What To Do With My Basement: Finale!!!

Ever feel like you were in a cave? Well, you might have been in my basement then. It was a brown dirt color all over that did nothing but be a constant reminder that you were underground. Awhile ago I posted a group of basement moodboards when we were debating which color to cover up our cave like walls, and it was unanimous that we should wash away the dirt with Olympic's rain cloud. After only a week of painting I'm now able to show off our new basement!

It's SOOOO MUCH BETTER!!! Here you see my remake of my Crate and Barrel Pics, along with my recently updated lamp. I got this lamp my junior year in college and it used to look black with red lamp shades. I spray painted it using Rustoleum's chrome metallic spray paint. I was so happy with how it came out considering all of the floor lamps I had been looking at were so similar and were at a pretty penny cost and definately out of our budget.

Here is our bar down here.

And our Muhammed Ali punch out pic that we won on our honeymoon's Art Auction.

And my own creation of DIY canvas art here.

Here is our console table with our on the cheap holiday decor. The glass apocethary jars I got for $5 each at TJ Maxx ( a jewel in our city I never realized existed) and got the silver ornaments at Hobby Lobby at 50% off. The word art I made describing different places that meant a lot to Ben and I which I wrote about here. What is in that humongous shell you say? Well let me show you...

Why more shells! After painting my lamp I decided to DIY some silver shells that I saw for $10 a piece. So I dug out some old shells that I had and painted away, and now I have this.

Well that is my newly decorated basement. There's no more caves and only light and bright cloudy days from here on out.

A Master's Retreat!

We've done many things that have updated almost every room in our house EXCEPT our master bedroom. According to HGTV, that always seems to be the last place to be updated even though it's where we spend the majority of our time while at home. I've bought and returned about 10 different comforters. I just can't find the perfect one. BUT!!!! On our honeymoon we got some inspiration. While on our cruise we attended an art auction, mainly for the free champagne, but we were sucked in. The auctioneer educated us about the artists and the significance of the art that was being sold through out the afternoon. It was so interesting that we actually bought a piece! It was an autographed picture of Muhammad Ali getting punched out by some random person that ALMOST beat him. I know what your thinking, how romantic could a boxing picture be right above the bed. Well besides making me swoon, Ben just had to have it down stairs. Luckily, when we were telling them where to ship it, we informed them of the wonderous occasion that had taken place just a few days prior and they gave us a picture free!!! It was an Emile Bellet

I just love the colors of it along with the movement that he put into it. Every time I look at it, I just get taken away out to sea and fall back into our honeymoon state of mind. Now, what could be better inspiration for a master bedroom than our honeymoon. But what to do with it. It has such vivid and bright colors, I can't just throw all of those colors in there. It would look like a kindergarten went crazy in there. So I was stuck again... Until I found an amazing picture of what Candice Olson called "Caribbean Nights" !

I just loved the calmness that I felt when I saw this picture. Even though the bed is massive, the ivory bedspread felt light and airy ( the cloud background might have helped that effect a little as well). So I went looking for something that would give me the same feelings, along with something that wouldn't be the Candice Olson price.

I just loved this West Elm comforter once I saw it on my friend Kaylee's bed. I asked to steal her idea, and what else could she do since I let her steal my reception location for hers as well. The blue blanket I actually bought from Pottery Barn on clearance and had a monogram embroidered on it and the pillows. The chair is from Ikea, and the table from Walmart. I have the little flower votive holders on order from Zgallerie on clearance. I also ran out of work to go pick up two of the lamps from Pier 1 that were on clearance as well. The mirrored table is adorable, but haven't put in the order as of yet. I would definately have to get a better looking alarm clock. I wouldn't want to put my ugly white one on top of this beautiful table. I'm now on the hunt for a little rug that I could place under the chair and table along with a few extra decorative pillows. I'm thinking about pulling out my DIY hands and making a few of the pillows that are seen in the inspiration picture.

So there you have it! Hopefully our new master bedroom. I'll post pics once I start putting everything together. Stay tuned.

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.