Family Basement Design Plan

Jackson Residence | April 29, 2014

I am going to be revealing a fun basement makeover that Erin and I worked on. So today I wanted to give you a look at the process and of course share before pics! 
In November Erin and I were contacted about designing a basement living area for an adorable family of four.  They had been living in the house for a year and were finally ready to make their basement into a fun game and lounging area. Here is what we saw when we went out for the initial consult. 
Not horrible but not great.  It obviously needed some color and life breathed into the space! 
All of the furniture in the room was from their previous house.  They had paid a lot of money for the pieces and they still loved the shape so we decided to reupholster the sofa, ottoman and one of the chairs. 
For the current seating area we decided to get two new chairs, a side table and some new art.  We also talked about moving their existing cabinet piece to the seating area and making the area by the window into a ping pong area. 
We wanted to create a fun place for sitting, chatting, playing games but also leave enough space for their two boys to run a little wild.  
The t.v. space needed some help as well. We thought a rug would be good to ground the furniture. Without a rug it felt like everything was floating in the space.  We also wanted a new t.v. piece, an additional chair and some wallpaper for the back wall. 
The client had some brown built-ins that we decided to paint white.  They also had an unused corner next to the bathroom. We thought this would be a fun area for a desk.  
We also wanted to make sure the basement flowed with the design of the rest of the house. Here is a picture of their dining room to give you a feel for their style. 
Their main floor felt a little formal and they wanted their basement to be much more causal but still feel like it belonged in the same house. 
Here is the initial mood board we sent over to the client with the color scheme of navy, chartreuse and coral in mind. 
And here is the layout that we liked for the basement. 

They had also spent a lot of money on their main floor and they were hoping to keep the costs down for the basement makeover.  We got to work sourcing some really fun stuff! We took a high-low approach to the budget which we do in all of our spaces.  Here are some of the pieces we saved a little money on:

We fell in love with this amazing octopus art from Natural Curiosities but the price was way too high at  almost $5,000! So our client tracked down this look-a-like for a fraction of the cost.

We did have to have it custom matted and framed but we still saved so much money.  
We also found these blue chairs on Overstock for only $215 a piece! 
We thought about making custom window treatments but to keep cost down we went with ready made panels from West Elm instead. 
Another way we saved was by buying almost all of our accessories at T.J. Maxx and Target. We also shopped quite a bit at local clearance stores for a lot of the furniture. 
Tomorrow we’ll be sharing the reveal! Here is a sneak peek… 

More Jackson Residence

Soothing Blue & Gray Bedroom

Family Basement Reveal

14 thoughts on “Family Basement Design Plan”

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  7. Wow, looks amazing! I love seeing the before and after shots of a project and how it all comes together. I'm always so curious when you talk about "budgets". What would be a typical budget for someone that wanted to do something similar to this…for example what be be a reasonable budget for the design help as well as the actual design items. Thanks!

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    1. Well every room is different. It just depends on how expensive your taste is as well as how much you need done. 😉 a budget can be $1,000 if everything is from ikea. I think $5,000 is reasonable if you need everything brand new

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