Basement Playroom
by
Jenn Artman
$200
2 Weeks
Easy
Our basement had become a catch all, I often spend hours down there on my days off catching up on laundry, paying bills, my sewing and crafts. I know it seems crazy spending time in a dark dingy basement but its my favorite place, I have all my crafts scattered and pay/file bills while I'm down there, (hubby's ping pong table has become my own desk) it just helps keeping the clutter out of the upstairs half of the house. When the baby was little she was content to sleep in a swing or bounce in her jumper, now that she's growing I wanted a safe place for her to play while I caught up on chores. I started this project last fall, I wanted to get it mostly done before winter hit (and she started crawling) it will be a work in progress as I add to it with thrift store finds but it has good bones so far.
(Sorry the pics are flip flopped) Top: After/ Bottom : Before
Here's a few angles of the disaster zone beforehand. I had just set a few tiles in a corner for her to sit on and play with a toy or two.
You can see the washer/drier from her play area, little miss loves to watch the laundry go round n' round.
The first thing I wanted to do was to seal every crack and make sure it was 100% waterproof. Luckily this was the ONLY area that would get little bit damp over the several years we have lived here.
I used DRYLOK® Powdered Masonry Waterproofer to just cover and seal a few cracks http://www.drylok.com/products/drylok-powdered-masonry-waterproofer.php
The next thing I did was sealed the block walls with DRYLOK® Extreme Masonry Waterproofer http://www.drylok.com/products/drylok-extreme-masonry-waterproofer.php I used 2 coats of Drylok (3 coats in the back wet corner to be sure) followed by a coat of high gloss white paint for a shiny clean finish. (I wanted bright white so I went with high gloss hoping for a little reflection)
Our ceiling was already low and the duct work made it look even lower, I didn't want to mess with putting in a drop ceiling but wanted it to look clean and open so I just opted to paint the rafters (WHAT A PAIN IN THE NECK).
I used 2 coats of KILZ COMPLETE COAT™ - High-Gloss, I wanted low odor, low VOC, resistant to mold, mildew, fading, chipping, peeling, etc. http://www.kilz.com/products/paints/kilz-complete-coat-high-gloss
The one thing our basement lacked was electrical outlets, I previously had ONE outlet in the entire basement for the sump pump (besides the washer dryer hook up) So I had an electrician come and add 5 more double outlets (My hubby thinks I went overkill but I love it) no more extension cords for my sewing machine, iron, radio, cell phone charger, glue gun.
I was focused on safety, I had him install them 3ft up and plan on placing storage shelving along the outside walls just below the outlets and adding things like small reading lamps, TV, mini fridge, as she grows I'm sure she will need them.
Almost all of her toys I have found at rummage sales or online garage sales, local moms groups and so on. She has plenty of toys upstairs but I wanted a different variety for her downstairs. I struck gold with the soft tiles for $1 each!!
The rug and outdoor toys came from a day care that was closing, the slide and play house were never outside so they were clean and in great shape.
Most recent addition was some of the shelving. for more of her toys. I love the look of the cubes with bins but realistically things fit much better with book shelves. I've discovered baby toys are awkward sizes and don't fit in the little squares.
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2 of 3 comments
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Your hard work seriously payed off! Thanks for sharing!
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A lot of work but the result is outstanding. Great share.
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