Family/Guest Room

 Alright, folks. Here we go. When we moved into Barefoot Cottage, the finished basement looked like this:

Notice my super fabulous picture taking skills.... not. ;-D Anyway. It was this strange L-shaped room you had to walk through to get into the laundry area and downstairs bathroom.  This picture was actually taken from the doorway into the laundry area. If you were to walk forward and turn a right, you would see the rest of the room and the stairs heading up to the main floor of the house.

Anyway. 

We weren't quite sure what to do with this room. Neither portion of the "L" are really big enough to be a room on their own, yet the "L" is pronounced enough that there really isn't any way to integrate the two areas of the room into one functional space. We talked about Mr. Barefoot keeping his drums down here, or doing a home gym type thing. The reality is, though, that we are a family living in (by the standards of our society) a very small space. We needed every square inch we could get to be functional in as many ways as possible.

The basement room ended up being the Sprout's space. The above picture is of the landing at the bottom of the stairs.... before.  Nice, huh? We kept a little TV down there for them, and our old computer. Toys piled up everywhere, and every piece of furniture that couldn't find a home elsewhere in Barefoot Cottage somehow seemed to migrate down the stairs. We even squeezed in a treadmill. Then, when Mr. Barefoot's dad came to visit last year, we needed a guest area. So the basement acquired a full sized bed. It was a mess. Notice also, in the picture above, that Little Sprout went through an artistic phase. She colored on every single wall in the house. Sometimes with crayon, sometimes with Sharpie marker, sometimes with nail polish. The worst damage was in the basement.

Did I mention I hated the paint color? It was the same color as the entry. A funny mustard-y yellow that I'm sure was supposed to be warm and cozy, but ended up feeling dirty. Between Little Sprout's "art" on the walls and the nasty paint color, it was obvious what the first step would be when I started this particular fix-up. I went with a really light beige on the two "outside" walls, and a soft blue green on the two "inside" walls. I like it. And the crayon and nail polish is GONE!!!

So, I guess I'm ready for the tour of the new space. Again, keep in mind that these are "in progress" pictures, and that this was a down and dirty budget makeover. There are no high-budget (heck, even medium-budget!) items involved. This was all stuff I made or made do with what I already had. Also, I was so excited that my camera had decided to take pictures that I didn't want to take the time to move stuff out of the way. Yeah, I'm cool like that. Just consider it "keeping it real", k?

This is the new computer area, replacing a fairly large computer hutch. I don't have pictures of the old hutch, but it was big. there will eventually (maybe tomorrow?) be shelves above this to hold all the computer junk we have. I just haven't gotten that far. Like I said, I didn't really clean up when I did this. The screws and stuff are still sitting on the shelf. Oops! This is kind of immediately to your left as you come down the stairs. I plan to replace the chair with a refurbished dining chair my mother gave me. Soon.

Here are the beds and the storage cube/headboard. I got the plans from ana-white.com. Yeah, it kinda looks like dorm furniture. I also cheated and didn't paint all the way under the beds. I figured it was going to be covered with storage boxes, so why go through the hassle of crawling in there to paint? Now I kinda regret it. Ah, well. I'm also considering putting a bedskirt on the sides of the beds. I don't like the way the storage bags/bins are looking hanging out like that. Still, it's good enough for now. 

In the top photo, you can just see the corner of the TV in the bottom right corner of the frame. I set the beds up so that they could also function as a place to sit/lie and watch TV or play video games for the Sprouts. Well, and me when I'm tired. This would also be a fun place for the Sprouts to have sleepovers. The headboard/cube opens up, and there is tons of space for out of season/rarely used items storage. I'm thinking about covering it with some kind of pretty... something. Vinyl tile? Mr. Barefoot and Uncle Wolfie are voting for carpet (really?), but I'm thinking maybe just a nice tablecloth for now. 

Another view from the bottom of the steps. Cubbies are built in to the foot of each bed, which I love. These beds take up a lot of real estate in my basement, so I need every inch to do double duty. This is also my proof that I do vacuum. lol! I just don't always put the vacuum away right away when I'm done using it. And don't mind the tools on the bed. They won't be there when our guests arrive.

I hope. ;-D