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Finished Industrial Basement

Home Improvement· Home Tour· Our previous home

Industrial Basement with Phonograph and vintage window as a room divider

One of our basement sitting areas featured in The Family Handyman (twice!). “80 Old Items Fantastically Fit for Repurposing” and also, “12 Incredible DIY Room Dividers“

Industrial Basement Remodel

with before & after photos

Here is a photo progression showing the progress we made in our industrial basement remodel. We are still trying to furnish this, but it looks so much better than before!

When I built this house, I paid extra to replace the partial crawlspace with a full, open basement. I also added a 4 foot extension to our floorplan (which made this area even wider). And I paid extra to have 9 foot ceilings. When we finished the basement we left the duct work exposed and spray painted the ceiling (which saved us about $2500 in drywall costs).  As the kids got older, it was time to give them their teen hangout. So we needed a finished basement! 

industrial basement tv wall

Basement BEFORE: My kids’ former dodgeball arena :)

Even though we hired out a contractor for the build, our DIY contribution on this project wasn’t small. We created the floorplan, and all the finish work (like the trim we did upstairs). We chose to hire a contractor to install drywall, trim, electrical, plumbing and hung doors.  I am not altruistic when it comes to DIY; I do it myself when it makes sense. At some point, DIY has allowed us to “pay it forward” to hire contractors as needed. So now the fun begins and we start the finish work and giving the basement some “personality”.

Part I:   The Floorplan.  Here are the gains we made with this remodel

industrial basement floorplan

Basement floor plan. We gained 818 square feet of living space + 349 feet of storage (which is now my craft room)

What we gained:

1)  818 additional square feet of living space. (Now this space is a fully functioning in-law suite).

2)  349 square feet of unfinished storage. (Which is now an extremely messy furniture painting studio for ME!)

3)  The complete addition of a full bathroom with a standup shower. Pictures of this to come! (we had our contractor alter our sewer lines and drilled through concrete).  A teenage paradise.

4)  The addition of a full guest room (with glass French doors).  This is now being converted to a studio / office / craft room.

5)  Exposed ductwork / painted ceiling. (Saving us $2,500 in drywall costs).

6)  Polished concrete floors with stencil application (soon).

At the time I built my house I paid $4000 to eliminate a crawlspace and opted for a full basement. I’m so glad I did. A crawlspace would have prevented me from claiming 350 square feet in our house. From 2005 until now, it was for roller skating, dodgeball and bike riding. It definitely served its purpose, so I am happy that I bit the bullet years ago.

New Home Building Tip:  (always, always, always upgrade square footage when building your home!)  I prioritized my new home building costs towards square footage upgrades, and saved my budget on finish work, (which I could always DIY later).

Basement remodel floor plan during construction

Above: our overloaded storage (from combining two houses)

industrial basement tv wall after

After: TV Wall / Living area

After construction.

At bottom of stairs, looking in

From the bottom of the stairs…looking towards the future bar and the bathroom.

industrial basement bar during

After: Bar & bathroom (bar is still unfinished)

Basement bar (our idea), but as of now it remains just a drawing. Our utility door isn’t the prettiest so we struggle with what to do with that space.

We LOVE the results, but as we recover financially from the construction investment (to the tune of $16,000 to be exact) we still feel we did the right thing and gave our kids a space they are already enjoying.  Our daughter now has a private bedroom and bath (huge win).

Another huge savings – no carpeting.   We also intend to stain and polish the concrete floors and put down huge, fluffy rugs.  If we sell the house, we don’t have to deal with picky buyers who want the carpet ripped out.  I realize this is not everyone’s taste, but for us, it was an economic way to solve a problem plus we created an overflow space for our growing family.    An open design house (upstairs) doesn’t offer us much privacy…and now we have our “man cave”.

Comments

    • Hi Terri, our paint cans are missing from this room but I’ll edit my reply here once I find them and give you the exact formulas, and thank you!

      Reply

  2. We’re planning on doing the same thing with our basement with respect to the ceilings and industrial look. What did you use for the crown molding?

    Reply

  3. Did you leave the lally columns exposed as well and just paint them like the ceiling? We have done something similar but can’t figure out what to do with the ugly steel poles! :(

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    • We left the metal columns exposed, we haven’t spent much time in the basement and my goal is to enclose them in a wood casing someday.

