Most of my online silence this summer has been due to some major changes in our home. We have a very sweet but tiny mid century house built in 1950, that we bought hoping to restore it back to its full potential. Being that it's summer and all, we decided it was high time to get started on a major problem - our basement.
In our area, a lot of houses don't have basements. Or if they do, they're just concrete holes in the ground below the house. We were lucky to get a finished basement, that needed some extreme TLC.
It's permanently dirty from years of wear and neglect, cold and way too dark. Besides when we first moved in we had to have some plumbing done and a bunch of wall was ripped open and exposed. Even some ceiling tiles had fallen down. And the old linoleum tile flooring was missing so many tiles too. I'm sure it was fabulous back in the 50s, but not so much anymore.
Like all reno projects, the job is slow and tedious. There's always some unforeseen issue to resolve. But in the end all the waiting around for the finishing point will be worth it. In excited to have insulation in the walls for the first time ever, and some good wiring so that I'm not afraid to use the outlets. I feel like in always waiting for things to burst into flames! Old houses are both fun and dangerous. You've got to be ready for anything.
Right now we are almost ready to paint, but we sure went through some rough stages. When you tear out all the walls down to the concrete and start from scratch, there's a lot to be done. I can only begin to dream up our new layout and how our furniture (now in storage) will look down there. I'm truly excited to get my 60s blue velvet couch back! It's one of my very favourite possessions. I feel like I'll end up designing the room around it.
In theme with all my basement plans I wanted to share some photos that will serve as inspiration for me while I decide how to paint, (I'm leaning towards a soft grey, clean white and deep midnight blue for accents.) how to set my faux fireplace mantle into the wall and what else we need to make the space great. All that good stuff! Enjoy!
One of our top focal points on our wish list for this basement was a large bookshelf. This one is perfect and I'm liking the warmth in this photo anyway. So into the inspiration folder it goes!
This room is very clearly a living room, but the colour scheme is very similar to what we're looking for. The cozy setup is perfect for having friends over for a visit or reading on the couch.
Again, these are living rooms, but apparently everyone thinks a basement needs to look like a dark cave. I'm looking forward to bring lightness and cute bursts of colour into the space like these perfectly styled places: One and two.
My blue velvet couch looks in a little better shape than this sweet girl, but fitting mine into my basement and designing a colour scheme around it is top on my priority list.
This mantle was decorated by a very creative fellow Winnipegger, Erin from Ohsolovely. I can only hope to decorate my new mantle as nice as this one! There is no doubt this needs to be included in my inspiration photos.
It's nice to know blue velvet couches can look pretty against a variety of colours. I'm so ready to start decorating!
I can't wait for all the messy work to be done, so I can start moving stuff around. For now I can only dream up potential layouts and paint colours.
Marissa xo
Beautiful inspirations! Your style is so chic and glamorous. I can just imagine what your basement will look like after it has been materialized. I like the mint green and red colour schemes. I feel like those will bring about a refreshing look in a supposedly dark area of the house. Thanks for sharing that, Marissa! Kudos and all the best to you! :)
ReplyDeleteGregg Hogan @ American Basement Solutions