Big Room Progress: We need a shelf for below the TV to hold the computer
We had a busy weekend working on the basement and on the sandbox this weekend. The weather was beautiful (although a little hot for the middle of May). For the basement, it is time to start thinking about furniture layout, while trying to keep enough momentum to finish up the countless little projects. We even squeezed in a reconnaissance mission to Ikea on Saturday night with the kids. The goal was to look for a sofa (since it looks like this space may become our summer hangout, thanks to the cool temperatures), some kind of shelf or cabinet for under the TV and a countertop for the pantry/wine area.
Cleaned Out Big Room w/ Proposed Karlstad Sofabed
We checked out the Karlstad sofabed in dark gray. I have seen several good reviews for the Karlstad sofa and the dark gray material which is machine washable. The only strange thing about the bed part is that you lay sideways on the sofa, so if you are on the inside it is difficult to get out. We tested it out and thought it was pretty comfy though. We weren’t originally planning on having a sofa down here (and certainly not a sofabed), but now that the space is finished, and we have a bathroom with a shower, it actually seems like it would make a reasonably good guest suite, since it is on its own floor, far away from the kids. The sofa is quite long (longer than it looks in the picture) but it should fit okay. Is it wrong to have a nicer sofa in your basement than in your living room?
TV mounted on Brick Wall
As part of the work down here, Mr. S. has been looking at the best options for hooking up our old TV. We have gone back and forth several times about how it should be configured. In the end we have decided to only hook it up to the computer, which will minimize the amount of stuff we have to mount below it. We have an old Mac Mini (about 6″x6″) that will sit on a shelf along with a mouse and keyboard. We looked at a bunch of shelf options from Ikea but I think we are going to make something (nothing was quite the right size). The design will be to have 2 or three cubbies below. One or two will have baskets to store stuff and one will have a little door on it and house the electrical hookups. The shelf will float and the guitar amps will sit below. It looks a little crazy right now, but I actually really like the look of the amp with the brick wall. We also need to put in the baseboard here.
Old Location for Wireless Router
New location w/ vertical installed for shelving
I also finally got around to installing the standard and bracket metal shelves for the laundry area. First I had to move the wireless router, which meant making a new shelf for it. My contractor had made a shelf out of scrap (which looked pretty wonky). I used some 1×3 scrap and made a new shelf by glueing and screwing the two pieces together at 90 degrees. Then I screwed the bottom piece into the beadboard. I mounted it in between the two vertical standards. Then I installed the shelves (I had them cut at Lowes where I bought a 6′ length and had them cut down into 3 2′ lengths).
New standard and bracket shelving w/ bar for hanging clothes
It may not be the prettiest set of shelves, but they are really practical. I have space below for a laundry basket, I can hang shirts to dry, and I finally have a place to put toilet paper and paper towels! I also have a shelf set aside right now for the current project (in this case the bottom shelf has all of the miscellaneous stuff I need for making the sandbox). I still need to decide what to do with the area behind the washer and dryer. I am leaning towards some burlap curtains and maybe some smaller shelves in between the dryer vent and waste pipe that would be hidden by the curtain.
I will be back tomorrow with the sandbox progress (not finished but at least well underway).
* To see all of the posts about our basement click here.
