Basement Before and After

Yesterday I shared our basement facelift.  Today I wanted to share some of the before and after images to show just how much had changed.  In the end I think I touched everything except the carpet.  No wonder it took so long.

When I see the side by sides, I am amazed at how different the rooms look.  By changing the floor plan, lightening the walls and painting the ceiling it really expanded the space.  I will spill a secret.  It took many samples of white to find the right shade.  Since there is no natural light in the basement whites really took on different casts in the space.

In the end I ended up with Popped corn by Behr (I think it is the one to the left of the knob).  It was bright enough not to take on a dirty cast, or become too yellow-y.  It was light and white, but not a pure white.  I then decided to paint the trim and doors in a warm gray,  Sherwin Williams Backdrop (7025).

One of the other problems that bothered me was the "tile" by the back door.

As you can see in the left hand picture the tile cuts half way under the table. I am not sure why they had the tile end where it does, it seems pretty random to me.  But either way, I needed to neutralize the brown.  I wasn't prepared to replace the existing flooring.  Then I remembered having these Ikea rugs that I was no longer using.  I pieced them together and used carpet tape to affix them to the floor.  I did take up the floor trim, paint it and re install to cover the raw edges.  Done and done.  No more crazy brown tile and in the end it was free for this project.

Speaking of budget.  This was a budget project, but I did splurge in some areas.  OK splurge may be a stretch, but I went over my allotted budget and my comfort range on expenses.  I wish I had kept better track, but I didn't.  I did spend about $80 on the sofa, another $80 on the fabric for the chairs (although I did win the chairs themselves... score), around $120 for paint, $10 for pink chair slip cover, $15 for table, and $30 for pillow covers.  That brings it to about $335.  I am sure I put more into it, but in the end it was under $500 all said.  So not too bad.  I did re-purpose and reuse whenever possible, which saved me a lot of money and even more important, saves landfill space.

-Laurie