What to do with my Basement?

I really love the space that we have in our basement, but it reminds you constantly that you're underground. The dark tan walls combined with very little light, well you might as well be in a tunnel. Our basement is split up into two parts our family room, and Ben's magnificent pool room complete with its very own pool table and wet bar.

Both of the spaces are separated but still open to each other, so I'd like to have them be some what unified. I think I'm going to have to do that with the paint color. Ben has been given free range of the Pool room and he decided that a K-State decor which would be cool. But that means that I had to find a wall color that would work for the blue and brown family room along with our purple and white pool room.

I found some inspiration from the amazing Candace Olson, who always does such sleek and stylish designs. I wanted to attempt to imitate her style minus the likely price tag that would have come with her. Candice changed a bachelor pad into a chic design that would fit the newlyweds she was working for.

With this room in mind I went to work creating a mood board for the family room that would hopefully bring in some of this chic-ness. I was able to figure out quite a bit of accessories that I liked, and now I'm down to picking the wall color. It's the hardest part for me.

OPTION 1:

You might recognize the pictures from a previous Crate and Barrel DIY project, but if you missed it it's here. This mood board has a very blue-grey wall color. I'm a little leary thinking that with this color on the walls, the basement might not get any brighter. With that in mind here is try 2.

OPTION 2:

This is a little lighter grey. That still has a hint of blue in it. I like this color, but I'm a little scared that it might coming out looking like a concrete room. Which I guess it is, being a basement, but we don't need to emphasise that. With that in mind I found some inspiration from Katie Bower's basement color that I found here.

OPTION 3:

I really like this color. It's got some yellow undertone, which keeps it on the warmer side. Yet it still in the grey family. Definately check out Katie's site to see a finished product of this color.

With these designs I certainly have my work cut out for me. I really like that chandelier that I found at Lowes along with the new color of the poker table. I'll have to use a gel stain and find a fabric to recover the chairs with before I can get it to look like this. If you remember when I first showed you our new poker table that we scored off of craigslist it needed some TLC. I definitely have some new projects coming out of this.

BUT... I first have to pick a paint color. If you have a favorite, let me know. I need some other opinions on this.