Over the past few years in particular, basement renovations have become the craze to end all crazes. All over America, homeowners are capitalising on the opportunity to enhance, improve and significantly extend their interior living spaces. Get it right with a basement renovation and you could be looking at an enormous additional living space for just about any purpose.
For some, it’s all about adding an additional bedroom to the property, without the need for extensive renovation or remodelling works. The space is already there, so it simply makes sense to make good use of it. For others, it’s about creating an entertainment room for the family, or the classic (yet somewhat cliché) man-cave.
Whatever you decide to do with your basement, it’s bound to be better than keeping it as a dank, dark and uninspiring storage space for the kind of garbage you probably should have thrown out years ago.
Still, if you do decide to go ahead and repurpose your basement, there are a few important considerations to bear in mind. From the paint you use to brighten up the walls to ensuring the place is adequately ventilated, it’s important to approach the whole thing mindfully and strategically.
So with this in mind, what follows is a brief overview of four important things anyone should consider if looking to go ahead and remodel their basement:
Focus Heavily On Lighting
First and foremost, it’s important to remember that your basement may benefit from little to no natural light whatsoever. This is the kind of thing you really don’t notice until you begin spending time in the living space in question. A lack of natural light isn’t particularly noticeable at first, but can soon have an effect on the comfort and general enjoyment of the new living space.
If allowing natural light into your basement isn’t a realistic option, think carefully about where and how you will install the required lighting. Rather than illuminating the space with one overly-bright central lighting source, consider distributing a variety of different lighting sources around the space. Do whatever you can to replicate ambient natural lighting conditions.
Choose The Right Colors
The importance of choosing the right colors also cannot be overstated. Once again, you need to think carefully about how you will effectively compensate for the lack of natural light in the room. A lack of natural light will always make a space feel smaller and generally less vibrant than it actually is. That is, unless you get creative with your color and lighting choices.
Stick exclusively with brighter and more vibrant colors – anything that will reflect light around the room and create a sense of spaciousness. You don’t have to use white and nothing but white – a few pops of bold and vivid colors here and there could have a real impact. Just be sure to stay away from anything dark or dowdy.
Think Carefully About Ventilation
Particularly if the basement doesn’t have any external windows or doors, you’re going to need to think carefully about ventilation. Even if the air in the basement feels relatively fresh, you’ve no idea what kinds of nasties could be hiding beyond your detection.
Providing a basement with adequate ventilation typically means a little more than bashing a few holes here and there to install ventilation ducts and inlets. If you’d prefer not to tackle this particular job yourself, you can always hire a pro to take care of things on your behalf.
Consider Heating And Insulation
Last but not least, the vast majority of homeowners tend to consider and go about these kinds of projects during the warmer months of the year. In doing so, often forgetting that things don’t stay quite as warm and pleasant throughout the rest of the year. Basements in particular have a habit of becoming uncomfortably cold during the winter – sometimes throughout the fall and spring as well.
When going about the renovation therefore, you’re going to need to think carefully about how you intend to provide adequate heating throughout the year. If your basement doesn’t currently boast any kind of effective insulation, this could be a good place to start. Even if the whole place is insulated quite effectively, you’ll still most likely need to install radiators or heating devices of some kind for comfort. Again, if you lack the skills and/or experience to organize this solo, it’s worth hiring help.
For more information on any of our interior of exterior home painting services, reach out to a member of the team at Homm CPS today.