I'm always on the lookout for great basement finishing ideas. This past week at our beach house (our rental beach house, I ain't no Donald Trump) I saw a couple of great ideas that I thought you guys might like.
# 1 Wood Paneled Ceiling with Recessed Lights
I could see this in my basement family room or my pool table area (which I'm totally going to have once my three little munchkins grow up).
# 2 A Lockable Cabinet
Liquor cabinet perhaps? A spot to store stuff you don't want nosy house visitors to discover. If you plan on renting out your basement, you may want to have a few owner's cabinets.
#3 Great Basement Bathroom Layout Idea
If I really stretched my arms out I could touch both walls of this bathroom (in either direction) at the same time. So not a ton of space to work with.
The full tub and shower was opposite the sinks. The toilet in the middle was a bit weird at first but for such a small space it looked and felt great (the bathroom, not the toilet, that felt normal).
#4 Double Doors for the Small Bathroom
This is the same bathroom. The doorway was so narrow they went with a double door approach that latched at the top.
I think the double doors actually made the door feel bigger. [Want more bathroom ideas? Click here]
#5 Electrical Switch Cover Shortcut
Check this out. I never thought of just cutting an electrical cover to size to make it fit, but whatever floats your boat.
This actually gave the room some more charm. And who doesn't want more charm, I know I do.
Does anyone else insist on lining up the screws of your cover plates? It just bugs the heck out of me that these are all askew.
#6 Basement Finishing Ideas - Retro Ceiling Fans
The beach house was a one-story four-square layout nestled in really tall old growth pine and palm trees. ( BTW this house was in Kiawah Island, SC - awesome place)
It felt like a really big tree house. Each room had these silver retro style fans with dimming lights (my favorite). They really helped set the tone of the house.
# 7 A Big Lamp Shade
There was a table on the right as you walked in the front door. This drop light with a huge lamp shade looked great and it was the first thing you saw when you entered the house.
The kids created crafts and colored under this light in the afternoons after several hours at the beach.
I vowed to play some board games and not just watch movies and play video games. Sadly, I failed miserably. I couldn't stay away from the Wii Golf.
There you go. I wish I'd taken some video of the house, it had a great feeling to it.
I think know my basement is still missing that "great feeling" and I pretty sure it's because I haven't put in little details like some of these above.
It's expensive, or can be, to get all of those finishing touches. Plus you need to know what works well together.
If you've found some great basement finishing ideas post a comment below, I'd love to feature some them.
Cheers - Jason
More Resources:
- More basement ideas.
- Do you need books about how to finish your basement?
- Don't pay full retail price for tools. Get basement finishing tools for up to 40% off?
why can't you buy the bok as a real book, not just a download?
Hi Patricia - I wish I could offer it as a printed book, but it's crazy expensive. I would also have to have a bunch pre-printed and they would immediately be out of date. Things change throughout the year and I like to update the book quarterly to give you latest info. Hope that answers your question. - Jason (HINT: It looks great on iPad!)
My husband and I are willing to hire a company to finish the basement which is 1800sq.ft but we dread emptying all the furniture and 45 years of crap that we moved with. We've given away about half the stuff and don't want to drag it up to the garage to get it ready for construction.
My question is does it pay to work around the stuff and keep moving it while the basement is being worked on. I know it really should be empty but.....hoping you have an idea.
Hi Judith - So here are my thoughts on this - great question by the way. I think you can probably work around it. My basement design has an unfinished storage room. Before the drywall guys came I had to move everything into that room and cover it with plastic. When they drywall there will be a ton of dust. I also bought about 4 of these metal shelves with wheels - I put as much stuff as I could on those - wrap them in plastic and just wheeled them out of the way when necessary. They are a little expensive but will pay you back easily in timed saved manually moving boxes. I had a huge old couch that wouldn't fit in the storage room - I covered that in plastic and just worked around it.
Good luck! - Jason
What about building a out side door to come in and out from the basement. How hard is that.
Hi Crystal - Side door, stick of dynamite and stand back. DONE! Okay, there's a bit more to it. You'll need to cut a whole in your foundation and excavate the ground around it, then install stairs and drainage. I would classify this on the HARD side for projects. Not easy, not something I would do alone. Higher a pro - get your pocket book out! - Jason
Where did you buy your double doors for your bathroom? Looking around online I'm only finding bi-folding doors in that size. Did you have to take the bi-folding doors apart and install? Did you find these doors somewhere pre hung? Thanks so much.
Hi Shea - This was from a beach house that we rented, so I'm not sure where they got their doors from. If you go to home depot, there's a special guy or gal there who specializes in doors - bring the picture to them and they can help you find a match. - Jason
Hi, you're going to be seeing a lot more of me over the next couple of years as I'm prepping to start finishing our family basement. (First day of research and your website was quick to come up!), but I have to interject that sawing off the edge of light switches is a result of nothing but bad planning. I cannot take the look as it offsets absolutely everything honestly.
Also from a design perspective, and as you hinted, that toilet in the middle of that bathroom is awkward. What I have seen that works a lot better, is a really wide sink with two faucets round the back. (Duravit makes them), so you can opt for an extra wide single sink vanity but with enough room to fit two people without the hassle of two sets of drains etc. :)
Jason, you are not alone in the quest to make ALL the switch plate and outlet cover screws line up. We recently bought a short sale home and did some rehabbing before we moved in. My wife and kids ( 22 & 18 ) thought I was nuts when I insisted if they help with those type of little jobs that the screws were ALL perfectly vertical. To be funny they would grab a torpedo level to make sure they were perfect... I may be a perfectionist but they all marveled at how well EVERY project we did turned out... Down to the last screw! ;-)
Boom!! Attention to detail IS Family Fun! It's the little things that smart people notice. - Jason
This website's awesome. I've just started the basement project and I'm pretty overwhelmed at this point. Your website is cool, super-easy to read and I appreciate your humor and how you write. Thanks for doing this!
Great site! I actually recognize the fan from our first home. It is the Acero by Minka Aire.