Monday, November 21, 2016

basement family room tour

From all the comments in my last post, it seems like we're all on the same wavelength when it comes to decorating trends: What's most important is that we decorate our homes in the style that we like best, and not what designers are saying is currently trendy. Warm, comfortable and welcoming seems to be the key.

I had said that my decorating style was a mixture of styles and showed photos of the upstairs, but I didn't show any of my downstairs family room. The decor down here is a little different from the upstairs in that it's mostly modern. My home is a ranch style with a 3/4 finished basement, which we made into a family room. We used to have carpet down here until the basement flooded. The contractor talked us out of putting down new carpet or even laminate, as "it's not a matter of if your basement floods, it's when." He's right. We've had two major floods, plus a handful of minor ones. So, we chose to have the cement floors painted and then use rugs for some warmth.


We honestly rarely use this space anymore. We don't watch much TV and when we do so, it tends to be in the bedroom. When the boys were growing up, this is where they played with their friends.


It does give me room for my hundreds of books and the dreadmill (as I fondly call it). 


These are books I haven't even read yet!



There's an L-shaped bar in the back corner. When the boys were growing up and we had birthday parties, it was a great space to hold the food buffet and cake. And when they were teens and had friends over, it held a lot of pizza boxes! All that graces the bar top now is a printer. The guy who lived here before us built this bar and there's cabinets in back. That's where I keep a lot of my large kitchen appliances and serving dishes (food processor, Crockpot, air popcorn maker, ice bucket, pitcher, cake stand). I definitely want to get rid of those old, ugly bar stools and replace them with some nicer ones "someday".


Then in another corner, we have Tim's drum set and guitars. This is where the treadmill used to be, but then Tim moved back home from college and we had to shuffle things around to re-accommodate his stuff. The bookcase in back is filled with children's books - all which belonged to Phil and Tim. They had tons more, but these were the ones I kept.


Thanks for visiting ~ and for those of you who live in the US, have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving with loved ones!


13 comments:

  1. Wow Melanie, that's a LOT of books you haven't read! I think those of us who strive for a "cozy" home would rather have warmth than be on trend. I know that's how I feel. I don't even like stainless steel appliances because they look cold! Have a great holiday my friend!
    Brenda

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  2. Your family room looks very comfortable and cozy, Melanie. I really love the wall colors and the concrete floors are a very good idea. I grew up with my bedroom in the basement, in a place with lots of snow and rain, so I know all about flooded floors. Good choice. I loved seeing your book shelves, you do have lots of books and they're so nicely organized. Thanks for showing us around. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  3. Oh My, what a wonderful basement. It's a shame that you don't use it much anymore, it's a wonderful space. Your contractor sounds like a wise man. Nice too, he could have made more money by talking you into flooring the basement. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  4. What a great basement space!

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving ~ FlowerLady

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  5. What a wonderful space! My basement is piled with everyone's stuff - your pictures inspire me to try to figure out how to make our basement work better.
    Happy Thanksgiving!

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  6. What a great space! Someday when you have grandkids it will be used again!

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  7. I would love to have a basement like yours! I barely noticed the floors. It's very cozy and organized. I know a lot of people who have finished basements that tend to go unused once the kids grow up but it looks like you've utilized space for your book collection, Tim's musical stuff and the bar area with your small appliances. Good for you!

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, my friend! Looks like the frenzy of Christmas will come upon us tomorrow!

    Jane

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  8. Wow I love this space...and all of those books! Great idea about the floors. My son recently had to tear up carpet downstairs when some water got in ( torrential rains one after another this summer ) and so far they've left it be until they decide whether to replace, paint the floor, etc. Yours looks so great I am going to push the paint the floor idea !

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  9. Either I don't have basement here but loved the your room.
    A perfect plase to sit and relax

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  10. Your basement is fantastic, Melanie. Looks like a great place to hang out...especially for your boys when growing up.
    Mary Alice

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  11. I found them very helpful, neat and handy. i like it
    mau biet thu
    biet thu hien dai

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  12. What a wonderful space Melanie! This is equivalent to a flex space and you will find that when those grandbabies start arriving this will be a wonderful place for toys and noise!
    Its so warm and inviting:)

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  13. Your basement is very nice -- great wall color. We have concrete floors here that we had finished, though after 16 years, that's kinda worn off, but we have lots of rugs down so it works. You certainly have a whole lotta books. I need to organize my craft shelves. Such a mess. Definitely don't have enough storage space around here. But then again, I've got so much stuff crammed into every little cupboard, I really need to organize and purge. Ugh! Not my favorite thing to do at all.

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