The basement in our home has a good size footprint with a kitchen, laundry room, storage and utility room, living space, two bedrooms and a bathroom. It also has a walk-out entrance, so we believe the previous owners used this space as an-law apartment that could be rented out. This is a great space, however it needed some serious love and updating, and we wanted to make it more functional for our lifestyle.
The Before
The first thing we changed in the basement was the lighting. Even though we have a bit of natural light from the windows, it still felt very dark and cave-like, and wasn’t a welcoming space. We removed the outdated pendant lights and added a bunch of LED can lights throughout. This change alone brought so much more life into the basement!
The next step in this basement renovation was demoing the closet in the far right corner of the basement to create a larger area for a couch and TV area. The closet wasn’t supporting anything, so it was just a matter of removing the drywall and framing, and then patching the wall to make it look like it was never there in the first place.
The next thing to go was the door and walls enclosing the stair landing. This door previously closed off the basement to what could have been a whole private apartment downstairs, but we didn’t want or need this area to be closed off and wanted a more open feel and wider entrance into the basement. Also not structural, removing this was just a matter of taking off the door, removing the drywall and framework, and then moving all of the electrical.
Removing both the closet and stair landing were relatively easy since they weren’t structural, but the next thing to tackle was a little more complex – removing a load bearing wall. There are two bedrooms in the basement, one which is used as my office and the other that was being used as kind of a catch-all for junk and extra storage. We had bigger plans for this space though, which was to make it a home gym!
I didn’t want it to just be a dark and closed off room in the back corner of the basement where we could workout. My vision for this home gym was to have an open and airy feel with natural light coming in, having beautiful glass double-doors that you can access from the main area of the basement. I wanted it to not only be a space to exercise but also a beautiful and aesthetic statement piece to the whole downstairs. To achieve this we would need to remove the wall that opens up to the basement, which required additional supports since this was a load bearing wall. This was beyond our capability, so we hired it out to a professional.
Our contractor added a new header and reframed the wall to the size of the door we were having installed. Once it was supported, he was able to remove the drywall and open it up to the rest of the basement. He also had to cut through some concrete that you can see was poured underneath the framing. He removed the concrete to the width of the opening and then chiseled it down to get as flush as possible to the rest of the concrete slab, which would later be poured over with a self-leveling compound for a smooth surface. We closed off the original single door entrance to the room that once led to the hallway shared with my office and a bathroom. We no longer needed an additional entrance to the room and wanted to maximize space for equipment and mirrors.
While the new wall opening was getting wrapped up, I started prepping and painting all of the walls. I chose Wolf Gray by Benjamin Moore for the home gym and also as an accent wall against the fireplace, which is a medium grey with heavy blue undertones. For the rest of the basement I used Vintage Pewter by Benjamin Moore, which is a warm grey/taupe color. Unlike the upstairs where I used a warm white paint color throughout the house, I wanted the basement to feel cozy, a little more bold and moody, but with a subtle splash of color.
After all the walls were painted, it was time to start the prep work before installing new flooring. Instead of ripping out all the tile (which extended all the way through the kitchen and into the laundry room) I decided to avoid the mess and back breaking work, and float LVP flooring right on top. The existing tile was level and in good condition, so this was a viable option for me. Although probably not totally necessary because the flooring I was installing has an 1/8″ tolerance, I decided to fill in the grout lines of the tile and try to smooth out any corners that stuck up to get a totally level surface for my flooring, for good measure. I didn’t want to feel any hollow spots when walking, so I thought it was best to be safe than sorry later.
The far end of the basement previously had a floating floor, and once removed the concrete slab below was about 1/4″ height difference from the tile. Since I wanted to float the LVP seamlessly throughout the whole basement, I needed it all to be the same height before I could begin laying my flooring. To achieve this, I used LevelQuick self leveling underlayment starting at the edge of the tile and fanned it out about 6 feet or so to create a more gradual slope within the 1/8″ resistance of the LVP. It took 3 rounds of pours until I felt it was level enough for the LVP to be laid without feeling hollow space underneath. I repeated this same process in the entrance to the home gym area, which had the same height difference from tile to concrete.
Once the floor was leveled and cured, I was able to start installing the LVP flooring. I started in the far right corner and worked my way down and across, going from right to left. I laid the flooring to go with the length of the basement which made laying the rows go quickly, with exception to cutting around corners and objects (like the bar, fireplace and baseboard heating) which were a little more tedious and time consuming.
After the flooring was in it was just a matter of hanging the glass doors, trimming out the baseboard flooring and windows, caulking and painting the trim, putting on the new baseboard heat covers and finishing all the last minute details.
This was such an exciting moment seeing everything come together and my vision come to life! While not an easy project, it made such an impact and every space in our basement is now utilized, functional and more fitting to our lifestyle. The dark and sectioned off basement we had before is now a warm and welcoming space where we spend a lot of our time having fires, watching movies, entertaining and just hanging out. What was once a dark and dingy extra bedroom tucked away in the back corner of the basement with no purpose is now a home gym and wellness space that we use every single day and makes such a positive impact on our lives!
The After
Stay tuned for phase 2 of this basement project which will be the kitchen and laundry room area! I also hope to create some built-ins around the TV to create a more intentional space with a more seamless look to hide the existing foundation wall ledge.
Materials I Used:
- Coretec LVP Flooring (Cairo Oak)
- Steel Double Doors (72×81″)
- Wolf Gray by Benjamin Moore (satin) – home gym and accent wall against fireplace
- Antique Pewter by Benjamin Moore (satin) – the rest of basement
- Baseboard heat covers
- Baseboard trim
- Window trim
Thanks for your support and following along in this project! I hope you found it useful or it sparked some inspiration in your own home.
Cheers,
