Basement Update: Baby Steps



Ta-da! This is what our newly painted $15 garage sale dresser looks like as a TV stand.  If your thought is "not great" well I don't blame you.  I mean the dresser looks awesome....it's just all the other stuff that isn't so great.  Notably the lack of color beside the yellow beauty, the "woodsy" paneling, the lack of accessories.  Yes there are a couple of throw pillows and a lovely wicker tray, but nada on the walls and every thing looks..bare.  I think that is because I have had a phobia of this room ever since we moved in.

It's dark for starters, but doesn't this yellow baby brighten it right up?  Now imagine that all the wood is painted a crisp white and the bottom paneling is not paneling - it's wainscoting!  Then imagine the um...peachy? walls are a subtle gray.  Were getting somewhere now.  Oh and imagine there are a BUNCH of colorful cheerful throw pillows all over the couch and a rug that fits the space.  Wait, there is more - imagine wood flooring and some black and white vintage photo wall art complete with a vintage sign of our favorite lake hanging over the TV.  Can you see it?  Ya it's hard for me too, but that's the current vision.

Recent updates include adding this wonderful wicker basket mentioned here as a remote caddy.  

And a vintage Coke crate from my birth city to hold all our magazines and such.  Oh and there is a new rug, originally from the upstairs under the console table.  Check back later for what replaced that.  In the works is getting a new coffee table (shhh don't tell the hubby) and a rug that is more sizable for the area.  And possible some more accessories that fit the scale of the coffee table (or new coffee table?).

But back to the basket.  It holds the beautiful (and cheap) leaf plate I bought at a rummage sale with some of my favorite black and white photo strips. 

Doesn't the remote look a lot nicer here??  All and all there is A LOT of work to be done in the basement. And that is just in the living room, and didn't even include the red-bar re-workings.  There will be coats of paint, new counter tops, cabinet moving, and shelf adding.  Fingers crossed that we can begin soon.  The first step though is to re-paint the paneling.  I am deathly scared - but anything has got to look better than the way it is now right?....right?