Our basement was never bad. It has good bones, a white brick wall & fireplace I love, hardwood floors and plenty of space. But for the longest time, it felt like a place where everything that didn't get chosen for the rest of the house ended up, piling up and oh so boring.
And because it's right at the centre of so much of our everyday life — the way to the laundry room, my gym/guest room, the craft and holiday storage room (aka, the Martha room!) and straight out to the yard and pool — I kept thinking it deserved to feel like part of our home too.
Not renovated. Not perfect. Just lived-in, layered and loved. Meaning, just like in any Nancy Meyers movie!
And because I didn't want to spend a fortune on a basement refresh, the goal was simple: work with what we already had and make a few small changes that would give the room some much needed soul.
USING WHAT WE ALREADY HAD
I didn't want this to become another expensive project, so almost everything stayed. Furniture we've had for years, books, baskets, games, toys — real family-room things.
The biggest challenge was to tie everything we had together, as a destination zone. So all it took was a rug to ground the seating area, a great vintage-style frame scored at HomeSense to give the fireplace its moment, and the most beautiful floral curtains I found on Amazon to add the warmth and pattern the room had been missing — just like Nancy would have done.
There are still toys. There are still games. There is still a foosball table sitting behind the sofa. Probably a bowl with a snack my son forgot somewhere… But that's the point: we actually use this room now!
THE POWER OF PAINT
My basement doesn't get a ton of natural light, and the old white walls weren't doing it any favours. I chose Sherwin-Williams Ivoire because I wanted warmth without making an already darker space feel heavier. And what a difference!
It completely transformed the room. Suddenly the white brick felt brighter, the wood floors warmer and all of the things we'd already owned looked like they finally belonged together.
Sometimes a room doesn't need new things. It just needs a better backdrop to make everything else shine! And as scary as adding colour can be, sometimes it's exactly what brings life back into a forgotten space & I could not be happier with our choice.
This basement is still evolving. It'll never be perfect. But now when I walk downstairs, it feels connected to the rest of our home, I get the feeling it deserves — and that, to me, is perfection.
Maybe that's my favourite kind of decorating: not making a room look finished, but making it feel like someone lives there & wants to hang. Ohhh, and I get to decorate it comes Christmas time!
