While our basement is mainly about the TV and bringing together groups of people, there is a cozy little corner that I’ve set aside for more quiet, solitary pursuits.
This little nook is perfect for reading or knitting or sewing… or blogging. It’s bright and colourful and fun and comfortable. But it wasn’t always this way.
Here’s a photo of where we started when we first took possession of the house.
Ah, the memories. Ah, the mess.
Most of what was here went to the dump in our day one clean out. Then the window wall was opened and reinsulated with spray foam. The adjacent wall, which backs onto the bathroom, was also opened and moldy drywall was removed. The ceiling was opened so that we could deal with electrical issues, which made it easy to install an outlet, switch, overhead light and patch the hole from an old plumbing leak (did you notice the lovely hole in the ceiling?) Everything was redrywalled, patched and painted. The old stained carpet was pulled up, the floor was leveled and plush new carpet went down.
My initial plan was to put the games table in this corner, but as we moved along in the renovation, the space seemed a little tight for the table. Plus, I decided that having a secondary seating area slightly removed from the main TV area appealed to me. Now that it’s done, I could not be more pleased with how everything turned out.
The details of how I finished the space–all of the comfortable furnishings and the fun decorating–are coming up next. But first, one more after picture.
Ahhhhh. So much better.
Do you have a favourite nook at your house?
Home on 129 Acres 
I love the fabric on your new footstool, nice and bright but not too much.
Thanks, Sam. There’s a story with this fabric (of course) that will be coming up later this week.
I agree that fabric is fabulous. Again thanks for an honest ‘before’ shot. Often there is so much that goes on for functionality- wiring, insulation, etc that it is not always so obvious how much work was involved.
My only two cents would be to lower the picture a few inches so it feels more included in the vignette. IMHO!!
Thanks for the tip on the picture. I’ll have to give that a try.
Very, very nice, bright, and pleasant. Love the tree-trunk occasional table (naturally; it’s a “Dockwood-like” execution!). We’re curious – what sort of wood is it? Is the finish just a gloss polyurethane?
A full discussion of the table will be coming up later this week. I have no idea what wood it is, as it was already down and in log form when we bought the farm. We have a lot of maple trees around, so that would be my best guess. The finish is just varathane.
So cute! and I love the stool too 🙂 My house is so tiny, it feels like every part of it is a quaint little nook. haha
Sometimes quaint and tiny can be cozy.
For sure! It’s tiny, but we LOVE our house!
I love it. Looks so relaxing. I’m looking around my office right now and thinking … hmm, not relaxing at all. Clutter everywhere. Our living room/TV area is relaxing to me, but only when the TV is off. And we have a quiet balcony off of our bedroom that I really need to fix up. That would be perfect for summer reading.
Oh, my office is not functional, let alone relaxing. That balcony sounds like it would be a great space.
This is lovely. How far it’s come since you started! I love the bright spots of colour. 🙂
Thank you. It’s a pretty good transformation, I think.
This looks gorgeous!! The chair! The blanket! The light! The ottoman! That amazing stump side table!! It’s all perfect!
Thank you so much!