Basement Movie Room Makeover

by Gretchen

I've always wanted a finished basement, but, even though our current house has a big basement with high ceilings and lots of space, a "real" finished basement has never been in the budget. We finally decided to stop waiting and go ahead and spend a little money and do a lot of work to turn part of our basement into a finishedish space to use for family movie and game nights.

Here's what we started with--a typical storage space with yucky floors. We cleared everything out then painted the floors. Then we painted all the walls and trim, hung doors in the two doorways (not nearly as hard as we feared!), and hung a plank wall in on a framed but not finished wall. We decided to leave the ceiling unfinished for now to save on time and money. Then we moved on to the fun stuff: furniture and decorating.

My husband and father in law built the game table using a cool plan I found online to build a table from a single sheet of plywood. I found the foosball table at the thrift shop.

My dad actually made this dinosaur for the kids year ago; it finally found a permanent home in the basement.

We built the shelf for games and made our own inexpensive projector screen. I hung up movie posters I'd been hanging onto since my days working a movie theater in college. We used a futon we'd bought for our first apartment for seating. We've since upgraded to a nice sectional sofa, but the futon worked well for us until that was in the budget. We love this space; it stays pretty comfortable year round (we have a space heater that we break out in winter), and we hang out down here watching movies or TV or playing games nearly every weekend. There are more photos on my blog, as well as links to all the DIY projects I couldn't fit in here (the plank wall, shelves, projector screen, painted floors, table, etc).

Enjoyed the project?

You can do it! Saved to your projects

Frequently asked questions

Have a question about this project?

Ask a Question

3 of 8 questions

Glynda Phelps on Mar 30, 2017
Uh, this is fabulous, but . . . what did you do with the things you had stored there??!?

2
R lybolt on Apr 07, 2017

I checked the cracks finally and some are just surface but one goes down to the dirt. It appears that when they poured the foundation it is not very thick. The concrete is stable how do I go about filling it, the floor is level is it possible that is what is called settling?

1
Liz Toone on Apr 12, 2017

Amazing transformation! How much did you wind up spending?

0

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 39 comments

Eileenmarie on Apr 11, 2017

Just a trend note here: A lot of people are deciding NOT to do a ceiling in the basement, and instead paint the whole think the color of the ducts, etc, or leave them a contract and paint exposed beams and even wall studs that are bared contrasting color (e.g.. shiny copper). The reasoning is that the ceiling in a basement makes the room feel a bit suffocating, whereas leaving it open feels more spacious, can be kind of industrial trendy, and is certainly easier when repairs need to be done. It apparently takes a lot of work, but the results I've seen online are gorgeous. Sorry I don't have a link, though.

And BTW, great cost-effective solution. Love the old posters.

Like Reply
Gag4876457 on May 27, 2017

If you wanted to cover the ceiling you could use sheets either white, solid color, or a print. When necessary to do repairs it is easier to remove than something hard & solid. Might add some more interest.

1 Reply