Basement Restoration & Remodel

The challenge

The lower level was doing three jobs badly at once. The laundry and mechanical area sat on bare concrete against unpainted block, the family room had become storage, and the bathroom and the rest of the level were dated and disconnected from the household's needs.

Our approach

We took the lower level back to a blank slate and rebuilt it room by room — new flooring throughout, painted block and exposed mechanicals in the utility areas, a reworked laundry and utility sink, and a full refinish of the bathroom and family room.

The results

The family room reads as a designed living space — patterned wallpaper, built-in shelving, and the original brick fireplace painted out and framed with shiplap. The laundry and mechanical room went from bare block to painted walls, plank flooring, and a clean utility sink.

The lower level had been written off as utility space — laundry and mechanicals at one end, storage filling the rest, and a brick fireplace nobody sat by. The work treated it as a floor of the house rather than a basement.

Two details carried the room. The original fireplace was kept and painted out rather than removed, so the space gained a focal point without losing the masonry that was already there. And the mechanical room was finished properly — painted block, plank flooring, a real utility sink — instead of being curtained off, which is what usually happens and what makes a basement still feel like a basement.

Before & After

Unfinished basement family room used for storage, with wire shelving, bare walls, and dated lighting — Family room

Finished basement family room with sectional sofa, patterned wallpaper, cowhide rug, and built-in shelving — Family room

Original red brick basement fireplace surrounded by stored boxes before the basement remodel — Fireplace

The same fireplace with brick painted black and a shiplap surround after the basement remodel — Fireplace

Basement laundry area on bare concrete with unpainted block walls, water softener, and wire shelving — Laundry & mechanical room

Rebuilt basement laundry room with painted walls, plank flooring, new utility sink, and open shelving — Laundry & mechanical room

Basement Restoration & Remodel

The challenge

Our approach

The results

Before & After

Related