Historic home finished basement project

Historic home finished basement project

• 9.24.2026

A few years ago, right before my marriage ended, we decided to spend the money and fully renovating our basement. Seismic stapling from the foundation to the wood, new drywall on the walls and ceiling, adding a full bathroom and quasi-bedroom, everything. I shared the details of that big renovation, including the final cost in this post.

But it’s taken me all the way until now to get the basement decorated in a beautiful way and functioning well. We now have two guestroom spaces, a TV room/workout area that we use multiple times a week, the land of Barbie houses, Christmas and future baby storage, tools and overflow paper towels, etc., plus, of course the laundry room and full bathroom. And just this week, we added an extra fun function to the TV room: a beverage fridge and wine storage!

Fully Renovated Basement and Finishing Touches

The basement is about 1,100 SF and I played around with a lot of layouts before settling on this one years ago. I covered up the furnace with walls and a door, I made the basement feel like a hangout space rather than just utilities. And it turns out that space, plus the existing columns we wrapped in drywall, have carved out a very nice little nook for Lucy's Barbie world.

I'll mix in the before photos with each angle as best I can… It was so scary down here. Huge but kind of confusing which side of the house you were facing, plenty of storage, but no structure.

In the living room area, We put a small but very comfortable Pottery Barn slipcovered sofa and this beautiful color velvet ottoman. We have these built-ins installed using Home Depot stock cabinets and it was such an improvement for the TV and toy storage! So elegant, but there’s really just Lincoln logs and Legos in here.

The exciting new thing we have is a beverage fridge! It’s from Yeego and I chose this model that has one side for sodas and one side for wine. (You can use code NASTA for 20% off.) They also make them with wine on both sides if you want to separate your reds and white and cool them at different temps, or soda. I also chose one that's cabinet size thinking of my goal of a future bar area or outdoor kitchen where we could install this more permanently in some cabinets. For now, it’s great extra storage for the wine, plus keep drinks handy!

I also have brought in several awards and certificates of my dad's that I took from his basement after he passed very suddenly in January. I remember them hanging in his downstairs office, now they are in my downstairs space. Plus I think the Air Force certificate is kind of beautiful. And the Intel awards are honestly kind of comical and how much detail they give about the software program their team designed and won an award for.

We keep weights on the way back and I seriously do workouts down here all the time, especially now that I’m too tired and pregnant to wake up early on Saturdays and then go to the gym 10 minutes away.

From this living space you can connect to our new bonus guest area. This medium-large space was totally unused for a while, but I realized it was just the right size for a king size bed and nightstands, and we had guests coming for a wedding this summer so threw this space together and I’m actually very proud of it. Possibly the most Nancy Meyers-esque space in my home, other than the blue walls instead of white.

(Paint color note: The wall paint color is SW 6227 Meditative by Sherwin-Williams and the trim is a couple shades darker, SW 6228 Refuge. The ceiling is SW 7008 Alabaster (like the white walls, ceilings, and trim in the rest of the house).)

Adjacent to that space is another brand new guest space… This room has been a very dark moody rusty brown (see it here), which was a cool, very British inspired color, but depressing. I painted this cheerful yellow that I mixed myself from leftover paint and added a twin size bed plus all my sewing stuff. 

Now I have a dedicated sewing room! And yet one more guest space. This room has several nostalgic elements for me… My dad got me that vintage Marilyn Monroe poster when I was in high school and my friend and I loved her. There are some framed art prints that I bought in Paris when I went when I was 15 that I didn’t frame until this year. And sewing is a nostalgic activity because I used to do so much of it, and don’t much anymore, but I still have all the same tools and colorful thread storage, etc.

The bathroom is the same as when we finished it years ago. Definitely old-fashioned/British inspired, but fun. And that floor tile is still timeless, I’m glad I chose that.

The laundry room is also the same as what I finished it a while ago. Sure is useful! And I love the sink skirt on the utility sink, haha.

One area we didn’t change very much is the former canning room. It had these shallow shelves in it and this room didn’t get new drywall walls and as you could see still has some funky insulation exposed. But it’s very functional for tools now that we cleaned up the garage and moved them down here.

I guess the only space I didn’t show you pictures of is the Christmas and future baby storage room. You can kind of see it through that doorway from the living room; don’t look too closely because it’s a bit of a mess right now with all the baby stuff we’re storing! I cleared out a closet from upstairs and put all of the kids' clothes, in plastic tubs organized by size, down here while we waited to figure out what gender we were having, and now it’s also accumulated some things I’ve acquired like bassinets. So it’s cluttered and full, but it’s temporary.

My thought as I finished this basement is, what a joy to have not only a beautiful and comfortable home, but a beautiful and comfortable basement, too. It’s taken a long time, and there was definitely a lot of money in the initial investment (I actually thought it was more than that! Memory failed me in a flattering way), but I feel so grateful and settled having this space done now. 

Sources:

• Laundry rack airer: Amazon
• Media room rug: Loloi
• Couch: Pottery Barn
• Fridge: Yeego (Code NASTA gets you 20% off)
• Ottoman: Interior Define (Code SUZANNAH20 gets you 20% off)
• Weight rack: Amazon
• Pink bead curtain: Amazon
• String lights: Amazon
• Duvet cover: Greenrow
• Quilt: Quince (get 10% off your first order with my code INFG-26SUZANNAHSTANLEY10)
• Nightstands: Hulala Home on Amazon
• Everything in the bathroom: see original post
• Paint color: walls Sherwin-Williams Meditative, trim Sherwin-Williams Refuge