Basement Refresh
Ever since we renovated our basement back in July, I’ve been slowly chipping away at completing this space. While the basement was “finished” from a construction standpoint, it was only halfway done in my book.
We started the reno back in April of 2023 and I was about 7 months pregnant with our second daughter. To save money, we decided that Quinn was going to finish the entire basement along with our brother-in-law who is extremely handy and has done pretty much everything in the home reno space. It was a long 2 and a half months for everyone and towards the end, we all started to burn out. Both Quinn and our BIL were working full-time at their day jobs only to come grind in our basement until 10 or 11pm almost every night. Meanwhile, I was taking care of our daughter full-time and trying to coordinate everything for the remodel along with trying to keep this small design business afloat.
All the while, this looming deadline of July 16 was hanging over our heads because we needed to finish before baby girl #2 made her debut. Needless to say, there are certain elements that, if we had the time, I would’ve done differently such as different paint colors for the murphy bed and cabinets, but we made do with the time we had and I am so proud of them for working so hard to get it done.
To keep it simple, I decided to keep it light down there to coordinate with the rest of our house, but that meant everything was white from the walls to the cabinets and I needed to warm it up with as much decor and finishes that I could.
I added warm white oak shelves to either side of the fireplace nook, brass hardware everywhere and warm throw pillows and textiles throughout but it was still lacking. I searched for months for the perfect warm brass frames to add to this space and found these Academie Gold frames from Level Frames. As soon as I hung up these family photos in those gorgeous brass frames, I knew it was exactly what this space was needing.
These are Level Frames’ Centerpiece framed photos (28.5″ x 22.5″) in Academie Gold and I could not be more thrilled with how they turned out. The quality is incredible, and Level makes it so easy to frame a single photo or create a gallery wall of frames like this. The brass is the most perfect shade. It doesn’t pull too yellow or green and feels almost like an antique.
Now that these frames are in, this basement space finally feels complete. We use this space daily so it was essential for me to have it be as cozy and homey as possible down here. And now every morning when we come down to play in the girls’ playroom, Adeline will always comment excitedly “There’s Mommy and Daddy and Adeline & Sissy!” and it just makes my mama heart so happy. You can tell seeing these everyday makes her so genuinely happy so no matter what, that is a win in my book.
Speaking of the girls’ playroom, we finally finished it! I created these pastel rainbow colored educational posters and framed them in some affordable gold frames we had lying around the house and I love how it turned out. I usually try to stick to one or two colors for our rooms but since this is their playroom I decided to do something a little more fun and go rainbow themed and I have no regrets. It’s the perfect playful touch to this little space. Adeline absolutely loves the emotions poster and is always pointing to different faces to see what they are. It’s been so fun for the girls to finally have their own little space to play and it has been a life saver for me so I don’t have to stress about cleaning to toys up every hour.
It’s been a long time coming, but I can finally say that this space feels complete. It went from sterile & white to warm & inviting with just a few simple touches and I am completely obsessed with how it turned out. Thanks for stopping by and supporting this small business of mine. It truly means the world. I hope you’ll continue to follow along as we renovate the rest of our home and others in the coming years.
PAINT SOURCES
Walls & Ceilings: BM Swiss Coffee @ 75% strength
Fireplace Mantle & Cabinets: BM Simply White
Murphy Bed & Built-Ins: BM Simply White
Baseboards & Doors: Custom Color
