How to Make an Unfinished Basement Look Great Without Taking Out a Loan

I am not someone who feels comfortable in an area that I don't find cozy and welcoming. I love warm lighting, gentle colors, and lovely smells. None of these things, however, describe the typical person's basement - especially if it is unfinished. When we moved a couple of years ago, I had an unusual situation before me. I had to make an unfinished basement home for a while. I stood looking at the bare block walls and ceiling with pipes and wires and felt myself becoming a little overwhelmed. Well, after some serious hard work, a LOT of creativity, and a little help from my friends, I did, in fact, end up making my basement a lovely little dwelling place that I have received many, many compliments on. The great thing is that I didn't spend much money at all. I took the things I already had or found and made it work. I didn't keep up with exact costs but I believe it was somewhere around 3 - 5 hundred dollars.

Before I go on, let me explain to the layman that an unfinished basement is not a basement that has halfway been done. There are no gaping holes to the outside, and it has all four walls. What makes it "unfinished" is the fact that the walls are the original foundational block walls. The floor is cement with no covering. The ceilings are not covered, meaning that the pipes, duct work and wires from the upstairs wiring and plumbing are visible. It's very usable, but not very pretty.

Before you begin any decorator work, you will need to make sure that your basement does not have any leaks. These need to be seen to immediately. We did have a couple of leaks but we discovered that they were caused from the landscaping not being even on that side of the house. Water was being fed toward the basement. We simply added dirt from other areas of the yard to that space, covered it with plastic, then added another layer of dirt until it was sloping away from the house. It cost about $20 for the plastic.

One thing about most basements is that it is easy to maintain a constant temperature. It takes far less to heat and cool than traditional spaces of the house. The more dirt that surrounds it, the more constant the temperature. This makes it easier on you. We added a gas fireplace to the basement to help keep it warm in the winter. It does a wonderful job, too. Our basement is roughly 1000 square feet, and every corner is toasty warm. I didn't add the price of the fire place to the 3 - 5 hundred we used to fix up the basement because it was given to us. If a fireplace is something you feel like you need for your basement, it's possible to get a fireplace for roughly 300 dollars, or even less if you find one on sale.

We haven't added an air conditioner because it stays cool enough in the summer for us to feel that we don't need one. You can get one new for as little as $100. A small unit will work.

To hide the ugly ceilings, I painted everything a charcoal gray. When I say everything I mean everything. I painted the pipes, the wood, the screws, the hooks, the duct work, and wiring (make sure they aren't exposed! They must have a plastic sheathing to protect you from the dangerous wires underneath). The dark color caused a lot of the ugly things to blend in together. I spent about $7 a gallon on the paint and used 6 gallons. To make the space brighter, I ran clear Christmas lights throughout, making sure that the uglier places on the ceiling were missed. I spent about $12 on Christmas lights at an after Christmas sale.

I painted all the walls with a waterproof paint, then painted over that with a regular latex paint. The waterproof paint was a bit more expensive than the latex, but it is a necessary purchase to insure the humidity stays at bay. Concrete block is porous and allows for significant temperature change and humidity to seep through the wall. By coating it with a barrier, you reduce those problems. The latex paint was simply for aesthetics. Waterproof paint has very poignant fumes, so you will want to make sure any pets or people upstairs are gone until it dries, which takes a few hours. Make sure the area is heavily ventilated while you are working, as well. The latex paint was paint that we already had on hand, but the waterproofer paint cost roughly $15 a gallon. We used 3 gallons. Some areas of the basement had already been waterproofed, so we didn't have to repaint those areas. In total we paid approximately $45 for paint. You can expect to pay about $100 - $150 if you have to purchase your paint new and paint every surface. I also painted the floors with a concrete sealer. A gallon of sealer cost $30. We had to buy two cans.

Because I used the latex paints I already had on hand, I did not have enough paint to cover all the basement walls in a solid color, so I sectioned off rooms and painted those rooms specific colors.

We sectioned off individual rooms or areas by strategically placing furniture the same way would do it if there were walls where we wanted. The areas where we needed a little more privacy, we used second hand curtains, sheets or dollar fabric to hang in those places. You can make the fabric look elegant by making panels of them when you hang them and allowing them to drape in bunches. Essentially, the same way that two panels of straight curtains look in front of a window. They bunch at the top, and then cascade down with folds. You can purchase hooks in bulk at hardware stores and they are cheaper and easier to mount than trying to find rods the length you need. Also, because of the pipes and duct work I found it impossible to hang the curtains straight across. Using the hooks gave me more leeway in deciding what length and direction of my curtains as well. To make screwing the hooks in easier, simply use a drill to make the holes, and a pair of pliers to insure the screws are in the wood tightly. All in all I spent approximately $75 on fabrics and hooks.

When placing your furniture, please keep electrical outlets in mind. If you would like access to these outlets, then you need to place your furniture in a way that you can access them easily. I made it a little easier on myself by using extension cords to suit my needs. I had to buy two extension cords at $10 a piece.

To hang picture frames, I decided where I wanted them on the wall, and hung them from a hook and twine I had screwed into the side of the upper wall. Right above the block wall should be a wood base for the upstairs floor. That base is what I used to hold my hook. I used twine because I liked the way it looked better than rope, and because it is so inexpensive. One strand of twine is not strong enough to hold a picture, so I doubled it over as many times as I thought I needed to be strong enough to hold the particular painting I was hanging and measured it to allow my painting to hang on the wall where I wanted. I tied a knot at both ends of the twine and used the knot as reinforcement on the hook. I also tied the twine around the hanger on the back of the painting to make sure it didn't slip off. I also propped picture frames against furniture periodically around the house. If you decide to do this be sure to position the frames in areas where they won't be knocked over and broken. I spent about $2 on twine.

For any beds, I took fabric and used a staple gun and made my own canopies. I simply measured where the beds were with a 2 x 2, marked the area, and stapled the fabric flat to the ceiling to cover the same area as the bed below it. I then cut fabric in about two foot panels and stapled them around the flat fabric, making a box. At each corner I added fabric that fell to the floor and tied the middle with sashes. I bought the material for $1 a yard and bought 25 yards.

Above the fireplace I found an old iron piece that went on the bottom of a an old set of bunk beds. I hung this up the same way that I did the picture frames, but I reinforced it several times (I used a lot of twine) and put four separate hooks in to hold it in with (one each corner, and two toward the middle). Next I took leaf garland and hung it on the iron, making sure it covered the twine and any places I didn't want other people to see. When I was finished the piece looks roughly like a gate with ivy and autumn leaves covering it. I got the garland for $2 a piece on clearance and bought four pieces.

In what I call the "foyer" area, I brought in an old gate from outside and propped it up against two poles that were there. I put an old stereo in front of it and hung curtains behind the gate. I used this to hide the hot water heater. (There are areas of the hot water heater that can get very hot, you will want to know what areas those are, and avoid putting anything in front of it. This is a definite fire hazard, and you will want to be extremely careful when you do this.) To match the gate, I brought in an old bench from outside that had been weathered. For extra appeal I hung up old cards with pretty pictures on the curtain using clothes pins. I didn't spend a cent on any of these things, because they were things I already had on hand.

I decorated tables with knick knacks and other things I already owned, and added a few pillows and blankets here and there for blasts of color. I also added area rugs in areas I wanted to appear to be separate rooms. I did all these things in steps, as I could afford them or when I found them on sale. The majority of it took me about six months.