A Means to an End; an End Table That Is…

As we started to use the basement we quickly realized we had a little dilemma; where do we put our beverages when we watch movies?  After a long week at work, I’m sure you’d agree this is a pretty big dilemma!

There’s two ways we found ourselves working around this.  Option 1; put your drink in the cup holders on the poker table.  It’s not a terribly far distance from the sectional, but it’s far enough you have to get up to get your drink.  Option 2; put your drink on the carpet.  The frieze we selected is fairly fluffy so depending on the drink, we may have some stability issues with this option.  Also, I have some clumsy tendencies, particularly with spilling things, so this seemed like I was tempting circumstances.  Based on this, we decided it was time for some end tables!

I knew I wanted something round, to balance out the square/rectangular edges we already have in our other furniture.  When we were shopping for our sub woofer, I wandered off and ended up in a small section of decorative items.  It included jars, end tables, trays, signs…basically all the little touches you would want to grab right on your way to the checkout line.  In this section, they had two silver, hammered drums.  I will admit I regret not having grabbed those two on the way out that night; they were adorable and would have been perfect!  But, we were working within our budget and timeline for basement purchases. 

Fast forward about 3 months and it was time to shop for end tables.  I did go back to try to find the silver drums, but they had all been sold out.  I did however; find a slightly smaller version with a more open body.  Unfortunately they only had one, but I knew this one was coming home with me!

I also ended up finding another round end table, with a silver textured top and rusted iron legs.  I know these don’t technically “match” but I actually like that.  

My basement efforts are coming to a close and I’ll be moving on to the next room, but I do want to share one final blog about this space and the journey it’s gone through from start to finish!  Tune in next week for details. 

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