Whether you use your basement as a laundry room, gym or game room, a drab and colorless basement it is not an inviting place to hang out. Installing new drywall, flooring, light fixtures and furnishings would be expensive. You can remodel the look of your basement while keeping the bill to a minimum with a do-it-yourself project using affordable materials.
Instructions
1. Paint an unfinished concrete floor with concrete paint. Start by cleaning the concrete thoroughly with concrete cleaner. Seal it with concrete sealer if it has not already been done. Paint the floor with concrete primer, using a paint roller, then paint it with a color of your choice. You also can stamp the floor or paint it with patterns or textures to simulate wood or fine stone such as marble or granite.
2. Cover the walls with . Rolls of bamboo fencing are inexpensive and will give the basement walls an elegant, natural appearance. Affix bamboo fencing to the walls by placing trim boards along the top and bottom edges, sandwiching the bamboo in between, and screwing through the trim boards and into the wall. Bamboo fencing can be affixed over drywall or concrete. Affix directly to concrete by drilling pilot holes with a masonry drill bit and using concrete screws. Another option is to add furring strips to the concrete for affixing the bamboo. That will further allow you to add insulating batting between the bamboo and the wall. Bamboo fencing can also be hung from the ceiling or from rafters to divide the space of the basement into multiple rooms.
3. Create inexpensive shelving for holding anything, including laundry supplies, a media center, books, DVDs or barbells, using decorative concrete blocks and hardwood shelves. Floral, geometric, ribbed, serrated and textured decorative concrete blocks are all available. Choose a type of hardwood for your shelves, such as maple, oak or cherry. Paint the cinder blocks with the same paint you used to paint the concrete floor. Stain the boards, only if you wish to alter the wood tone. Seal the boards using polyurethane varnish.
4. Place an inexpensive area rug on the floor to provide warmth and to reduce sound reverberation. Use a rug that complements the floor color.
5. Turn off the electrical circuit to the basement and unscrew and unwire the old basement light fixture. Replace the fixture with a ceiling fan that has a ceiling light. Ceiling lights with fan have a more formal appearance and the fan will allow you to provide refreshing ventilation to the room.
6. Check out second-hand stores, online resellers, garage sales and estate sales for gently-used furnishings.
Tags: with concrete, bamboo fencing, Bamboo fencing, concrete blocks, concrete floor