Friday, February 3, 2017

Farmhouse Style Basement - In The Beginning...

Beginning a new project is always exciting, but can be overwhelming, too.  Especially when the room to be finished or renovated is over 900 square feet...been used as storage and a workshop for the past 12 years and is pretty much a mess.  While we've a lot left to do, we've made great progress.  Today I'm sharing a few pictures from early on.  I hope you'll stick with me on our journey as I've got some very fun things to share.

 We started out by adding faux shiplap to a 40 foot and a 26 foot wall, both 8 ft tall.  Also added along the stairs and around a pantry closet.  That's a lot of shiplap!
 We used tongue and groove car siding for our shiplap.  To get the wider plank look we turned it over and exposed the backside.  This eliminates that extra v-groove that's on the front.
 Because of the inevitable water leak that always seems to happen, we did not want to sheetrock the ceiling.  Even with the old stand by false ceiling tiles... you're going to have to replace them if they get wet.  Plus...we wanted something that looked cool.  After trying a few options we decided on galvanized tin that we salvaged from an old barn.  Would you believe less than a month after installing we had a BIG water leak...yep...we did!!  We removed the galvanized panel in that area, fixed the leak, dumped the water from the panel...dried it and put it right back up...good as new!! :)

The recessed lights were a snap to put in and turned out great.  Because we live in a manufactured home we have steel beams rather than wood that supports the house over the basement.  Initially we planned to make them look like faux wood beams, but loved how the raw steel looked with the galvanized metal and decided to leave them as is.  It's a nice rustic/industrial vibe to mix in with the modern farmhouse look.  See that hint of dark along the left edge of the picture?  That is something very unique and fun and I will be showing all in my next post. :)

 Not only was the pile of wood free, but it's probably fairly available to most.  No it's not pallet wood, but it is pretty amazing.  I can't wait to show you what we did with it.  Oh...ignore the chicken poop, lol.  We live on a farm and the wood is stored in our barn that our free range chickens seem to think is their playhouse. :) #keepingitreal 

I will be sharing our budget strategies and how we created this space for a fraction of what it would normally cost.  
Here's a peek at our very unique bar/island with open shelving that was practically free to create.  Details coming soon!  Have a great weekend, Friends!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Farmhouse Style Basement Project

Hello All!  Life here on the farm has been busy to say the least.  Right now we are trying to finish our basement.  For the past 12 years it's been storage and my workshop and I'm dreaming of the day it's finally finished and a place to relax and enjoy.  Our home improvement projects are done on a cash only basis so it can be slow going at times. ;)

  Since we live on a farm and I love all things farmhouse and of course fixer upper style...it only seems logical to model this space along those lines.  However, there's going to be some unexpected pops of an industrial warehouse feel.  So a little rustic combined with a little modern farmhouse sprinkled with a touch of industrial.  We are DIY'ers and doing it all on a budget so I'm going to have lots to share and hopefully inspire you.

Here are a few sneak peeks...they may seem very random at this point, but once I share pictures of it all coming together it will make more sense.

 This is some very old barn wood and the vertical impressions were caused by 2x4's that the wood was once mounted to. This wall is going to be the backdrop to our mini kitchen/farmhouse bar.

 Here's a peek inside the pantry closet.  It's complete with a galvanized ceiling and an old style pull chain light.

 Of course there's going to be lots of shiplap! :)  Trying to choose the perfect white paint.  Don't worry... we did go back and cover the screws with spackle.

 The pantry closet just might have an old farmhouse door.  Be still my heart! ;)   I'm loving the old galvanized metal ceiling and raw steel beams.  Edge of ceiling isn't quite finished, yet.  I can't wait to show you the rest and the very unique pieces we added for that industrial farmhouse touch.  Stay tuned friends! :)