It’s week six of the One Room Challenge and that means it’s time for the big REVEAL! We have renovated our basement from the exposed ceiling to the floors!! And I have to just put it out there, I am really proud of this space. This was our SIXTH ORC and this is hands down my favorite. We worked very hard to take what was basically a large, damp storage space and turned it into a comfortable lower level living area. Did you see what I did there?!?…no longer a basement but a lower level living space! Wait until you see! The flooring, the painted exposed ceiling, and those accent walls WOOT WOOT!! So exciting. I mentioned this is my sixth ORC, before we get to the reveal, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane through my past One Room Challenges.

FALL 2017 / FALL 2018 / SPRING 2019 /FALL 2019 / SPRING 2020

A note: Thank you to all the sponsors that gifted products to make this makeover possible. I’ve listed them at the end of the post.

Are you ready to see? Here we go!

And because who doesn’t like a great before pic…

Let me walk you through the changes. First, we ditched the existing mismatched wall treatments and had the walls drywalled. Once that was completed we painted the entire exposed beam ceiling with Sherwin Williams color of 2021 Urbane Bronze (SW7028). It’s a very dark grey and I absolutely love it! After the ceilings, we moved on and painted the walls with the oh so beautiful SW Alabaster (SW7008). I love the warm glow the walls have now, especially with the lack of natural light.

The back wall was feeling a bit blah and I wanted something to draw you into the room while still remaining neutral and warm so we added a bit of wood for texture and painted the entire wall and trim Retreat by Sherwin-Williams (SW 6207). A shout out to Wagner who gifted us a paint sprayer. Without spraying the ceiling I have no doubt we would still be down there working on it. ;-

We then added the Wall Mural from Photowall. I chose this for its bold graphic design as the mood I was going for was a cool downtown bar vibe. It was easy to install and I love the graphics!

Our next project was something I like to call flooring gate. I originally wanted to paint the floor and call it good. At most spend some time with a stencil for a bit of color. Dave was a hard no on that idea. My reasoning was simple. We live on a lake. A place with lots of water. No way could we put down an expensive floor that might someday be ruined. I’ve lived through two major basement floods. But then DuraDecor reached out with the perfect solution. Peel and stick luxury vinyl tile. I will be posting all about it next week but for now, let me show you how pretty it looks.

Our final project was wrapping the beams in wood and then staining in a med brown. It added such warmth! We are so pleased. We ended up with so much room for game nights! We are big board game fans as well as playing Euchre (a midwestern card game). Most visits with our adult kids end with games of some sort.

And finally, I added lots of soft textural throws and pillows for cuddling, You can’t have a great hang out space without cozy comfort! The rug below was gifted from Well Woven.

I could keep showing pics (I told you I love this space) but perhaps I’ll call this One Room Challenge a wrap. But before I go.

A huge THANK YOU to Linda and her team from the One Room Challenge and Better Homes & Gardens for creating this platform for us to share our idea’s, our processes, DIY’s, to give us a place to form friendships and of course to celebrate our newly transformed rooms. It is a beautiful platform you have created. Thank you.

The featured designers are sharing their finished virtual dream rooms and the guest participants are showing off their gorgeous new spaces.

A big THANK you to the following sponsors who made this renovation possible. They gifted products, offered support and generally cheered me on over the last six weeks.

CRYSTORAMA / DURADECOR / PHOTOWALL / WELL WOVEN

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS /WAGNER /WOVENBYRD

I cannot rave enough about the brilliant Helen Gardner for the photography! She makes my work shine. If you are in Michigan or Indiana give her a call.

That’s it for now!

Until next time,

-Libbie