Basement Guest Room Remodel

I just realized that I've never really posted anything about our basement (other than our bathroom remodel a year & a half ago).  That's probably because A. my brother lives down there & I normally don't invade his space, B. most of the work was done before I created this blog, and C. we haven't really touched the space at all since then.

A couple of weeks ago, one of our college friends & her husband were planning on crashing at our house for a wedding in town.  I hadn't done a project in a while, & thought it'd be fun to work on the guest room.  The tiny guest room.  The one that we hadn't quite got around to finishing 4 years ago when we gutted the basement.  Oh, & I only left myself a week to get it done.  Pro. cras. tin. a. tion.

This was the mood board I came up with for the room...rustic/cottagy, in charcoal, coral, & light blue.

Here's a quick layout of the basement so you can get your bearings - & see how small the room really is - 9x12 - only enough room for a full-sized bed - cozy!  (The guest room is highlighted in blue.)

This is what our entire basement looked like when we moved in.  In all of its paneled, sagging ceiling, no flooring, exposed pipe glory.  Can you believe the little old lady who owned the house actually had people paying to live down here?  Yikes.  Needless to say, my brother was pretty skeptical about living down there at first.  Ha!

We tore out everything down to the block walls.  There was NO insulation behind that paneling...brr!  I bet it was freezing in the Minnesota winters.  Below is the "naked" guest room - & my brother & dad working hard at demo.

We framed up everything, insulated it, & hung new drywall. It's slowly getting better!

We painted it a deep charcoal gray, added recessed lighting & bead board paneling in the bump-up by the windows, laid carpet, & hung crown at the ceiling line.

Then we let it sit like that for 4 years.  Without the windows trimmed out, no return vent, & three pieces of crown lying on the floor waiting to be hung up.  Embarrassing.  It seems like the little things are the hardest to complete sometimes.  :)

On the list before our guests arrived:
Trim out windows, caulk, & paint trim white.
Hang remaining crown.
New return air vent.
Window treatments.
Build a headboard of some sort (pallets?) & purchase a frame.
Create some fun art.
Purchase &/or make bedding.
Move in furniture & accessorize.

And just because I can't wait to share it - here's a sneak peek of the whitewashed pallet headboard I made...all by myself...the night before & day of our guests arrival.  Nothing like the last minute! :)

Stay tuned for the full room reveal later this week!

Ikat Entry Way {finished!}

Last month (how has it been that long?!) I posted a picture of our entry way.  At that time I had only gotten one wall done, & was just about to leave on vacation.  Almost a month later, I FINALLY finished it!

I didn't really have a plan or pattern.  I just bought a quart of yellow paint, roughly measured out a couple of lines (so I could keep the pattern semi level), & started slapping the paint on the wall with a 1.5" angled brush.  I started with the zig zag on the bottom & worked up from there creating a diamond pattern.

Once I got the pattern painted, I put a fresh coat of paint on all of the trim.  It needed it - badly.  It's been on my list literally for YEARS...so it felt good to get it done!  The previous owners had painted it "white", but as you can see in the picture below, it had pink undertones which I'm not a fan of, at all.  The bottom is freshly painting with BM's "Simply White".  It's a night & day difference.

I still need to paint the inside of the front door (yellow? turquoise? slate blue?).

I'm really loving the semi crazy, unexpected, bright pattern in that little entry way.  It's such a cheery way for guests to enter the house!