MenDen Basement Finish. All Re-purposed Materials.

JayN
by JayN
My wife and I wanted to give our three boys a great place to hang out. So we did some work on the basement over the past few months. It was unfinished, but framed out previously. We only purchased a few boards, some stain, nails, can lights, and a few tools... to complete this project. Everything else was picked up for free. There are still a few things to button up. I will make posts on those later.
The Finished Product...
This is the building that most of the materials came from.
A load of floorboards coming home. (Will become be our walls.)
I will take a Double!
Got to feed them after pulling a load like that from an old building!
Our Neighbors LOVE us!
These signs were used as wall board in the building. The sign side was in, and they had painted the back. We pulled down a few of the cooler ones and took them home. We discovered we had enough for a whole wall. So we laid them out in the yard to get a basic idea.
Made for a cool wall!
One of the loads we brought home was of "Hide Stretchers" They were made of 1x4" stringers with smaller boards forming the frame. Think primitive ladder. We also scored some nice 1x12" lumber that had tons of Character. I nailed the 1x4 lumber to the bottom of the joists then dropped boards that I cut just shorter than the distance between the joists on the lip that was formed. Easy cutting, maintain ceiling height, can remove and replace for main floor mechanical maintenance.
Finished Ceiling
The rugged look allowed us to leave the copper pipes exposed. Barely even notice them.
Floor/Wall Sample
All of the building had 11/2"x 5" heart pine tongue and groove flooring. I brought a bunch of it home, not sure what we would do with it. It ended up being on the walls! We power washed it then I ran it through my planer. It was beautiful.
Not dill, but it is pickled!
In the basement, the yellow pine was almost orange. We wanted something lighter. My wife grabbed some pickling stain and went to work. We love the results.
I trimmed out the windows and doors with more of the 1x4" lumber. Added some can Lights, a couple of sofa's, a carpet Remnant... MENDEN is ready.
Even the screen was a Craigslist find. (Not Free, but close!)
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  1 question
  • Wendy turley Wendy turley on Jun 23, 2018

    I like how you finished the ceiling!! I’ve been playing around with the ideas to paint my rafters dark gray so they disappear .. i think this could be better. Did you use all the same type of wood?

Comments
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  • Lorianne Lorianne on Feb 02, 2021

    love your creativity of a budget along with a fabulous design. Well done!!

  • LindsayMelrose LindsayMelrose on Apr 26, 2022

    Omgosh so glad I found this!!! I have a wooden pine tv wall my husband made out of pine ting and groove flooring It’s unfinished and needs to be stained bc I can’t imagine painting it.


    did your wife use a pre-stain at all?

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