So earlier this fall my mother moved in with us. And while our guest room is pretty darn cute, we decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to finish out our basement.
If you’ve been reading here for a few years then you know that our homebuying process was filled with crazy and two houses that we loved. In the end we chose our current home because it had a full basement that was already studded/drywalled/piped for two rooms and a bathroom. This house needed a lot (A LOT) of work but finishing the basement meant it would almost double the living space.
So with less than a month before my mother’s lease was up and a really tiny budget, we decided to DIY. Remember how I had a baby halfway through my pregnancy and so then we just hurriedly threw a bunch of stuff in the basement so we could get a nursery together? Yeah, this is what our basement looked like before. Don’t judge me.
Okay, you can judge. It was so bad. The good news is that I found all of my old Teen Bop magazines featuring Prince William circa 1997. I’m not a hoarder. Not only was it a huge mess but the people who lived here before us did a crap job hanging the drywall so that needed a re-do. There was no trim around any of the doors/windows/floor and about 500 random nails to be pulled out of the walls. Oh and all that permanent marker on the walls was a &@$#! to cover. <- I feel very strongly about this.
(Excuse the terrible lighting) Here is the view of the front room when you walk in. We painted the concrete floor with a dark brown concrete enamel from Lowes. We did NOT etch the floor first. We talked to a lot of different people and since nothing had ever been on the concrete slab before they said that we could just put the enamel paint straight on it. It’s held up wonderfully and I totally recommend it. We hung the floorboard trim a little high in case we ever decide to put in actual flooring.
A (wonderful!) family friend who works as a contractor sold us all of the trim we needed at cost and helped us put it in. We used leftover paint from other (generous!) family members for the ceiling/trim and the accent wall. We added ceiling light fixtures and outlet/switch covers and we were done!
All of the furniture, etc. belongs to my mother, we were really pleased that the space was able to hold her things so well. Actually, that gold chair belongs to me. I am letting her borrow it because I am an awesome daughter. We still need to find a large area rug for the living room and I need to remember to swiffer before I take photos, yo.
You can kind of see in this photo that there is a little hallway connecting the living room to the bedroom/bathroom area. We did not have the budget to finish the bathroom out so it’s just closed off with a door. Luckily we have a guest bath upstairs so while not totally convenient, it works for our needs. We’re still looking for a desk to go under the shelf so for now the printer, etc. is inside the trunk.
This is the back room that is functioning as a bedroom. Technically it isn’t supposed to be one but technically it doesn’t have a door either so technically it’s within code. That sentence just destroyed grammar. You can see from this before picture that the former owners of this house were not so good with the drywall. No one should ever let them attempt to hang drywall ever again, actually.
I’d show you more of this room but probably my mother would like her privacy. My career choice is rather unfortunate for her.
If you’re wondering what we did with all the stuff that was in the basement before, I will tell you: I am an amazing organizer and I found new homes for everything. And by “new homes” I mean, literally new homes because I got totally overwhelmed and threw together a garage sale and sold everything.
I did not think that through because I keep looking for things like “Hey, where is our round side table? What happened to that set of shelving?” and then I’m all “Oh right, SOLD IT!”
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About Kayla Aimee
What a beautiful space! I can’t believe that is your basement…lucky ducks! Or should I say…lucky Mom?
I love the colors and how the floor turned out. Who would have thought that is just painted concrete?
YOU FOUND YOUR TEEN BOPS???! mmK, maybe not the point but I got really excited over that. Beautiful job!
Omg how pretty is this. Is totally making me want to pull off our carpet like right this instant and paint whatever kind of floor I find in there.
It looks so AMAZING!!! I want to redo my office. It looks like a random explosion…as in something exploded I’m just not sure what. I’m crafting….when I craft…on a stool.
#$*@ I love it (see what I did there)
Seriously – great job!!
That made me laugh out loud
Wow, what a fantastic job. I think your next reno job should be my house (only slightly kidding!!!).
Julie
I feel as though I will need more time to no longer feel like cursing when I think of things like “sanding and painting a ceiling” before I can ever contemplate doing anything like that ever again, ha! It was SO MUCH MORE WORK than I thought it would be. So thanks so much for the compliment on it!!
Holy cow! It’s beautiful! That first photo seriously looks like something out of a magazine.
Thanks!! That is such a nice compliment!
The basement look awesome!! I agree I think the first photo looks like it belongs in a magazine also!!
Oh thanks! I’m so happy to hear that as I was all “I HAVE NO GOOD LIGHTING TO TAKE THIS PHOTO IT!!!”
Hmmm … some people have skeletons in the closet. YOU have been hiding a MOM in your basement?! Where are the photos? Is she camera shy? WAIT … is she in the witness protection program?!
Also, are you kidding me? When I saw that one photo of the living room (on Instagram, or FB, or somewhere), I thought you were showing the *inspiration* photo – not your actual room. Holy &@$#! … that is a gorgeous room! You and your mama have great decorating style!!
Oh thanks, that is so sweet! Yup, my family is super supportive of my blogging but some of them prefer not to be featured on it so I try to respect that
I’m trying to talk her into a stitch-fix makeover post though! We will see 
WOW. I really thought that the “after” picture was from a magazine and you were going to be like “so this picture was our inspiration, and then we did this” and post something else. I literally had to read twice to believe that that is your actual basement. Congratulations, definitely.
Thanks, that’s so sweet! It helps that my mother had some pretty furniture to move into the space for sure!
What colors did you use on the walls? I absolutely love it!
that looks absolutely incredible! like seriously.
Could you tell us more about the concrete enamel? Do you have a link to purchase it and was it hard to put on? Thanks!