Hello Friends! It's been a while! I hope everyone has been doing well and enjoying the summer. My summer has been extremely busy and lots of fun. I loved spending time with my 3 kids swimming, eating ice cream and just having fun. I'm not going to lie though! It feels good to have them back in school and to have our family back on a schedule!
Having the summer off from lessons and homework also allowed me to undertake a few projects in my own home. One of these was to give our basement family room area a little update/makeover. (If you follow me on Instagram, you've gotten to see little snippets of the space here and there). I've mentioned before that the basement layout was one of the primary selling features of our home. You may remember me saying that my husband and I let out an audible "GASP" the first time we walked down the stairs and saw it. We knew right away that it would be an area in our home that we would all really "live" in. And we do...all the time...especially the kids. All 3 of the kids' bedroom are in the basement and the basement family room is where they spend their time, playing, watching TV, doing homework and more. The most unique feature about our basement is that it has 12 foot ceilings and that it is 100% day lit. These 2 things make it feel like a whole other house, not a basement at all. My hubby and I know it is a space that our family will enjoying spending time in for many years.
All of that being said, since we moved into our house almost a year and a half ago, I had largely left the basement "undecorated." Most of the furniture in it is stuff we've had for years or was formerly used in other areas of our previous home. After I got done designing our main floor great room area, I was itching to do something with the basement. I had to consider 2 major things before getting started on it:
1. Whatever I did had to be kid friendly and appeal to the kids...because they "live" in the space.
2. I had to do it on a VERY small budget. The great room design was fairly pricey and my decorating budget had become pretty much nonexistent.
With those things in mind, I set out to decorate the basement using mostly furniture and accessories that I already owned. I also knew I wanted to add pops of vibrant color in the space. I tend to shy away from bright colors in other areas of my home, but I felt that the basement family room was a great place to do it. I wanted it to look pulled together, but still appeal to my kids. I spent a couple months pulling it all together. I even put my DIY cap on found my inner artist just long enough to paint a large piece of art that hangs over the fireplace. I'm still not sure about it, but my sweet hubby likes it and told me to leave it up. :) There's still a little work to do in this space, but for now, I'm happy with the changes I've made. Take a look... :)
As I mentioned, I used mainly furniture and accessories I already had on hand. I did purchase a few new items, but overall, very little money was spent on the basement. In my next post, I'll highlight some of my reused items and show you were they previously lived in this home or my last. Which reused items can you spy? :)
