For most school is in full swing. Kids are busier and in turn so are parents. I have always loved back to school time. The air gets cooler, the clothes get comfier, it’s like a new beginning. I have always loved it that is,  until I had one leave for college. I keep saying it’s not that I miss the day to day, although, I do,  I think it’s more the thought of him moving on that gets me. And let’s be honest, me getting older.  Well we have a client who has three kids, 2 in college and 1 a senior in high school. While others in her “predicament” are contemplating how to downsize, or where to move to escape this weather, she decided to finish her basement. Oh what a basement it is…..

Above is how we started. Basements are always challenging because you need to worry about ceiling pipes and support beams. We worked to hide the infrastructure and optimize the living space. Below is were we ended!

The only parameters we were given was the sofa/sectional needed to leather and reclining. We knew that basements can be dark so we didn’t want to use black or brown leather. Therefore this sectional got the call….you’d be surprised at the small amount of light color reclining sectionals (that would fit our space). Once that was selected we chose the flooring. It needed to be stylish, of course, but also withstand if, God forbid, there was ever any water. We selected this gray wood-like laminate floor. It’s both practical and pleasing.  We then started sketching the wall of built-in. We love how that turned out…Then off to the kitchen.

and exercise area

We had so much fun on this project. It came together just how we pictured it would.

It was a process, as all remodels are.

Our absolute favorite part of the whole space is the “window” If you look closely you’ll notice it’s not a window at all. It’s a framed mirror made to look like a window. It covers the window well, but is hung like a painting. So you feel like you’re  upstairs yet if the owners need to get out, they just remove the frame and climb.

The most important part of this whole project…..remember those 2 college students and that senior? Well they can’t get enough of this room. No need to fear the “empty nest” , when the nest keeps calling them back.

After years of training, we have become experts at………shopping. Our mother started us early. We can remember as far back as the age of 4 or 5 sitting in countless dressing rooms watching as our mother rifled through hundreds of outfits to find the perfect one. When we reached school age, our favorite time of the year was back to school. We would spend one full day sometimes more, going out to update our wardrobes. Sometimes we would take the train into the city, sometimes it would be trekking out to the vast suburban malls. It was a special day. Time to be together and time to refresh our closets. The funny thing was we wore uniforms.

All that training has come in handy. We have multiple projects going on and since lighting is changing by leaps and bounds. We thought we’d chronicle our trip to the lighting showroom. We can’t tell you the fabulous finds. LED, updated finishes, cage lights, chandeliers in every room. The updates are fabulous.

These are not the ones we selected, you’ll have to wait for our new post to see the winner. But we had fun shopping, that’s for sure. It always brings us back to those fitting rooms so long ago.

And get a load of this, when we opened our box, this is what we found. Someone was looking out for us. Love!!