Our Finished Basement Before and After Photos

Today I have an exciting home update: we renovated our basement! In this post I’ll share our newly finished basement tour, floor plan, wall color, flooring, and upcoming basement projects. I hope you find it inspiring if you are planning your own basement makeover.

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The Unfinished Basement Before

This is what our basement has looked like for the last eight years since we moved into our house. Concrete floors, poured concrete basement walls, minimal lighting.

We still put the basement space to good use with exercise equipment, an old TV and video game consoles, and some of the kids’ toys. But I could hardly wait for the day when we would turn this basement into a functional and inviting living space for our family!

In terms of layout, our basement is a large L shape with the furnace, water heater, and air conditioner right in the center. This made planning the floor plan a bit challenging. You can see that I used painter’s tape to map out the walls!

Finished Basement Wishlist

Here are the rooms we planned to create in our basement with interior walls:

1. Gym with double doors doors in the back
2. Utility room in the center (to remain unfinished)
3. Bathroom with a shower near the front
4. Small closet for the sump pump and water shut off (unfinished)

The rest of the finished basement would be an open concept L shape with a TV area, game room area, bunk bed area, and toy storage. Which brings me to the floor plan!

Our Finished Basement Floor Plan

Here is my completed 3D floor plan of our basement. I spent several weeks tinkering away at it, nudging walls and placing doors and bathroom fixtures as we worked with our general contractor to finalize the design.

In order to visualize our basement design, I used an online tool called Floorplanner. This is not sponsored, I just enjoyed using the website and found it so helpful!

Floorplanner Website Tips

If you enjoyed designing houses in The Sims, Floorplanner is similar, but for your own home. You begin by inputing the dimensions of your space. Next, you can add walls, finishes, furniture, and lighting!

I loved that you can incorporate furniture from real stores to get an idea of the scale. We already had an IKEA sofa and several storage units that I planned to use, so I could drop those into the 3D floor plan.

I’m not going to do a deep dive about how to use Floorplanner as I am just a novice myself, and I’m sure that the software is updated often. Overall I found the website to be intuitive and user-friendly, but I did watch a few video tutorials and search the PDF manual when I couldn’t figure out how to do something. You can find both on the support page here.

Floorplanner is free to use, however, you can also purchase a subscription. I ended up paying $5 for a one month Plus membership to export more 3D renderings without a waiting period. The membership also gives you credits that you can use to upgrade a standard project to high definition. As always, just be sure to cancel your membership when you no longer need it!

Finished Basement with Soffits

As you can see in the before photos earlier in this post, our basement has several soffits that had to be incorporated into the design.

I modeled one of the soffits (in the gym / bunkbed area) because I wanted to visualize the space with the lower ceiling. I didn’t bother modeling the other soffit (over the air hockey table) because it wouldn’t affect my furniture decisions.

Finished Basement Products and Colors

Here are the basic finishes and products I chose for our basement renovation.

Paint Color

I went with Polar Bear by Behr, the same color that we have throughout most of our main level. (See it in our living room here.)

Polar Bear is a slightly creamy white with yellow undertones that prevent it from feeling sterile, but it is still quite bright. Perfect for a minimalist and clean look, but it is also a great option for any decor style.

As for the paint finish, we did flat for the ceiling, eggshell for the walls, and satin for the doors and trim. All the same paint color!

Finished Basement Flooring

After living with the French oak vinyl plank flooring in our bedroom for a while now, I can safely say that we love it! So when it was time to decide what flooring to choose for the basement, it was an easy choice. 

This LVP is fully waterproof, so there isn’t any concern about moisture as there would be with real hardwood floors. At the same time, the warm wood tones make a dreary basement space feel much more inviting!

Doors and Knobs

For basement doors, I went with inexpensive hollow core doors and satin nickel knobs to match the rest of our home.

The only specialty door I ordered was this glass double French door for the gym, which was much more expensive. However, I was worried that a cheap glass door may not hold up, and felt that the investment was worth it in this case.

Bathroom Fixtures

Finally, after much deliberation here are the products I chose for the bathroom:

1. Toto Drake toilet (1.6 GPF)
2. Shower base with surround
3. Champagne bronze shower faucet
4. Champagne bronze sink faucet
5. Budget friendly vanity
6. Vanity light fixture

I’m currently working on styling the bathroom, and will share another post with basement bathroom ideas soon!

