I LOVE renovating and repurposing! So when I decided to make my art studio in my basement, it was a forgone conclusion that I would use what I had unhand.
As you can see from the photos, this is the most basement of basement rooms ever. I have exposed plumbing and radiator pipes overhead. The flooring is a very undesirable tile. I put floor covering paper on the floor and used it on the 2 doorways and spray painted the ceiling white and then painted the walls a very light gray.
The blue tape on the wall was the beginning of me visualizing my furniture layout. It’s much easier to tape off the layout than it is to move heavy furniture.
Next, I laid my floor. I used a water resistant laminate because the floor is not completely level. I got water resistant flooring because though the basement does not flood but basements generally have moisture issues and there’s always a possibility of a spill.
Laying laminate is relatively easy with the correct tools.
Laminate floors are more forgiving of lumps and bumps in the floor.
After I laid the floor, I taped my vision for the furniture layout onto the floor.
The first piece I added to the room was the was actually 3 pieces of furniture put together. I have these 2 paper shelves that I bought for one of my classrooms about 10 years ago. In another post, I’ll share how I’ve recovered these a couple times. I put them on top of this filing drawer then added legs to each side to balance them out. It made sense to add this piece first because if I work from the corner out I’m not squeezing around large pieces. In another post, I’ll show you how I’ve resurfaced it over the years.