Fast Forward: We Have Furniture!

We’ve been busy bees shopping for furniture for the basement!  It took a little time to find what we were looking for and to have it delivered (granted, we did have some particular criteria), but it was worth the effort and the wait! 

Our furniture requirements were:

• Functional-We wanted more seating in this space.  Most of the “community rooms” in our home are fairly small in scale, so it can get pretty tight when we have family and friends over.  More seating was a must so we decided a sectional was in order!  Additionally, we wanted leather to make it more durable. 
• Proportionate-This was a big one for me; I really wanted furniture that fit into the room properly and created an inviting feeling, rather than a sense of claustrophobia.  This proved to be quite the challenge!  Have you found that a lot of the furniture out there is just HUGE?  I know we were looking for a sectional, but I still found the furniture dimensions baffling.  Based on this, we spent a lot of time measuring, not only for the sectional, but also for the entertainment center, bar, and ottoman.
• Storage-We didn’t quite find everything we wanted in this space, but we did pretty good overall.  At one point we looked into building a custom entertainment center, but the cost to have it done was quite hefty and it would have been a bit trickier to DIY due to the sloping floor.  We opted for a nice entertainment center that hides the bulk of the electronic units/cords.

We also re-purposed a few items.  The armless chairs were previously in our “Man Heaven”, the table the poker top is resting on top of was one of my first furniture purchases, and the mini fridge and other bar essentials were my husband’s.  We’re still shifting a few things around, but we’re really happy with how everything came together.  We’ve tested out the space for movie watching and we love, love, LOVE it!

Now, it’s just the finishing touches, my favorite!  Next week…pillow talk. 

Seating for 5, yes please!

Another view

Bar

Behind the bar

Re-purposed items

Wanted: Pocket Wall Sconces

I’ve been a bit tardy in blogging a new post; whoops!  I’ve added this to my list of things to get better at, along with my overall blogging skills.  If you have tips/tricks or resources you would recommend to learn more about blogs, feel free to send those my way!  I have a lot to learn.

Now, onto the basement updates.  Do you ever find that the part of the project that should be easy tends to be most difficult?  If yes, then you will be able to relate to my lighting dilemma!

One part of our basement project was to dry wall the stairwell leading to the basement.  This was previously finished and had a quirky lighting situation, where in the wood paneling on the stairwell, there was a transparent plastic square that had a light behind it.  While I definitely understood the practical aspect of this, it really was an eyesore (not the best picture, but it gives the idea).  

Old stairwell lighting

We absolutely wanted to avoid replicating anything like that, so we had the electrician put a wall light in at the top of the stairs.   Something to know about our house is we live in a cape cod, so the stairwell to our basement is also directly below the stairwell going up; this eliminated any ceiling lighting options for the basement stairs. 

 

But as I mentioned, we had a good solution and I began the process of finding an attractive pocket wall sconce that would fit in the space we had; we could fit something 8-9 inches in height with a depth no more than 4 inches.  Sounds easy enough, right?  

My first stop on my lighting search was of course our local Lowes, and then Home Depot.  Most of the options I found were fairly large in size, or had a very modern feel to them, which doesn’t quite go with the décor of our home.  Also, something else that I noticed is that amber toned glass/light fixtures seem to be making a comeback. I tried to keep an open mind, but when I looked at them I kept getting an urge to clean.  Quirky I know, but they just feel so dingy to me!

I searched stores in town, as well as online, and found one contender (literally).  I dig the vintage light bulb and thought it added a nice touch to the stairwell!  The fixture is a little small, so we framed it to hide the electrical wall components (the round thing-ie that hold the fuses); just needed some spray paint and quarter round for this!

Whew, I know that was a lot of information, but this little sconce sure was hard to find.  Coming next, furniture!  

Our little sconce

Close up view