Basement Remodeling Ideas

For people who are blessed with a home that has a basement you should not look at it like it is an eye sore, you should think of a few remodeling ideas for your basement and utilize the space in the best way for your home and your family.  Many basement remodeling ideas are simple and not so heavy on the wallet.

One of the first steps in remodeling your basement would have to be to think about what you want the space to be and also what you need it to be.  Do you need a certain amount of space in your basement for storage and do you use part of your basement for things like washing and drying your laundry or part of the basement for a work area?   Depending on what you need in your house you will remodel your basement accordingly.

Let’s say for instance that your basement runs the entire length of your house.  And in that basement there is a washer and dryer and also an area where you store some things.  Things like holiday decorations, old boxes of clothes or things you just do not use everyday.  There is also an area where there is a work bench with many tools and some shelves.  You also want to make this space into an area where your teenage children can come and hang out with their friends after school and on weekends. 

Ok so you have all the needs down that you want for your basement.  The next thing to do is to figure out how much of a budget you will have for your basement remodel.  There are things you could do on any budget but for the sake of this article we will say that you have a couple of thousand to spend on it.  Now looking around your basement you need to decide how to section off some of the spaces.  Now putting up walls is not the easiest thing to do but it is quite doable when you do a little research and have a little help from some friends and family.  Now remodeling a basement is a big job so you may want to plan on working on it for a couple of weekends in a row, or if you have a vacation coming up do the remodel then but try to make sure all of your helpers will be available.

After putting up a few walls with drywall and making different sections for the different areas of your basement you will want to work on the walls.  Most basements have some kind of concrete or brick walls.  These are easy to paint.  You could also put up some kind of paneling if you would prefer.  If you are going to use paint I would suggest using a waterproof type of paint since it is in the basement and some areas are prone to floods.  Painting brick and concrete is not the same as painting drywall and you will usually not be able to use a roller to paint with.  You will have to use brushes to get in all the nooks and crannies of the concrete or brick.  You could also rent a paint gun from a local hardware store.  This makes the job a lot quicker but the paint gun takes some time to get used to.

After the walls have been built and painted you will want to think about the flooring.  For some areas you may want to keep a concrete floor like the washing area or the work bench area, but for the family area you may want to put carpet down.  Again if you live in an area that is prone to flooding I would not suggest using carpet but that is up to you.  After the flooring is finished you would just need to furnish the rooms accordingly.  If your kids play instruments you could put all of their instruments in the basement and they can make is a little room to jam in.  When everything is all done you will get to sit back and enjoy all of your efforts and your basement remodel will be done.

10:21 - 2007-Nov-12