Basement

There was a time in my life (like 2 years ago) when I thought that basements were dumb. What was the point? Seriously. They're dark, dank, and smelly. If you put things down there in storage, they'd either end up ruined or completely forgotten behind a stack of moldy National Geographics. Plus there's bugs--those nasty centipede things that I abhor. I was NOT a fan of basements. I'm surprised that we actually have some pictures of the befores since I seriously hated going downstairs into our dungeon.

Warning: crappy pictures ahead (to match the surroundings).

You get the idea: nastiness. And you know it's gotta be bad when I give Mitch free reign in the decor department anywhere in our house. So when up to him, he painted the walls bright orange (once a Flyer's fan, always a Flyer's fan) and I never stepped foot down there again. That is until we decided to finish it.

There were several "rooms" down there. Mitch removed one wall to open it up.

 Smashing the wall. I did partake in this event. It was fun, but dang, was that sledge hammer heavy!

And it went from looking like that, to this.

Update: We painted the walls Behr Light French Gray (in an eggshell finish) which is a beautiful soft blue/gray. The color, along with the addition of lighting (pots, sconces, mini chandy, and lamps), really lighted things up down there.

The room is divided up into two zones. One half is the lounging/tv zone and the other half is the work zone. This is Mitch's side of our work zone. Notice the tasteful sports theme. Out with the orange walls, yet the Flyers are still represented. And that's a picture of Jackie Robinson sliding into home and the Babe hitting a homer. Classics. And I'm cool with that.

Mitch made this little shelf. It's the perfect spot for his collection of Philly sports team glasses.

And this is my side.

Mitch bought the 50s dining table for me for Christmas one year when we were dating. I spotted it when we were out at an antique store, fell in love, then he went back and bought it for me. It makes the perfect desk. I made the inspiration board. The lamp we got at Target years ago. And that cute owl I picked up at a thrift store.

We're really happy with how it all turned out. It gives us another room to retreat to--which in a small two bedroom rancher is much needed. We did the demo part ourselves but hired out the construction aspect. Now I can't imagine our house without our finished basement. If you haven't seen it already, here's a little clip of our basement taken by our friend Keith.