Danielle from Ice Cream and Pretzels took her boring basement and created a fun playroom. Here is her post:
In our house we have a small finished basement room that was just sitting there getting no use at all. When we first moved in we put a TV down there and some Yankee gear and my Hubs was happy to have a “Man room” but he never used it. Let’s face it – it was more comfortable to be upstairs with me!
So when our son was about a year old I decided I wanted to transform it into a playroom for him to use and enjoy as he grows. After some convincing my husband agreed and I had full reign to do whatever I wanted! I was SO excited!
Here’s what I had to work with:
This is the hallway going down into the basement
It was boring and uninteresting. The previous owners had used a white stucco paint to cover wood paneling in the hallway and the entire room.
A few BEFORE room pictures
Don’t mind the mess I had started working before I thought to take BEFORE shots!
EVERYONE told me that I had to get a professional to take the stucco paint off – and it had to come off because it was sharp and dangerous for a toddler who does his share of falling! So I got a quote from a painter and he said it would cost $900 just to scrape the stucco off – no paint included – NO WAY.
So in my stubbornness I was determined to scrape and sand that horrible stucco myself. I got to work and it took me about 15 hours total to hand scrape the paint, then sand over and and then clean and clean the ridiculous amount of dust.
Once that was done I had my plan ready to go. I had looked at Pottery Barn Kids, Blogs, HGTV website and in my head I knew exactly what I wanted this room to look like! So with some more time and effort and some help from my Hub – the playroom came out wonderfully.
Another before in case you forgot:
The AFTER SHOT!!!
AHH much better!
Here are some more details of the room:
Walking into the playroom:
Another angle – Brayden is there too!
The Library and storage Section
The “ART CART” and Artwork display
Height Chart
A painting by Grandpa
The window view
Overall it cost me about $600 to create this room and that included 4 gallons of paint, the new carpet, window treatments, storage cubes and toy box, and some accessories. It still beats the $900 that I was quoted just to remove the paint.
Thanks so much for sharing the awesome transformation, Danielle! It looks like so such a fun place to hang out and play! Way to go on the walls and saving $900!
Love how it all turned out !!
It is soooo nice for the kids to have their own space away from the main areas of the house.. The colorful paint is great!
That is awesome. I love all the color.
I love it! Our basement is completely unfinished and we got a quote for over $70,000 just to make it a drywall white box! That's not happening!
I love the bright colors – I may have to try that for my own boys' playroom. Thanks for sharing your creativity!!
I would love to have a basement! She did an awesome job!!!
Hi Roeshel! I tagged you in my blog today 🙂 http://toteslife.blogspot.com/2010/02/wednesday-pick-me-up.html
Love the bright colors! What a happy place for a child to play. Great job!
Thanks DIY for posting my basement! I'm so excited and thank for these nice comments too! The bright colors are great and Brayden LOVES to play down there! I hope to post more before and afters on my blog soon!