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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Basement Before and After

This weekend is the only weekend, for a little while, that we don't have any contractors around doing any renovation. Our ears and mind were at complete peace, and we were even able to sleep in a bit. For the next few months I am only going to take up a few tiny projects (mostly decorating) here and there, but nothing major like our master ensuite which is slated for next spring. Hopefully by then I will have recovered from this home reno fatigue.

Before I take you through a tour of our basement, let's recap on what it looked like before and during the renovation.

Basement Before

Basement Day 7 into renovation

And this is the after.
Staircase

Hallway leading to one large living area in Hollywood Regency Chinoiserie theme with faux bamboo mirror, Ikea Hemnes dresser in Lee Valley's BBZ ring pulls, and faux bamboo chairs.

From another perspective. 

Media Room, aka Anthony's man cave. Do you see my entrenchment everywhere? :-) The sofa set was from our living room...I can't believe we pretty much furnished this area using all our existing furniture!

And this is the built-in wall unit I mentioned yesterday. Can you believe it's based on Ikea's Billy bookcase?  When I was given a quote of $10,000 for a wall unit this size, I was determined to find a cheaper alternative (and I did). I will write more about how we had it put together later.

Notice those cane chair fixer-uppers in the front? They are upholstered in Dwell Studio Bella Porte Charcoal fabric from Tonic Living.

This is from the media room overlooking the future art & craft room and the hallway. At the end of the hallway is the cold room. I've decided to keep my wine collection in it now that the temperature is perfectly regulated in here with new insulation.

Years ago I used to paint at night as a hobby to declutter my mind. After a series of three Paris paintings, I realized I needed to add a fourth -- the summer season, to complete the collection.

And this will be my future art & craft room (area). As we were preparing our basement for renovation a few months ago, I found this unfinished work piled among many of my other pieces. I am sure I intended to paint Paris in the summer...the inspiration was long gone, but I hope to pick up my hobby by completing this one.

So that's what our basement looks like now. Bedroom and bathroom were covered in last week's post here.

Our house is a new built so it has central heating and all the vents were tucked away out of sight. But if you have an older house, a heat radiator is an easy way to keep your basement warm and toasty. They come in so many styles and colours these days that they can be incorporated into your design elements. For radiator ideas, please check out Castrads