Basement Inspiration

So, I need to make a confession. I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE Polyvore. It may not be a perfect program, but it's fun, free and helps me to make mood boards that I can actually utilize when looking for projects around the house. I can't redecorate in one fell swoop (Reasons? #1: money, #2: time. Duh. ;-)) but this gives me inspiration, and the time lapse gives me flexibility. If I find something on the cheap at TJ Maxx or the Christmas Tree Shop out and about that comes close to what I've created, well great! I prefer it that way! Plus, I get to be a little creative, so it's win-win.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a HUGE fan of Young House Love, which is a blog about design and home improvement, among other things. They're one of the main reasons I thought to start a blog, myself. So, I think I'll take a mini-vacation from my usual posts and share with you my latest mood board -- for our basement, which we're working on cleaning out and, throughout the summer, waterproofing, painting, and organizing (yet again). We've got some additional projects in mind, like adding a 1/2-full bath and creating unified storage areas, but we're not sure if those will all happen this summer...remember, we're also planning a wedding. ;-)

So, with no further ado...

There are actually three spaces listed: the Living Space, the Laundry Area, and the Possible Bath. These areas are separate; there will be unfinished basement space separating them (it's a pretty good-sized basement). Since I know we'll be using a tan paint (either colored Drylok or a paint over the Drylok-ed areas) on most of the foundation walls , I wanted to come up with color schemes that would work with it. Here are some of my ideas:

The Living Space:
-See that curtain on the upper left? I'm thinking of using outdoor curtains on one of the walls to add textural interest and a little bit of insulation. I did research and got the inspiration from this picture; somehow I always feel like I can do something after I've heard that others have done it and didn't have issues. Needless to say, I'm pretty nervous about decorating in a basement -- I've seen floods and all the damage they can do, but our house is so small we HAVE to make it usable space.
- The color scheme I chose for this room includes beiges and tans as well as greens, turquoise and darker brown. This room will be the most finished (probably including flooring, which may or may not be a chocolately faux wood laminate). When we eventually invest in a new living room set, we'll be putting our coffee table, couch and chair in this space -- so it'll have lots goin' on. We already have an extra entertainment center (along with TV -- moving 2 apartments into one house does that to ya) for the space, too.

The Laundry Area:
- The black-and-white flooring is actually leftover from our kitchen flooring project last year. If we have enough to make it look good, it'll also be in the bathroom. So, as with our kitchen, I LOVE a light turquoise (almost Tiffany's blue) accent, so I'd like to paint out the cement walls in this area bright blue. To tie in with the living room, some pops of lime green will help modernize the space, too. (Baskets, waste basket...any other items I can pick up.)
- To continue the curtain theme, I'm planning on running an industrial steel wire line from the two outside walls of the space and hang grommeted curtains so that we can close off the space or create an "entryway" (a bit of a continued inspiration from the picture).
- Yeah. We don't have a HE front loading washer/dryer yet...we're keeping an eye out for sales and "out of box" choices. We're lucky enough to have a F-R-E-E set right now, but our eventual goal is all-new appliances, upstairs and down. *crosses fingers*

The Bathroom
- As I mentioned, the floor will be checkered. If it's a half bath, it'll just have the sink and potty (yes, I call it a potty), so the turquoise towels would be pretty irrelevant. Keeping the whole space a bright tan; crisp, clean white; and sharply contrasting black (check out that fluffy black throw rug! I bought one for my mom's updated bathroom and she loves it) would be enough. Throwing in a pop of turquoise would be easier with the shower, if it happens. I'm fine if it doesn't; just having an extra place to *ahem* use would be awesome, especially when kids, one day, will be using the basement to play and have sleepovers.

So, as things get underway, I'll be updating with photos of the progress. As with most things, I assume this will probably take longer than we expect it to -- most projects have been broken up into parts, each of which will make its own timeline. Plus, with a cat who loooooves to look around the basement area (especially when the rest of the house isn't necessarily cool) and will do anything to be where we are, it should be pretty interesting. :-)