Basement Remodel on a Budget

Remodeling a room doesn’t need to take long and be expensive. Just follow the easy steps and the Basement Renovation on a Budget is easily done.

No matter if it is a room in your home or in your basement, the steps are the same. You might want to decide on different materials though.

It didn’t take long to get the basement room done, because we decided to do it the easy way.

So we did this remodel fast and painless and it came out so pretty.

This is how we started with our Basement Remodel on a Budget

First of all we had to declutter and move all the storage boxes out of this room. I still use this room for storage now, that is why we kept the shelf in this room. Of course I updated it.

So this is how this room looked before.

No floor, an ugly yellow/brown wall paint, which sucked all the light in.

This room was very unorganized because it was just used as a ‘don’t know where to put it, dump it right here’ room.

There used to be carpet but the previous owners took it out and made a workroom out of it.

We didn’t had a better idea for this room either, until a couple of months ago. We decided to use it as a playroom for our teenage son and his friends.

And this is how we started:

First you have to decide on a color scheme for your Basement Room

Because the room is going to be a playroom, a lot of different colors and furniture items will be collected in there.

So I decided that the walls will be painted in a fresh white and the floors are going to be laminate wood.

We bought the laminate floors first (we bought really cheap ones 0.99 cents per sq. ft.) and then decided on a wall color.

Get your paint and start painting the walls

Because the room is pretty dark, I decided on a light and bright white. The paint color also looks good with the medium brown laminate floor.

The laminate was altogether around 300 $ and the paint $ 30.

After we got rid of all the junk in the room I started painting and decided that I want a little color in this room.

I added a light blue (which I had leftover from a previous remodel)  to add some wall color.

If you need some tips about how to paint check this out:  How to paint a wall easy and fast

 

 

 

Installing the floor

After I painted the walls, we started laying the laminate floor. Which wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but we were able to installing the floor on a weekend.

This is how it looks now:

If you want to follow the steps how to install laminate floor on concrete, here is our tutorial how we did it. We never installed laminate before, so you will get all the steps how to start.

How to install laminate floor on concrete

 

What to do with the closet doors in the basement?

So what should I do with the closet doors, I thought. The wood color of the doors just didn’t work with the floor color.  The easiest way to paint them is with Milk Paint, which I also used to paint my kitchen cabinets about 2 years ago and also my camper kitchen.

But I decided that I would use the same paint I used for the accent wall and then just apply a Top Coat over it. And it worked. Looks pretty good and the paint holds on great.

This closet is not used very often, this is why I used regular paint. Otherwise I would be scared to get scratches and chips in the paint. For heavy use, like for a kitchen remodel I use Milk Paint, which I can highly recommend on wood cabinets. You can see my kitchen remodel and get the tutorial with all the steps and links in my Resource Library.

And because these doors are still pretty boring I added a darker trim and a stencil:

 

The decorating job started after the floor was in and all the painting was done. This is what I love to do.

I updated the ugly storage shelf, which is on the left side of the room, with paint and wrapping paper (but I might exchange the paper with contact paper soon). I added a paper blind in order to hide all these ugly boxes behind.

But instead of ugly boxes, you can of course get some pretty boxes, or cover boxes with colorful paper.

Finally finished and decorated the basement room 

Now we actually have a great spot for the tennis table and the dart game. To protect the wall, I used foam poster boards behind the dart game. I hung the poster boards up with poster stickers, easy to do.

I am considering right now if I should add some faux shiplap to make it look prettier, but I am not sure. Still thinking about this one. So for the time being, the poster boards are fine to protect the wall.

 

The table tennis is a little big for the room, but when we play we just move it diagonal and we have more space to move around the table.

Behind the flag is the fuse box which can be easily accessed.

What else did I do to remodel the basement on a budget

I painted the room door, because the wood color didn’t look good with the new floor color, painted a bar stool and hung up a flag.

This is all this room needs, nothing more, otherwise it would look too crowded. These paint colors I used were all leftovers from previous painting jobs, so it didn’t cost me anything at all.

In order to make this room not too cluttered, I decided to use mainly white on the walls and have one accent wall with a light blue.

The same blue I used for the closet doors and the storage shelf.

With the table tennis, the dart game, the shelf with all the boxes, bar stools it gets easily cluttered.

This is why it is a good strategy, to reduce the amount of different colors.

Download my Checklist The Top 4 things you should do remodeling a room in my Resource Library 

 

 

 

What are your plans for your basement?  What do you want to use your basement for?

So if you are planning on updating your basement, first think about what you want to use it for and then decide on the color scheme.

Are you going to use it as Workout Room? Check out the colors of the machines you are going to use. Stay in the same color scheme.

Will it be a kids playroom? Use the happy colors from the main toys, or make a theme room out of it.

A cute decal on the wall, maybe a little tent for the kids to hide and a lot of boxes for the toys and you have just created a happy place. Big cushions or mattresses to jump on are always welcome.

This room is for a High School kid to hang out with his friends, so I can’t make it too colorful. Wouldn’t be cool for him. It is used as a man cave – girls have no access (on Saturdays).

 

This room has access to the deck and backyard, which is a cool hang out place at night for watching a movie or having a fire.

 

How much did we spend on the Basement Remodel on a Budget?

All in all we spent 300 Dollars for the floor, 30 $ for the paint, 2 $ for new electrical outlet covers,  3 $ wrapping paper for the shelf. That is altogether 335 $ and money well worth spent.

With this easy remodel the house has more value and we added a fun space for the kids. This Basement Remodel on a Budget was well worth it and we are so glad we did this easy job.

 

 

Have you decided on updating your basement too?

Here are some links for your convenience if you want to shop this look:

Please read my Disclosure Policy

 

 

The best place to buy Laminate floors is at Lowes or Home Depot.

If you want to add vinyl planks you can get them at Amazon, here is the link. Different options are available.

 

 

 

Hope you followed all my steps how to remodel a basement on a budget and your are so happy you actually did it.

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