Basement Renovation Process

While I love smaller DIY projects like painting, wall molding, or wallpaper, finishing a basement was way outside of my wheelhouse. We have friends who have undertaken basement projects themselves, which I admire so much! But for us, hiring a general contractor was the way to go.

We ended up hiring someone that we have worked with previously on smaller house projects. Schedules aligned and everything just fell into place! But if you are searching for a general contractor in your area, I recommend a combination of web searches for local companies, recommendations in Facebook groups, and asking friends and family.

Our basement renovation ended up taking about two months! The crew did a great job and we are so happy with how it turned out. The additional living space is pretty life changing, and I have been daydreaming of fun projects to make this space our own. (Here is one I already shared: Easy DIY Colorful Wall Mural Ideas With Felt Tiles)

Empty Finished Basement Tour

And without further ado, here is our empty basement tour! I wanted to share some undecorated, unfurnished photos to give you idea of what we are starting with. Stay tuned for styled spaces in the coming weeks and months!

Media Area

When you first walk down the basement stairs and turn right, you see the area that will have the TV, media console, coffee table, and sofa. The door on the left is the small closet I mentioned earlier, it is an unfinished space with the sump pump and water shut off.

Moving on, here you can see the bathroom door on the right. Straight ahead is the egress window we had installed at the beginning of the project to allow more natural light into the basement. The bump out on the wall houses a sewer cleanout.

Finished Basement Bathroom

Here is a better look at the door to the bathroom, which we decided to put on an angled wall to help create a walkway. There was just enough space for the bathroom door to open inward!

I opted to skip the glass doors on the shower and do a shower curtain instead, like I did in our primary bathroom.

Related: How to Remove Glass Shower Doors (DIY)

Basement Game Space

This is the view to the back wall of the basement. Here I plan to do some sort of table for playing games and eating snacks, probably a round table.

Against the far wall we would like to eventually have an air hockey or ping pong table, but that will be down the road!

Once you turn the corner, you see ahead to the gym doors. I’m planning to use the wall on the left for toy storage and a play area. The door on the right goes into the unfinished utility room.

Bunkbed Niche

This is a little nook that I am so excited about! We had just enough space here between the gym (left) and utility room (right) to squeeze in some bunk beds. They will be perfect for hosting family around the holidays, or kids’ sleepovers eventually.

The ceiling height under the soffit is a bit low, but I’m going to make it work with low bunk beds Basically, the bottom bunk will be on the ground, which allows extra space for both beds.

Finished Basement Home Gym

Finally, at the very back of the basement we have the home gym!

While the gym is on the smaller size, there is ample space for one cardio machine (probably an elliptical), a weight bench, and a floor area for stretching. In my design plan above I did include a power rack, which will just fit if we decide to purchase one down the road.

Working around the shorter ceiling height in this part of the basement was a bit of a challenge, but I love what we came up with. My husband and I both enjoy strength training, and while I typically take long walks outdoors for my cardio, I will be thankful for the indoor option during the winter months.

Heading Back to the Stairs

Let’s take a quick walk back to the front of the basement, where I have one more thing to share.

Basement Bar Area

Okay, here we are. See the spot to the left of the door ahead? I’m planning to install some lower IKEA Sektion cabinets there for a small home bar. It will include a mini fridge but no sink, since there was not a water line and we didn’t feel that we needed it.

We had our electrician add the two outlets at counter height for this purpose. Built-in cabinets will create a custom look, and I am already working on the cabinet and drawer layout!

Since we did not include any storage closets apart from the utility room, this is a great way to add practical, accessible storage too.

Next Steps in Our Basement Makeover

Finally, here is a list of decorating and DIY projects that I hope to tackle in our basement. Once a project is complete, I will link the relevant blog post!

1. Set up the seating area with couch, media console, and TV.
2. Add area rugs to make the basement living room feel cozy.
3. Install a felt tile accent wall to improve acoustics.
4. Display and organize toys in the play area.
5. Add visual interest with wall hangings and decor.
6. Outfit the bathroom with a shower curtain, towels, etc.
7. Set up bunk beds, mattresses, and bedding.
8. Organize the home gym and purchase equipment.
9. Install IKEA cabinets and shelving for home bar.

Needless to say, if you are looking for finished basement ideas, stay tuned! It will be a while before I can share the complete makeover, but I will update you on the progress along the way.

What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and questions in the comments below. And a big thanks if you read this far!