed over the years. We also added some seating to make things more comfortable.
I know I have pictures I took at random intervals of what the basement looked like, but I can't find them right now since they're buried in an external hard drive that won't talk to my computer anymore. Mr M has transferred some of the photos, but not all of them, so someday I'll be able to access them again and then I'll post them.
When I built our farmhouse dining table, our old dining table got moved to the basement. I removed the legs and set the table top on the storage bases I built for my desk in our last house. The dining table made a great surface for cutting fabric, sewing, and crafting. Unfortunately, it was a bit too large for the space and cut down on our furniture arrangement options. So I put the legs back on and sold the table at our yard sale last summer and bought two desk tops from IKEA. The desk tops rest on the storage bases and provide a good work surface for me. The original desk top got cannibalized long ago for other projects :)
the picture on the right is keeping things real:
projects on the desk, toys strewn around, little boys "helping"
The toy storage situation started out with the cubbies I built at our last house. They worked great, but were just a bit too big for the space, so I built a slightly smaller storage unit that fits the space much better. We also added a play kitchen, complete with frig, stove/sink, and wall shelf.
We tried using the basement as our schoolroom, so we bought a love seat on craigslist for comfy seating, but it turns out we like our sunshine and we do school upstairs. (These pictures are deceptive: the basement gets great afternoon sun, but only indirect sun in the morning. Since we do school in the morning, that was a problem.) We gave the love seat to my sister and we moved the tan couch from the living room to the basement, sold the matching love seat on craigslist, and bought our new couches. We also installed a projector and pull-down screen so we can watch movies while reclining on the couch. We don't have a regular TV or cable, so the projector is a good alternative for us.
I put up narrow crown moulding to hide the surround sound wires, but still need to caulk and paint the moulding. From a distance it looks fine, though, which is why it hasn't been at the top of my to-do list.
The wires/cords/cables from the projector to the other pieces of equipment hang across the wall, looking ugly. Since I knew once I hung it on the walls that my state artwork was too large for our bedroom wall, I've been thinking about where else to put it. I finally decided to try it on the wall in the basement above the couch.
super attractive cords
I think it looks so much better- it makes the wall look more finished and less like that end of the room was haphazardly thrown together. There's also the added benefit of artwork partially camouflaging the wires/cables/cords.
I'll be posting more basement progress photos as I finish all the random little projects that I never quite got around to, so stay tuned!
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