Third Project - The BIG ONE

Looking back at the dates on photos, it's hard to believe that we started this project a little over a year ago now.  When we moved into our house, the basement was already finished, which actually gave us a sizable leg up on this project.  It also presented some unexpected challenges. 

When you come down the basement stairs, there was a workout room and salon (the previous owner was a hair salon owner) to your right, and a powder room and larger room to the left.  We turned the larger room into our office, but left the other rooms empty, knowing their future was as the home bar we've always wanted. 

So the before:

The salon:

 The "gym":

 

 And the Powder Room:

 

First we had to scrape about 80 mirrors off of the walls in the workout room:

 



 

Then we replaced the ceiling tiles with a flat white version, installed some recessed lights and tore down a wall:

 Then we installed cabinets, patched the walls, built a bar and painted:

 

 

 

Then we laid down a wood laminate floor and had countertops installed:

 

Then came the appliances:

 

And the tile backsplash and hand made shelves...

 

We redid the powder room with a new vanity, mirror, light, toilet and a granite tile floor:

Finally we put in the furniture...

 

And the big-ass TV

Then we put up the bottles and called it done!

 

It took us four months of nights and weekends to accomplish this whole job, but the work was well worth it.  We finished the bar just in time for our annual Christmas Party, and we were so proud to show it off.  We've made a few small changes since we did the original build, but that will be the topic of a future post. 

Second Project - Master Closet

The second project we decided to take on was our master closet.  Shaun wanted to move all of his clothing in there to avoid the in and out of the bathroom in the morning, since the closet is attached to the bathroom and not to the bedroom. 

First I had to choose the paint pallet for the master suite.  Voila:

From left to right (all Behr paint) Heavy Cream (ceilings and trim), Natural Grey (closet), French Court (bedroom - subject to change, this might be too dark) and Minted Lemon (bathroom).  It may not be super creative, but I like it and I think it suits us well. 

So, from there we started with this:

 

It worked well enough, but needed sprucing up.  There was a lot of wall damage...

 

And some of the storage solutions just didn't work for us.  I can't stand over the door shoe racks, for example. 

 

So we took everything out, patched, painted, installed Closetmaid Impressions storage on both sides, added a new light, a stool for putting shoes/socks on (and a mirror, which wasn't up yet when I took these) and some 5 1/4" trim around the new shelving, and now we have this:

 

 

Now we have an organized, functional space for clothing and shoe storage, as well as dressing.  I'm very happy with how this one turned out.