Hi Friends,

This blog post could also be titled “If you’re thinking about starting a reno project right before you host Christmas in December, don’t do it.” Ha! The past three weeks we’ve been working on our basement family room and hallway area and we are finally almost done. Just a little last minute styling to finish up and we are there. December is a busy month anyways and piling an extra project on probably wasn’t the best idea but the results are awesome. I wanted to have a place where all seven of my immediate family could hang out and open gifts on Christmas Day and also a space where Zac and I actually want to hang out. Today I’m here to show you all the gruesome before pictures of our lower level.

This is the tv half of our family room. Pardon the mess. We have a window down here and 9 foot ceilings which is awesome because it makes the space feel huge. I kept the couch on this side but everything else had to go. I want to wall mount the tv, get a new media console with doors to hide all the dvds and game systems and move the books to another room.

Everything is getting a new coat of paint and those blinds are coming down and being replaced.

Let’s talk about yellow. Great song, horrible wall color choice. All that yellow paint and orange honey oak trim is just bad. It looks even worse against our beautiful newly renovated bathroom at the end of the hall. Everything about this picture has to go. The honey oak will get a coat of paint, the light fixtures are getting replaced and the baseboards are gone because we will put in new ones. The only thing staying is the carpet because it’s neutral and only a few years old.

So now we are panning over to the other half of our family room which doesn’t have a lot going on. It has a huge storage closet on this one wall which is nice but will need a coat of paint.

Over on the left wall where there is currently nothing, we are adding in a dry bar. This side of the room is begging for some sort of function so we are adding it in! I don’t think you can tell from the pictures but it’s a really large space lengthwise which might be hard to style but I think I’m up for it.

We are putting up this really wide baseboard and painting the walls this gray color from Sherwin Williams. The dry bar will have white cabinets with gold hardware and stained wood open shelving above to bring some warmth to all the white and gray. I’m so excited to show you guys what it looks like when it’s completely done! I’m also so excited that it will be done in time for Christmas so we can share the space with our family. 🙂

Thanks for reading,