Curious to see some of my design ideas? .....long, awkward pause while I wait for a response..... Well, I'm going to show you anyway!
I have always been a lover of old-meets-new in design. I love to add modern touches to vintage items. I have many antique items all throughout my home and I wouldn't change that for anything! I'm trying to incorporate that into our basement as well.
In our basement we are going to have one bedroom, a bathroom with a shower and double vanity. A large rec room with a closet, and a kitchenette which will include: a sink, microwave, full size refrigerator, and bar. Oh, and seven sconces...yes, seven.
When we purchased our home 4 years ago it was in the sheetrock phase, so we were able to go down to the design center and choose our finishes. We were on a tight budget and refused to add any "extras" into our loan. Needless to say, I had very few options. With the basement I get to choose every last detail, and it is totally overwhelming! What if I choose the wrong shade of white for the cabinets? Or the wrong carpet (for the entire house!), or the wrong, freakin sconces! It's totally stressing me out!
Here's a taste of what I envision it looking like (somewhat at least).
I love the white cabinets, the dark floor, the brushed nickel lights, the stainless steel, and the dark accents. So that's what's happening for the kitchenette. We're going with white (or off white) cabinets, and steely grey granite (somewhat like below).
I made a trip to Ikea to help me decide on a few other finishes and I fell in LOVE with this sink, and faucet. We're going with this for sure (and we'll be adding a double basin farmhouse sink upstairs, eventually)!
I think one design feature that I am most excited about is our bathroom door. We're going to put in an old door with glass (that I will refinish) and add a sliding door track.
This is the door we purchased and it is AMAZING, and heavy, really heavy. The glass is broken on two of the panes, so I'll be replacing it with frosted glass (seeing as it is going to be on the bathroom!) and I think I'll be staining it a dark mahogany color (maybe.....).
This is the track I've decided on as well...
Because I needed it to be able to support a beast of a door, and it had to be exactly 7ft 4in I found a site that was able to customize it to my heart's content. You can find it here, along with some other really gorgeous track designs!
Moving onto lighting...I have had the worst time finding the perfect sconces. You guys, it's actually quite pathetic! I can't decide what "style" I'm going with; do I go with an industrial type to compliment the door, or a transitional look, which I like a bit better?! I had totally decided on these guys....
Until I saw them in "real life". I hated the glass! My heart was broken! I can't spend nearly $55 each on something I didn't adore! I saw myself wanting to change them in a few years. So I moved on; to Ikea that is....
These are actually lights that are plug ins, so we'll have to change them to be hardwired into our wall sconces, but at $25 each they are perfect! The problem with most lamp shade lights is the fact that the shade will tilt (which is a huge pet peeve of mine...crooked lamp shades are the worst!). These actually screw onto the post, no tilting! Done. decided. Love it!
I didn't take too long hunting for some ceiling lights because I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted. I decide on these from Home Depot. They are semi-flush which will be perfect for our stairway.
Our bathroom will have the same cabinets as the kitchenette to make the vanity, and the same granite. One neat design element we're going to have is that we are going to extend the tile half way up the walls. I know this photo shows it all the way up, but we're going half. I'm so excited about that feature! And I **think** this is the tile we will be choosing as flooring in the kitchen and bathroom.
This is what I've spent hours pondering, and we all know that I will probably end up change my mind about many things. But not those freaking sconces, I can tell you that much!
And as for now, this is where we're at in our basement progress....still a ways to go, but I love to envision what it will be in a just a couple of months from now!
The Rec Room
The Bathroom and Storage Area
Kitchenette and Bar
Hallway to bedroom and Under the Stairs (we're turning this into a reading nook)
So what do you think of my ideas? Will it be classic and timeless or will I want to change everything in 5 years? Because that would be terrible!
1 comment:
Your ideas are great! So many people choose to ignore the basement while it provides so much useful living space. You should encourage others to take advantage of the basement space as well. From the pictures, it will be beautiful, classical, and timeless. The hardest part will be doing it. I do not imagine that you will ever have to change it if it ends up anything like the pictures.
Gregg Hogan @ American Basement Solutions
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