Hi,
There was some damage to our basement living room so we had to tear the floor up and some parts of the wood along one wall. This room is a fairly large L shaped room. As you can see from the photos there is a lot of wood on the walls (pine), but one side was removed and we must replace it with something else (not pine). There is concrete now on the floor so its ready for tiles.
Here are my questions
1. What would be the best thing to do with the one wall that is different from the rest?
2. We are planning to replace the wood buring stove with a gas fireplace and re do the whole fireplace area with stone work - any ideas for stone work? Also should we keep part of the original wood mantle going across and place stone above and below it (instead of getting a new mantle)
3. Several people suggested to use bright coloured tiles that are larger in size to make the room appear larger and brighter. What shape is best - square or rectangular? I kind of like rectangular laid out in an alternating pattern but not sure if this would look good.
Any suggestions or design ideas would be greatly appreciated :)
thanks
basement living area
wall with wood removed
other side of room
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Hi,
The wide shot of the room is a little deceiving because it's distorted, so I'm not really sure how this would balance out. But, have you considered installing built in shelving on the wall that was torn down. I would paint them white and keep them fairly simple (some architectural detail, but don't go overboard). You could also include some enclosed cupboards along the bottom. Highlight the shelving with some lighting and arrange with books and decorative Items to make it a focal point. Don't over stock the shelves ;)
Erin
Square tiles (16") or rectangular? How can I know which shape / layout pattern works best?
Okay - I like the idea of doing a floor to ceiling stonework. I had thought the mantle was part of the cabinets below and would have to remain. If not claim what you can and paint to perhaps match the gas fireplace (black?).
Pot lights - put 'em everywhere and on a dimmer so you can vary the intensity.
Please rethink your desire to not paint the panelling. The room is not only dark, but dated. The whitewashed wood look really makes a nice statement. Please.
thanks for the feedback,
to answer your questions, we are keeping the cabinets on either side of the fireplace. The wood in the room is all the same colour (even though it may look different in the photo)
the ceiling is going to be drywall (i might be wrong on the material, but basically all one uniform even surface) and painted a single colour (bright colour)
the fireplace will be redone with nice stonework from floor to the ceiling (we also decided to place two maybe three swivel potlights above the fireplace to show case it
I dont think we will paint any of the wood although I am looking into removing the existing varnish and redoing it another colour (probably be a lot of work)
The wood mantle as Mrs Peacock suggsted we might try and keep incorporating it into the stonework somehow, but we might re finish it somehow. It might look wierd if we cut it out and replaced it with another type of mantle (what do you think?)
Artwork on the feature wall sounds like a nice idea. I'm still not sure what texture or colour would be best for wall though. Should I also place pot lights along that side to showcase the wall?
Okay couple of different ideas for you to think about. First off what are you doing with the ceiling? And those cabinets on either side of the fireplace are staying?
As for the wall - drywall for sure and as Mrs. Peacock suggested - make it a featured wall so your eyes are drawn to it rather than the waaaay toooo much wood in the room. Her suggestion to paint the panelling is excellent and if you do it the same colour as the wall you can then use things like artwork to draw the eye to that wall.
Since the cabinets on either side of the fireplace and the mantle are a different colour than the panelling, you could leave them alone. Or paint them the same colour as the mantle to provide a cohesive look. It looks like the mantle serves as the top of the cabinets and painting just it might look out of place and also difficult to do.
Your tile around the fireplace should also be small. If you go white with the walls and the fireplace is black then a dark grey would work well. You could also make it pop with somethuing flashy like red, but I would give that long serious thought. It doean't work well for everyone.
Finally your floor tile - excellent idea on rectangular and you can go to many tile stores and get ideas as to patterns. Colour? Let your furniture have a say here and provide an influence. Good luck and I hope you will post pictures of the finished room.
Would you consider painting the paneling? I would be tempted. Then just drywall the one wall and paint all the same colour. If that is not an option, drywall and wallpaper the one wall and make it a feature wall. As for the fireplace, are you just replacing the just tiled area with stone or were you taking out some of the wooden shelves and cupboards? If just the tiled area, then I would go smaller stone/tiles unless you can get stone or tile to fit exactly. It would be too awkward and difficult to be cutting small pieces to fit in and then it would look 'remuddled'. I would save the wooden mantle but refinish it in a darker stain.