The basement is designed for the men of the house, utilizing a cooler colour palette and offer a masculine experience. It is completed with a bar, recreation room, and a large seating area.

Basement floor remodel using waterproof concrete wood flooring

The hearth room in this finished basement included a facelift to the fireplace and adjacent built-ins. Bead board was added to the back of the open shelves and the existing cabinets were painted grey to coordinate with the bar. Four swivel arm chairs offer a cozy conversation spot for reading a book or chatting with friends.

A dark and dingy basement is now the most popular area of this family’s home. The new basement enhances and expands their living area, giving them a relaxing space for watching movies together and a separate, swanky bar area for watching sports games. The design creatively uses reclaimed barnwood throughout the space, including ceiling beams, the staircase, the face of the bar, the TV wall in the seating area, open shelving and a sliding barn door. The client wanted a masculine bar area for hosting friends/family. It’s the perfect space for watching games and serving drinks. The bar area features hickory cabinets with a granite stain, quartz countertops and an undermount sink. There is plenty of cabinet storage, floating shelves for displaying bottles/glassware, a wine shelf and beverage cooler. The most notable feature of the bar is the color changing LED strip lighting under the shelves. The lights illuminate the bottles on the shelves and the cream city brick wall. The lighting makes the space feel upscale and creates a great atmosphere when the homeowners are entertaining. We sourced all the barnwood from the same torn down barn to make sure all the wood matched. We custom milled the wood for the stairs, newel posts, railings, ceiling beams, bar face, wood accent wall behind the TV, floating bar shelves and sliding barn door. Our team designed, constructed and installed the sliding barn door that separated the finished space from the laundry/storage area. The staircase leading to the basement now matches the style of the other staircase in the house, with white risers and wood treads. Lighting is an important component of this space, as this basement is dark with no windows or natural light. Recessed lights throughout the room are on dimmers and can be adjusted accordingly. The living room is lit with an overhead light fixture and there are pendant lights over the bar.

These are photos of a basement we finished in an existing home. We had storage custom built to hide and easily access water/electric lines.

Glass front cabinetry and custom wine racks create plenty of storage for barware and libations. Photo credit: Perko Photography

Bob Greenspan Photography

This green custom home is a sophisticated blend of rustic and refinement. Everything about it was purposefully planned for a couple committed to living close to the earth and following a lifestyle of comfort in simplicity. Affectionately named "The Idea Farm," for its innovation in green and sustainable building practices, this home was the second new home in Minnesota to receive a Gold Rating by MN GreenStar. Todd Buchanan Photography

Adding timbers with chestnut accent wall to your game room gives it that gorgeous look and cozy feel.

Rob Schwerdt