      Reply

  4. Hi, I am currently in the process of doing a very similar basement project – can you tell me what paint color you used on your ceiling? Thank you. Yours looks great!

    Reply

  5. Thanks for sharing your progress on your basement. We are in the works of finishing our basement and love the exposed ceiling. For your bathroom and/or bedroom, did you also do an exposed ceiling? Or did you enclose/drywall the ceiling?

    And great idea for the flooring. Curious on the tempeture, do you find it colder in the basement since you didn’t add carpeting? My goal is to have my teen boys in a room in the basement and I wonder if I could get away w/ just finishing the floors (and adding a rugs) vs adding carpet. It can get pretty cold in WI.

    Thx.

    Reply

    • Thank you we left the ceiling exposed and had it painted for $300. Very messy but worth it! The flooring temperature is about the same in the summer as it is in winter. In fact, we think our basement is too cold in the summertime but more comfortable in the winter because that’s the level that our heating and cooling is on. Carpet does wonders, too which is all we’ve put down on our floors expect for the bonus room which has laminate flooring. Hope this helps!

      Reply

    • Hi Tiffany, thank you! I tried to send the paint formula but the email bounced. I will update the post to include the ceiling paint color, lots of people have been asking for it.

      Reply

  9. We love your color scheme!!!! What color was the ceiling and the walls? We have the same basement set up and have been searching for the perfect one an yours is it!!! We are mudding the walls today and tomorrow and should be sanding soon. Thank you in advance! My husband thinks it’s black but the image suggests a rich chocolate brown ceiling and single wall. Can’t tell by the pictures.

    Reply

    • Melissa, I’ll have to dig up the codes since, so be prepared for long complicated codes instead of color names. :) Will update you soon with that information.

      Reply

  10. Your basement looks fabulous! Could you share your paint colors used in your basement? I wasn’t able to find them in your post.
    Thank you!

    Reply

  11. Hello, your basement is gorgeous. I also am very much hoping to learn the ceiling and wall paint color. It’s perfect !

    Thank you so much, your post inspires me.

    Reply

  14. Oh wow this is fabulous! I am right in the middle of fixing up our basement for a teen hangout space for the One Room Challenge! Our basement is much smaller than yours but we are going for a similar look. I have been tossing around the idea of painting the ceiling and an accent wall black, and now after seeing yours I am sold on the idea.

    I discovered your post via the Style Showcase link party. You are always welcome to share at Thursday Favorite Things too. The party is open every Thursday at 9:00 EST-Sunday at midnight. https://followtheyellowbrickhome.com

    I hope your family enjoys the awesome new space!

    Reply

  16. I LOVE THIS JEANETTE! I AM A REALTOR AND THE ORIGINAL OWNERS OF ONE OF MY LISTINGS, OPTED NOT TO FINISH A SUBSTANTIAL UNFINISHED SPACE (ITS’ A DIRT FLOOR BEHIND WHAT LOOKS LIKE AN OVERSIZED CABINET. tHE NUMBER ONE FEEDBACK IS THE BASEMENT IS TOO NARROW. I AGREE INCREASING FINISHED SPACE, DOCUMENTED WITH PERMITS CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE WHEN SELLING.

    I LOVE THE FLOORS. WE HAVE TWO DOGS AND THERE IS A LOT OF PUPPY TRAINING DNA IN OUR CARPET IN OUR BASEMENT. DID YOU FINIISH THE FLOORS? YOURSELVES? DID YOU ADD CARPET ANYWHERE? I SAW THE RUG? LAURA IN CO

    Reply

    • This was one portion of the project we hired out. The painter had a large bucket of paint, laid down lots of tarps and sprayed it with a large spray gun.

      Reply

  19. What kind of lights did you use? Looking to do the same in our basemnent and having trouble picking a light fixture(s).

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    • It was can lights with painted interiors. Nothing too expensive or fancy.

      Reply

  21. We are in the process of doing the exact same thing to our basement. Trying to decide on a color for the ceiling. In our laundry room i went with straight white and i like it for that room but we are looking to do black/dark gray for the living areas.
    What color is your dark painted ceiling?
    Thank you

    Reply

  22. Hi.. wondering how far you spaced your can lights apart ? And also like many people above wondering what color your ceiling is! Thanks!

    Reply

    • The canned lights were already there when we built the house but we don’t live in this house anymore so I can’t take measurements for you. I will include the paint color with a post update. Check back soon!

      Reply

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