Making the Basement More Homey
The basement just keeps getting better. I wish that it would happen on its own, but the improvements usually mean a great deal of work for either me or Douglas, often both. Fortunately, this change required very little work. You know how we like to avoid labor when possible. What do you think of the change?
You may remember that this is what the basement looked like in January. I still have nightmares about this situation.
Then, in August, I did some major cleaning.
Organizing the man cave/t.v. room made spending time in the basement more enjoyable, but I felt there was still room for improvement. Then while I was cleaning our storage space, I came across a box full of shower curtains and an idea was born. I had bought the shower curtains on clearance years ago with the plan to make them into window curtains. You can see that did not happen. I came up with a new idea of how to use them. This required putting Douglas to work. He seemed to enjoy it a little too much. Typical man.
He used a staple gun to hang a thin rope on the beams along the wall.
After that, we hung the curtains up with clothes pins. I bought the clothes pins last week at a dollar store for….$1. The curtains are short and need ironed, but I like the color on the wall.
We also hung curtains on the side of the stairs so that the workshop would no longer be visible from the living space.
The curtains were not wide enough to meet by the stairs. Maybe someday I will change it, but I am not worried about it right now. For now, I will just pretend that we planned that as a doorway into the workshop. Of course, it was deliberate. 😉
Today I hung up a mirror that Douglas found in the trash.
The previous owner had put this old bar across some of the pipes. These clothes hangers were hanging from it. It seemed like a convenient way to hang the mirror without doing much work. It is working so far.
There you have it. Mirror = $0, curtains = $0, rope = $0, staple gun = $0, clothes pins = $1. I probably paid tax on it, so total project = $1.08. That is my favorite kind of project. Dirt cheap.
Happy Homemaking!
I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com
one of my favorite quotes from a yoga teacher is,
“It’s a cinch by the inch.”
congratulations on tackling that big tidy-up in the basement,
it looks good
That is a great quote. I appreciate your encouragement! There are so many projects in the basement, but it is getting better all the time.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Great idea!
Hehehe. More like, pay no attention to the pipe behind the curtain. 🙂 That is what I should have titled the post!
Aha! Wish I had thought of this as a temporary measure to separate the dining room (currently the bedroom) and the adjoining living room…Doh!
Curtains make great room divides as long as sound proofing is not a necessity. I am planning to put more curtains in the basement to separate the laundry room from the living space and hide the water heater.