The Most Lovely Basement Bedroom You Will Ever See

After

Before

No one wants their bedroom in the basement. That's where high school yearbooks and bridesmaid dresses hang out with spiders. The closets are always mysteriously humming with giant appliances. Basements mean scary radon, tiny windows, exposed pipes and cold concrete floors. That's why they typically never amount to more than man caves or storage. 

In this house, the main floor bedrooms were too small to pose as a master bedroom. This meant either building up or down, and since the basement was already dug out, down we went. But there were several obstacles that had to be overcome before this bedroom could be lovely, much less inhabitable.

The first hurdle this bedroom had to overcome was the stairs. This trapdoor in the garage makes a great fort or jail, but it's not as useful in the everyday.

The question became where to add a staircase in an 800 square foot house.

The answer was the kitchen. The stairs would start where the dishwasher is in the picture below and follow along the wall the sink is on, then wrap around toward the stove.

Do you know how much math is involved in creating stairs? Especially stairs that turn!? I don't, because Jordan did all that. But I can finally appreciate all the times my math teachers said, "Someday you'll use this..."

The second problem this bedroom had to overcome was this window:

It was tiny, blocked by the stairs, and unfortunately, the only window down there. Not only was it a fire hazard, but it made the room feel like a dungeon. Again, great for a pretend jail, but not for a bedroom. 

The solution was to create a larger window in a better location. Jordan dug out this window well with his own two hands and a shovel. 

Little fawns often came and slept beside the window well as he worked.

He layered the window well with wood instead of a more typical corrugated metal so that it looked like a fence. Then he created a shelf to plant flowers.

My major contribution to this house was planting those tall spiky grasses in the window well after navigated a teeming Home Depot with a two month old. I also planted some short delicate flowers that were killed in a hailstorm two days later.

The third obstacle of this basement bedchamber was the foundation wall that ran along the edge of the room.

It went way back under the rest of the house.

Jordan decided to keep the wall bumpout as a shelf. And behind beautiful cabinet doors, he created extra storage in the crawl space. The doors are made of tongue and groove pine that he stained with Jacobean Minwax. 

He custom built a bookshelf using a thin sheet metal for the backboard (typically used for venting and duct work) for a modern industrial look.

Most of the house has wood floors, but carpet down here turned a cold space into a cozy one. Canned lighting kept fixtures from drawing attention to low ceilings, and by leaving the metal beam exposed, it not only gave us extra ceiling height, but also lent a rustic, modern feel.  

There you have it. Is it not the most lovely basement bedroom you have ever seen?

Before

After