A House We Built

Custom House Designed by Husband & Wife Team | Modern Farmhouse Inspired

Basement

BASEMENT | STAIR GALLERY WALL:

BASEMENT | FOYER:

BASEMENT | END OF HALLWAY:

BASEMENT | OPEN SHELVING NOOK:

BASEMENT | GOLD GALLERY WALL:

BASEMENT | MUDROOM NOOK:

BASEMENT | DOORS/BEAMS:

BASEMENT | GAME ROOM

BASEMENT | BATHROOM:

BASEMENT | THEATER ROOM:

BASEMENT | THEATER ROOM SNACK BAR:

BASEMENT | PAINT COLORS:

  • White paint color: BM Simply White (flat)
  • Black paint color: BM Black Panther (satin)
  • Bathroom gray paint color: BM Classic Gray (satin)
  • Barn door gray paint color: BM Revere Pewter (satin)

BASEMENT | FLOORING:

  • Our basement floor is polished concrete (everywhere except the bathroom and gym). We did the work ourselves and polished it until it was smooth but not glossy, so a mostly-matte finish. We chose to leave the imperfections and markings as we liked their organic, natural look, but you can totally polish concrete until it’s flawlessly perfect and glossy if that’s a look you prefer. Our concrete has no stain or color treatment, but we did put on (clear) hardeners and sealers. The products we used had no effect on the color or look of the flooring and are purely there to strengthen and protect the concrete. Basically, what our floor looks like was a personal, intentional choice based on how far we wanted to grind the surface down but there are many different possible polished concrete looks. A very general overview of the polishing process we did was to start with a heavier grind, then apply the hardener, then do a medium grind, then the sealer, then finish off with a final soft grind/buff. Our floor is also heated though we’ve never actually had need to turn it on because we insulated our slab really well so it doesn’t get all that cold even in winter. We’re not concrete experts though so I don’t want to give any advice on this topic further to this information. We just googled the process and researched heavily before starting. I’ll be honest though, this was THE most miserable construction project we’ve ever done (and that’s coming from someone who has done almost every construction task myself so I have some perspective). It’s slow (the grinder literally moved at a snail’s pace and when you’re doing 2000sf that can feel eternal), tedious, and SO dusty. You must have proper PPE or exposure to the concrete dust can be very dangerous. Also, the necessary PPE is much harder to source these days than it was back when we did this project so that’s a big factor too. But we saved a lot of $$ doing this work ourselves, plus we learned a new skill (that I sincerely hope I will never ever ever ever ever have to use again lol). — On the plus side, these floors are low maintenance, easy to clean, and we love the look! Because they’re sealed, most spills just wipe right off them, and day-today, we just vacuum them. So there are pros and cons to this type of flooring, but we have no regrets about our decision to do them.


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Comments

  2. We just built a house and had issues with our concrete floors in our basement. Any tips? Did you use a sealer ? The concrete people who did ours did not know what they were doing unfortunately and whatever they put on the floor to seal it did not stick. Some areas it’s coming off if. Did they apply anything or just polish it?

    • We did all the concrete treatment ourselves and applied both a hardener and a sealer to our floor. You have to do them in stages. Like polish at a certain grit, then do the hardener, then polish more, then sealer, then buff it out. I would just ask a local concrete company for a recommendation on products. It’s important to allow adequate time for it to bond. We actually put down some painters tape on part of ours too early and it lifted the seal so we’ll be resealing those sections.

  3. Hi, doing vertical Shiplap for the first time. Any tips or advices? I’m nervous about the mount for the tv, do we do that before or after putting the Shiplap? I like how the tv for the theater camouflage on the wall.

  6. I love the progress of your home. I am in the process of painting the basement and would like to add cabinets along on wall to store games and probably cooler for sodas and other beverages.
    Did you build the cabinets or did you purchase them? If purchased, what store? If build, what are the dimensions D x H ? I know the width would be different.

    • Hi, and thank you. 🙂 They’re relatively standard counter heights (~35.5-36 with counters, which is a bit shorter than the rest of our house, but also more normal), with varying depths (some full depth, some half depth).

  8. The concrete flooring 😍
    I read up top that you did not use any color. Is that correct, so it’s just plain concrete? In the picture it looks like an offwhite/beige is it the reflection of the wall color? Curious because I would love to do similar.

    • It’s actually a pretty complicated process and I haven’t yet had the time to write it all out. A good company I would refer you to for these products though is one called Ghostshield. That should help start your research.

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