The Plan

One night I was laying in bed with my wife reading a brewing recipe book.  She was watching Candice Olson's design show.  On the show Candace was renovating a basement, so I instantly refocused my attention.

I was particularly impressed by the way she would draw up sketches of the space, then fill them in with different colors to test out patterns or swatches.  Yes, swatches.

I looked around my side of the dresser and found some graph paper.  I ran downstairs and found some colored pencils.  I started sketching.

First, I started with the game room.  Nearly every bar or restaurant makes use of wainscotting, so I immediately sketched in three styles.  I added a drink rail and barstools for people watching exciting ping pong matches.  Originally I played with some variations of blue, which would look sharp against a black or darkly stained wood.

I sketched a few ideas on bars, but there were a lot of questions about the size & space needed.  More on that later.

Next, I worked on the entertainment center for the media room.  The inspiration came from some sleek consoles I'd seen at IKEA.  A professionally made console could easily run two to three thousand dollars, so I gave myself the challenge of trying to build one myself.  The bottom compartments would house all the wires, DVD's, Rock Band equipment, and other things that tended to get scattered on the floor.  I wanted to build in shelves that could hold vases, wine bottles, pictures, etc.  This entertainment center would span the entire north wall.

Having kids means that you're short on both time and money.  So as I'm envisioning this basement coming together, I'm jave no delusions that it will happen quickly.  I'm under the assumption that this whole project could take anywhere from 1-2 years, based upon where it falls in the whole scheme of things that need to get down to our house.  I needed to break it down into sections.  So here it is, my grand plan:

1. Game Room.  Paint the walls, install wainscotting, drink rail, new trim, and doorways.
2. Build the bar in the game room.
3. Theatre room: build the entertainment center, mount the tv, paint the walls.
4. Final touches: new carpet, new furniture, new lighting.

I got excited for my plan and drew up a little MS Paint diagram.  Here's how the whole thing looks from above.