The Big Basement Reveal: Stage 1

O.K., so it took us awhile but the basement is finally painted! We took our time because we had several ideas and just wanted to get it right. At this point all we have done is the paint the walls. That is why I'm referring to it as stage 1. Stage 2 will be coming later when we get new furniture and decorate the room. So please don't judge the crappy old furniture because it will be going away as soon as we can get new.

Let me remind you of what the basement looked like before:

 one end of the basement

 the other end of the basement (with my BFF Alicia)

 side wall

built in cabinet at the one end

So pretty blah- huh?! It felt so cold and sterile in that room before. We knew we needed to wake it up with some color. This is a little embarrassing to show you because we ended up buying 10 different samples but here are the colors we considered:

Let this be a lesson that it's o.k. to try out colors until you get them right no matter how many it takes! It is much better than buying a whole gallon and taking the time to paint a whole wall then decide you don't like it!

Now for the moment you have all been waiting for; the big basement reveal! Follow me down the basement stairs... and remember we are planning on getting a new sectional couch, entertainment center, t.v., and various other decor as soon as we can:

view at bottom of the stairs

first peak into the room

 starting on one wall then I'll go around

 the doorway we just came through

gray wall with bookshelves and door to the bathroom

 view of one end of the basement

my executive desk on the orange wall (and Jill the mannequin dressed to coordinate!)

 This is where it gets really fun! The orange wall leads into another gray wall with the closet.

 then into another orange section with a bookshelf and then into yellow/orange on a bump out wall

 The new sectional will most likely go in this gray corner

 we also used the yellow/orange color on this other bump out that has a hidden cabinet in it

and back around to the room entrance

So, what so you think? I know, I know, after all those sample colors we didn't end up using any of them! Hey, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. I don't know what my husbands excuse is! We just woke up on Sunday morning about a week and a half ago and Jason said to me we should paint the basement today. I said I wasn't totally sold on any of the colors quite yet. Then he said what if you went with orange? That's when I reached into my notebook of house ideas and pulled out 3 paint samples I had picked for the basement about 2-3 months prior and then put aside to explore other color options. One was gray, one was orange, and the other was a yellow/orange. Jason loved them and said o.k. lets do this! Now this might not seem that crazy to you but we aren't those people. We don't just do things without first thinking about them thoroughly. But on this particular Sunday we decided to just go with our gut and I'm so glad we did! I am so happy with the way it turned out! I feel like the room has come to life!

In case you're curious the colors we used are Juicy Cantalope from Behr (yellow/orange), Sunbaked Orange also from Behr (orange) and,  Porpoise from Glidden (gray) all from Home Depot. We decided to use three colors because we wanted to accentuate the places where the walls bump out. This was no easy feat but totally worth it! I had to free hand all of the places where one color meets up to another color because we couldn't tape over the fresh paint. It was hard at first but I got the hang of it after awhile. 

I'm so glad we finally got this project done and just in time to host our Bible study's Thanksgiving dinner! Let me know what you think!

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